Washington, October 14: The United States has reached the congressionally mandated cap on H-2B visas for temporary non-agricultural workers for the first half of fiscal year 2024, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced.
The USCIS specified that the final receipt date for new cap-subject H-2B worker petitions, requesting an employment start date before April 1, 2024, was October 11, 2023. Any new cap-subject H-2B petitions received after this date, which seek employment starting before April 1, 2024, will be rejected.
However, the USCIS will continue to accept H-2B petitions that are exempt from the congressionally mandated cap. This includes current H-2B workers in the US who are extending their stay, changing employers, or altering the terms and conditions of their employment. Furthermore, it includes workers such as fish roe processors, fish roe technicians, and supervisors of fish roe processing, along with workers performing labor or services in the Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands and/or Guam from November 28, 2009, to December 31, 2029.
H-2B visas are typically issued for seasonal or temporary jobs, allowing employers to hire both skilled and unskilled workers to fill labor shortages in the United States.
The H-2B cap is currently set at 66,000 per fiscal year, with 33,000 allocated for workers starting employment in the first half of the fiscal year (October 1 to March 31) and an additional 33,000 (plus any unused numbers from the first half) for workers beginning employment in the second half of the fiscal year (April 1 to September 30). Unused H-2B numbers from the first half of the fiscal year are made available to employers seeking to hire H-2B workers during the second half of the fiscal year, and they do not carry over into the next fiscal year.
