An empirical study was performed in which human subjects were asked to execute a peg- insertion task through a telepresence link with force-feedback. Subjects controlled a remote manipulator through natural hand motions by using an anthropomorphic upper body exoskeleton. The force-reflecting exoskeleton could present haptic sensations in six degrees of freedom. Subjects viewed the remote site through a high fidelity stereo vision system. Subjects performed the peg-insertion task under three different conditions: (1) in-person (direct manipulation), (2) through the telepresence link (telemanipulation), and (3) through the telepresence link while using abstract virtual haptic overlays known as `virtual fixtures' (telemanipulation with virtual fixturing). Five different haptic overlays were tested which included virtual surfaces, virtual damping fields, virtual snap-to-planes, and virtual snap-to- lines. Results of subject testing confirmed that human performance was significantly degraded when comparing telepresence manipulation to direct in-person manipulation. Results also confirmed that by introducing abstract haptic overlays into telepresence link, operator performance could be restored closer to natural in-person capacity. The use of 3D haptic overlays were found to as much as double manual performance in the standard peg-insertion task.