If you are a foreign national who wants to work, or continue working, in the U.S., securing your visa is a top priority —The Build Fellowship is here to help.
The Build Fellowship offers ongoing immigration support and guidance to Build Fellows, while sponsoring them for their part-time cap-exempt H-1B visas. This enables benefactors to file a full-time cap-exempt H-1B visa concurrently.
Fellows work 5+ hours per week launching projects and educational programming at partner universities to develop students’ skills and knowledge and prepare them for the future workforce.
Candidates must have a benefactor (a company, organization, or individual) willing to support the Fellowship costs – Fellows cannot fund their own Fellowship.
Hours are flexible and based on schedule and availability.
Candidates must have a benefactor (a company, organization, or individual) willing to support the Fellowship costs – Fellows cannot fund their own Fellowship.
Hours are flexible and based on schedule and availability.
Talk to your benefactor about The Build Fellowship. Get started with our sample email
Fill out this form to nominate yourself for The Build Fellowship.
Complete your application for The Build Fellowship and wait for next steps!
The Build Fellowship’s nonprofit partners serve as the petitioners for cap-exempt petitions for 5 hours per week, and the full-time employer is the petitioner for the full-time concurrent employment. As for the timeline, the nonprofit partner’s cap-exempt petition is filed first. On the Build Fellow’s first day, an approval notice and employment verification letter are shared with the employer to include in the concurrent cap-exempt filing, to demonstrate employment with the cap-exempt organization.
Once an individual is approved and working for a cap-exempt organization, a new cap-subject employer can file a petition for concurrent H-1B employment at any time and does not have to go through the H-1B lottery process. The employee can start working for the new H-1B cap-subject employer upon the receipt of the H-1B petition. This is called H-1B portability.
As soon as Build Fellows are approved for a cap-exempt H-1B and start their fellowship, their full-time employer (typically subject to the annual lottery) can immediately file an H-1B for them concurrently.
Institutions of higher education, related or affiliated non-profit organizations, nonprofit research organizations, and government research organizations are generally eligible to sponsor a cap-exempt H-1B visa.
Ready to nominate yourself as a candidate for The Build Fellowship?
We work with immigration attorneys from firms across the U.S. to offer an alternate path to the H-1B lottery.