United States reaches 65,000 H-1B visa cap for 2023: USCIS

Washington: The US has received enough petitions needed to reach the congressionally mandated 65,000 H-1B visa cap for the fiscal year 2023, a federal agency has announced.

The H-1B visa is a non-immigrant visa that allows US companies to employ foreign workers in speciality occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise. Technology companies depend on it to hire tens of thousands of employees each year from countries like India and China.

The H-1B visa programme is the most sought-after work visa among foreign professionals, including Indians.

As mandated by the US Congress, the US can issue a maximum of 65,000 H-1B visa regular cap and another 20,000 H-1B visa US advanced degree exemption categories every year.

“We have 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 2023,” the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) said in a statement on Tuesday.

USCIS screens all such applications every year. It has completed sending non-selection notifications to registrants’ online accounts.

The status for registrations properly submitted for the FY 2023 H-1B numerical allocations, but that were not selected, will now show, “Not Selected: Not selected – not eligible to file an H-1B cap petition based on this registration,” it said.

Meanwhile, the federal agency will continue to accept and process petitions that are otherwise exempt from the cap, it said.

“Petitions filed for current H-1B workers who have been counted previously against the cap, and who still retain their cap number, are exempt from the FY 2023 H-1B cap,” it said.

However, USCIS will continue to accept and process petitions filed to extend the amount of time a current H-1B worker may remain in the US, 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, it added.