H1B Master's Cap (Advanced Degree Exemption)

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Need help analyzing the H1B Advanced Degree exemption cap or the Master's cap.  If one graduates from a 'Licensed, in-state, for-profit institution' with a Master's Degree, will that petitioner fall under H1B Master's Cap (Advanced Degree exemption - the 20,000) OR will that petition be denied as it is a Master's from a 'for-profit / non-public' institution?  So basically the college is 'regionally accredited' but on the other hand it is licensed as a 'for-profit institution'. If I did my Master's Degree from that college, would I have hard time, say if there is an RFE asking me to prove whether I truly fulfill the prerequisite for the advanced degree exemption cap?  This will help to decide if I should be filing under the regular statutory cap (65000) or the exemption cap (20000). As the petitions are aggressive and lottery chances are better on the exemption cap (they say).  Reference:  Murthy Law Firm (Link) USCIS (Link)

kalidasbhaisaab · Feb 17, 2015 9:18 PM · 11,949 views

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As I know, your university must fall under Public or Non-profit Institution. Last year when i was filing for the master cap, i had same situation whether to file for masters Cap (Advanced Degree Exemption) or for the regular cap. Institution Must be Public or Other Nonprofit Institution Under the law, the beneficiary's U.S. degree must be issued by an institution of higher education that is "a public or other nonprofit institution." The institution must also be "accredited by a nationally recognized accrediting agency or association" or "granted a pre-accreditation status." As such, problems arise when the institution issuing a beneficiary's advanced degree is a for-profit and/or an unaccredited school. Degrees from such institutions do not meet the master's cap statutory requirement and, therefore, cannot serve as a basis for an H1B petition requesting one of the 20,000 such exemptions from the regular H1B cap. Current USCIS practice for cases filed under the master's cap without a qualifying degree is to deny such cases, rather than consider them under the regular cap. Reference :  http://www.murthy.com/2012/11/... Last edited: 18-Feb-15 01:02 PM Last edited: 18-Feb-15 01:04 PM

No_name · Feb 18, 2015 9:41 AM

Thanks. So what did you do, applied in the Master's quota? Or the general?

kalidasbhaisaab · Feb 18, 2015 11:05 AM

The university i went was Non-Profit and Private. So i did on the masters quota.

No_name · Feb 18, 2015 1:04 PM

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