USCIS Issues Policy Guidance on H-3 Nonimmigrant Trainees

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced on September 9, 2014, that it is issuing comprehensive policy guidance on H-3 nonimmigrant trainees in the USCIS Policy Manual. The new guidance consolidates all previous H-3 guidance addressing circumstances under which a temporary worker may come to the United States as a trainee or as a participant in a special education program.

The new guidance provides information on the background, purpose, and legal authority for the H-3 program and discusses program requirements, descriptions, restrictions, and forms and documents that must be submitted with an H-3 visa petition.

Among other things, the guidance notes that a training program for a trainee may not be approved if it: 

• Deals in generalities with no fixed schedule, objectives, or means of evaluation;
• Is incompatible with the nature of the petitioner’s business or enterprise;
• Is on behalf of a trainee who already possesses substantial training and expertise in the proposed field of training;
• Is in a field in which it is unlikely that the knowledge or skill will be used outside the United States; 
• Will result in productive employment beyond that which is incidental and necessary to the training; 
• Is designed to recruit and train nonimmigrants for the ultimate staffing of domestic operations in the United States; 
• Does not establish that the petitioner has the physical plant and sufficiently trained workforce to provide the training specified; or
• Is designed to extend the total allowable period of practical training previously authorized a nonimmigrant student.

The announcement is available as PDF. The policy guidance is available here.