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. He remarks that the H-1B visa is the most common way for foreign professionals to come to the United States to work legally. The H-1B requires an employer to sponsor a foreign national for a specialty occupation—meaning a job that requires a specialized degree which the foreign national possesses. The challenge with H-1Bs is that they are limited in number, with only 85,000 available each fiscal year, while demand reaches into the hundreds of thousands. As a result, the government conducts a lottery to select the 85,000 recipients.

Congress, however, created exemptions from this annual cap for four types of organizations: government research organizations, nonprofit research organizations, universities, and nonprofit organizations affiliated with universities. These organizations can always file for H-1Bs for qualified foreign nationals, regardless of the cap. Interestingly, once a foreign national has received a cap-exempt H-1B through one of these organizations, any private company can “piggyback” on that cap-exempt status to file their own H-1B for that individual—even though the private company itself would not otherwise qualify as a cap-exempt employer.

This approach provides a valuable solution for companies seeking highly skilled foreign professionals when standard H-1Bs are unavailable. He notes that their law firm has particular expertise in cap-exempt H-1Bs. In 2015, he helped create the Massachusetts Global Entrepreneurship in Residence Program in partnership with the University of Massachusetts, which became a highly successful cap-exempt H-1B program. Building on that success, in 2018 he established his own nonprofit organization, which, through affiliations with six universities in Massachusetts, qualifies as a cap-exempt H-1B organization.

Through this structure, the nonprofit is able to sponsor cap-exempt H-1Bs, allowing businesses across Massachusetts and New England to obtain cap-exempt H-1Bs for foreign nationals using the proven model from the University of Massachusetts program. This innovative strategy has opened new avenues for employers and foreign professionals alike.