H3 Trainee Visa

The H-3 Visa is specifically designed to enable you to train in the U.S. in almost any discipline. USCIS calls this loose classification, ‘any field of endeavor’. This includes agriculture, technology, communications and governmental leadership.

This loose classification does not include people seeking graduate medical training. Your spouse and unmarried children under the age of 21 are allowed to join you in the U.S. under H-4 status. Family members are not permitted to work while in the U.S.

Eligibility Criteria for H-3 trainee Visa:

The sponsoring employer must demonstrate that the:

  • Suggested training is not offered in the beneficiary’s home country
  • Position for beneficiary will not be one of the normal operation of the business and which citizens and resident aliens are regularly employed.
  • Beneficiary will be employed, specific to training only.
  • The beneficiary will benefit in pursuing a career outside the U.S.

The H-3 classification is not apt for graduate education, including medical training, except under certain circumstances. Sponsoring employers may not use H-3 visa for training programs specifically to benefit U.S. companies and where U.S. workers would be employed except for the trainee services.

Duration of Stay:

H-3 Alien Trainees are allowed to stay in the U.S. for a maximum of two years. Generally, the visa is issued for the length of the training program. If the alien trainee remains in the country for a full two years, he/she must leave the U.S. for six months so as to obtain a new H Visa.

Dependent Benefit:

H-3 spouses and unmarried children under the age of 21 qualify for H-4 status under the same limitations as the principal H-3 trainee. The H-4 visa holders do not authorize employment for the dependents.

Necessary Documents:

The U.S. employer filing the H-3 petition should have the following documentation:

  • Detailed description of the specific training program, including number of classroom hours and number of on the job training hours per week.
  • Summation of the previous training/experience of each foreign national listed in the petition.

Detailed explanation of why training is required, whether similar training is available in the foreign nationals’ country, how training will benefit the alien in pursuing a career abroad, what benefits the employer will receive from the training, and why the employer is willing to absorb the cost of training, knowing that the foreign national can not be used for productive labor.

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