The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services agency recently made an announcement in regards to the H-1B visa cap for the fiscal year 2019. The random selection process for choosing H-1B visas as well as the exemption for the U.S. advanced degrees, which is also referred to as the master’s cap, took place on April 11th. During the filing process, which only took place between April 2 and April 6th, the USCIS received 190,098 petitions for H-1B visas.
The statutory cap for H-1B visas is 65,000 while the master’s cap is 20,000 petitions. The selection process for the master’s cap visas took place first and those that were not selected were added to the rest of the 65,000 selection process so they still had a chance at selection. There are certain petitions that are exempt from both of these caps so therefore, they will still continue to be selected by the USCIS. Some of the petitions that will still be accepted and processed include the following:
- Petitions that were filed to extend the amount of time the current H-1B worker wishes to stay in the United States
- Petitions that allow current H-1B workers to change employers or work in a second H-1B job
- Petitions that were filed to change the terms of employment for current H-1B workers
If you have questions about H-1B visa petitions, contact us today.
John Sesini is an experienced immigration attorney with offices in Green Bay and Milwaukee Wisconsin. If you have any questions regarding immigration law matters, please contact the Sesini Law Group, S.C. and schedule your initial consultation with our firm today.