H-3Trainee or special education exchange visitor

What H-3 is

H-3 has two types. A trainee is invited by an individual or organization to receive training, in any field other than graduate medical education or training, that is not available in their home country. A special education exchange visitor takes part in a program of practical training and experience in educating children with physical, mental, or emotional disabilities. For trainees, USCIS says the classification is not intended for U.S. employment: it gives job-related training for work you will ultimately do outside the United States. For either type, you must have a residence abroad that you have no intention of abandoning.^[1,2,4]

What a trainee petition must show

For a trainee, the petitioner must show four things: the training is not available in your own country; you will not be placed in a position that is in the normal operation of the business and in which U.S. citizens and resident workers are regularly employed; you will not do productive work unless it is incidental and necessary to the training; and the training will benefit you in pursuing a career outside the United States.^[1,2]

A nurse who is not in an H-1 classification may be an H-3 trainee if there is a genuine need for a brief period of training that is not available in the nurse's home country, and the training is designed to benefit the nurse and the overseas employer when the nurse returns. The nurse must hold a full and unrestricted license to practice professional nursing in the country where they received their nursing education, or have received that education in the United States or Canada. The petitioner must also certify that, under the laws where the training takes place, the nurse is fully qualified to take the training and the petitioner is authorized to give it.^[2,4]

What a trainee petition must include

Trainee programs that cannot be approved

Special education exchange visitors

The trainee conditions above do not apply to this type. Instead, the petition must be filed by a facility that has professionally trained staff and a structured program for educating children with disabilities and for giving participants training and hands-on experience. It must describe the training program, the facility's professional staff and your part in the program, and any custodial care of children must be incidental to the training. You must be nearing completion of a bachelor's or higher degree in special education, already hold such a degree, or have extensive prior training and experience in teaching children with physical, mental, or emotional disabilities.^[1,2]

No more than 50 special education exchange visitors may be approved in a fiscal year (October 1 to September 30); spouses and children in H-4 are not counted, and neither are requests to extend a petition or a stay. If all the numbers for a fiscal year are used, the regulation says new petitions and their fees are rejected and returned until the next fiscal year begins. If necessary, USCIS applies a random selection to all cap-subject H-3 petitions received on the final receipt date, whether or not premium processing is requested, and rejects and returns the fees for petitions not selected and for those filed after that date.^[1,2,10]

Extensions and the time limit

To extend, the petitioner files Form I-129 asking to extend both the petition and your stay, for the same dates, and you must be physically present in the United States when it is filed. The request generally may be filed only while the original petition is still valid. An extension may cover the length of the training program, up to a total stay of 2 years as a trainee or 18 months as a special education participant; once that total is reached, no further extensions may be granted.^[2,12]

If you are an H-3 trainee who has spent 24 months in the United States in H and/or L status, or a special education participant who has spent 18 months, you cannot extend, change status, or be readmitted in H or L status unless you have resided and been physically present outside the United States for the immediate prior 6 months. Brief trips to the United States for business or pleasure during that time do not interrupt it, but do not count toward it. The State Department's guidance explains that the total counts the days you are actually in the United States in H status: time outside the United States is generally subtracted, and time as an H-4 dependent does not count toward your own limit.^[2,4]

This limit does not apply if you did not reside continually in the United States and your U.S. employment was seasonal or intermittent or lasted an aggregate of 6 months or less per year, or if you live abroad and regularly commute to the United States for part-time work. You and the petitioner must give clear and convincing proof, such as arrival and departure records, tax returns and records of employment abroad. The State Department notes that these exceptions may not apply if your H-4 family members have been living continuously in the United States.^[2,4]

Spouse and children (H-4)

Your spouse and children under 21 who accompany or follow to join you may be admitted as H-4 nonimmigrants, if they are otherwise admissible, for the same period as you. They may study. H-4 status does not by itself allow work: the regulation's H-4 work-permit rule is written for spouses of certain H-1B workers, and USCIS's H-3 page says H-4 nonimmigrants are not permitted to work in the United States (the State Department also notes a separate provision for battered spouses under section 106 of the Immigration and Nationality Act, or INA).^[1,2,4]

Like you, H-4 family members of an H-3 must have a residence abroad that they have no intention of abandoning. In the United States, they extend their stay on Form I-539, unless your Form I-129 is for you alone and the form version provides for including them.^[4,12]

Fees

Current processing time

Recent policy changes

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