The H1-B visa is a non-immigrant visa that allows US companies to employ foreign workers in speciality occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise in specialised fields. The technology companies depend on it to hire tens of thousands of employees each year.
During his campaign, Trump had promised to increase oversight of H-1B and L-1 visa programmes. He had signed an executive order in April to tighten the rules of the programme to stop visa abuses.
"US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will resume premium processing for certain cap-exempt H-1B petitions effective immediately," an official statement said yesterday.
The H-1B visa has cap of 65,000 visas for each fiscal year. Additionally, there is an annual "master's cap" of 20,000 petitions filed for beneficiaries with a US master's degree or higher.
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According to the USCIS, premium processing will resume for petitions that may be exempt from the cap if the H-1B petitioner is an institution of higher education, a non-profit related to or affiliated with an institution of higher education, or a non-profit research or governmental research organisation.
It has previously announced that premium processing resumed on June 26 for H-1B petitions filed on behalf of physicians under the Conrad 30 waiver program as well as interested government agency waivers.
The federal agency also plans to resume premium processing of other H-1B petitions as workloads permit.
In a statement, the USCIS said it will make additional announcements with specific details related to when it will begin accepting premium processing for those petitions.
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