US Citizenship and Immigration Services has reached the cap for 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 fiscal year 2023, the agency announced Tuesday.
The H-1B visa is a non-immigrant visa that allows senior living operators and other firms to hire foreign workers in specialty occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise, such as computer programming and data management.
USCIS has begun notifying applicants that were not selected for the H-1B visa this time around. The agency still will accept and process petitions that otherwise are exempt from the cap.
The agency still will accept and process petitions filed to:
- Extend the amount of time a current H-1B worker may remain in the United States;
- Change the terms of employment for current H-1B workers;
- Allow current H-1B workers to change employers; and
- Allow current H-1B workers to work concurrently in additional H-1B positions.
A 2021 Department of Homeland Security final rule changed the granting of the specialty occupation visas from a random lottery to one based on wages. The rule ended the H-1B visa lottery, instead authorizing the USCIS to grant petitions that “will incentivize H-1B employers to offer higher wages, or to petition for positions requiring higher skills and higher-skilled aliens that are commensurate with higher wage levels.”
The rule was intended to maximize H-1B cap allocations so that they are more likely to go to “the best and brightest” workers while disincentivizing abuse of the program “to fill relatively lower-paid, lower-skilled positions.”
