The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) said that it has received a sufficient number of petitions needed to reach the congressionally mandated 65,000 H-1B visa regular cap and the 20,000 H-1B visa US advanced degree exemption, known as the master’s cap, for the fiscal year 2021. A computerized draw of lots will decide the successful applicants.
The H-1B visa is a non-immigrant visa that lets US companies hire foreign workers in specialty occupations that require theoretical or technical knowledge. US technology companies heavily rely on it to hire employees especially from countries like India and China.
A media release by USCIS said: “We have completed sending non-selection notifications to registrants’ online accounts. We will continue to accept and process petitions that are otherwise exempt from the cap.” Exempt from the fiscal year 2021 H-1B cap are petitions filed for current H-1B workers who have been counted previously against the cap, and who still retain their cap number.
The USCIS is going to continue accepting and processing petitions filed in order to increase the duration of time a current H-1B worker may remain in the United Studies and modify the terms of employment for current H-1B workers.
The USCIS said on January 7 that it would remove the traditional lottery system in deciding successful applicants. However, earlier this month the Biden administration announced that it will delay the H-1B visa policy modifications by the previous administration by continuing with the lottery system until December 31, 2021. It stated that this would provide the immigration authority more time to develop, check and implement the modifications to the registration system.
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