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What type of petitions USCIS still accepting after reaching H-1B visa cap? All you need to know
US citizenship and immigration services will continue to accept and process petitions that are exempt from the fiscal year 2021 cap.
US citizenship and immigration services (USCIS) earlier this week announced that it has received enough petitions needed to reach the congressionally mandated 65,000 H-1B visa regular cap and the 20,000 H-1B visa master’s cap for the fiscal year 2021. USCIS said the sending of non-selection notifications to registrants’ online accounts has been completed and the status of those accounts will show “Not Selected: Not selected for this fiscal year.”
Since the department of homeland security (DHS) has delayed the implementation of proposed changes to the H-1B registration system and selection process until December 31, 2021, the lottery system will continue to apply for the upcoming season. The delay is supposed to provide more time for the immigration agency to train its staff and give stakeholders time to adjust to the new rule.
Meanwhile, USCIS will continue to accept and process petitions that are exempt from the FY 2021 cap, including the foreign workers who have been previously counted against the cap and those who still retain their cap number. The immigration agency will also continue to accept and process the petitions filed to extend the amount of time a current H-1B visa holder may remain in the United States.
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Other petitions that USCIS will continue to accept and process:
- To change the terms of employment for current H-1B workers
- To allow current H-1B workers to change employers
- To allow current H-1B workers to work concurrently in a second H-1B position
The H-1B visa allows American companies to employ foreign workers in speciality occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise, of which the vast majority are from India and China. Not all H-1B visas are subject to the annual regular cap at 65,000 and up to 6,800 visas are set aside from the regular cap each fiscal year for the H-1B1 program under the terms of the legislation implementing the US-Chile and US-Singapore free trade agreement.
