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What is a Cap Exempt H-1 B Visa?
What is a Cap Exempt H-1 B Visa?
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the h-1b visa is the most common way
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that foreign professionals come to the
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United States to work legally the h-1b
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requires an employer to sponsor the
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foreign national for a specialty
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occupation which means a job that
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requires a specialized degree and the
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foreign national has that specialized
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degree the hardest part of the h-1b is
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that they’re limited in number there’s
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only 85,000 available every fiscal year
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but the demand is in the hundreds of
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thousands so the government is forced to
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conduct a lottery
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and pick out the 85,000 winners each
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fiscal year but it turns out that
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Congress decided that there are four
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particular organizations that should be
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exempt from the annual cap of 85,000
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h-1bs government research organizations
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nonprofit research organizations
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universities and nonprofit organizations
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that are affiliated with the university
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these four organizations are exempt from
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the annual cap so they can always file
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an h-1b for a qualified foreign national
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now what’s interesting about the law is
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that the cap exempt h-1b is not only
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available to those four organizations
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but it is also available to any company
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even a private company if the foreign
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national already has received a cap
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exempt organization so consider this a
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company wants to hire a very valuable
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foreign national let’s say it’s a
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chemical engineer and they want this
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particular chemical engineer but the
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only solution is h-1b and there are no
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h-1b visas available what does the
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company do well it turns out if a
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university or a non-profit affiliated
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with a university will hire that foreign
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national for part-time h-1b work let’s
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say ten hours a week to do professional
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h-1b work that truly requires about
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Julis degree in a specialized field and
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that employer files for a cap exempt
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h-1b because they can and the US
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Immigration Service approves that cap
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exempt h-1b well then suddenly any
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private company is able to piggyback on
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top of that cap exempt h-1b and
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immediately file for their own
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cap-exempt h-1b even though without that
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situation the same employer could never
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file for a cap exempt h-1b because
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they’re not one of the four designated
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cap-exempt employers well this is a very
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interesting solution for so many people
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it’s created much discussion and
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excitement among immigration attorneys
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our law firm has particular expertise
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with cap-exempt h-1b visas for the
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following reasons I personally have
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created two different cap-exempt
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employment situations in 2015 I
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conceived of and helped implement a
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program called the Massachusetts global
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entrepreneurship in residence program
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which has become a wildly successful
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cap-exempt h-1b program in partnership
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with the University of Massachusetts
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following up on the success of the
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Massachusetts Global Entrepreneurship
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and residence program in 2018 I started
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my own nonprofit organization which is
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doing terrific things to help immigrants
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all over the country but I realize that
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a nonprofit organization is one of the
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cap-exempt h-1b organizations if it has
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an affiliation with the University so
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after we had established the nonprofit
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we reached out to six universities here
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in Massachusetts to see whether they
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would be interested in some kind of an
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affiliation agreement which would help
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university students and it’s become a
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fabulous program where foreign nationals
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are now working as mentors to university
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students in the STEM fields and now open
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avenues foundation
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is an h-1b cap exempt organization
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because it is a non-profit affiliated
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with universities as such open avenues
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foundation is able to sponsor cap-exempt
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h-1bs and businesses all over
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Massachusetts in New England are
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partnering with open avenues foundation
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to obtain their own cap-exempt h-1bs
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based on the same model that was proven
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successful with the University of
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Massachusetts
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Cambridge, MA immigration lawyer Jeff Goldman explains how a Cap Exempt H-1 B Visa works and how his firm assists their clients in obtaining one.
