BREAKING IMMIGRATION NEWS
H-2B numbers increase.
The H2B Visa is a nonimmigrant visa that allows U.S. employers to hire foreign workers for temporary non-agricultural work. The work can be a one-time job, seasonal job, intermittent, or peak load. Non-agricultural seasonal workers, both skilled and unskilled, are eligible to apply for the H2B visa. Business trainers, construction workers, athletes, performers, and many others are all typical eligible candidates for this visa. The candidate must first have a job offer for a position for which there is a scarcity of U.S. workers willing or able to fill it. Congress set a numerical maximum of 66,000 H2B visas per fiscal year. 33,000 commencing in the first half of the fiscal year (October 1 – March 31) and 33,000 for employment commencing in the second half of the fiscal year (April 1 – September 30).
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Department of Labor (DOL) issued a temporary final rule his week making additional H-2B temporary nonagricultural worker visas available for fiscal year 2023. This is the first time DHS and DOL have issued a single rule making H-2B’s available for several allocations throughout the entire fiscal year, including an allocation for the late second half.
- DHS and the DOL are issuing a temporary rule, making an additional 64,716 H-2B temporary nonagricultural worker visas available for the 2023 fiscal year, which began Oct. 1. The additional allotment will come on top of the 66,000 cap-subject H-2B visas that are typically available each fiscal year.
- The H-2B allocation incudes about 44,700 visas for returning workers who received an H-2B visa or were granted H-2B status in the last three fiscal years and an allocation of 20,000 visas to workers from El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti and Honduras.
- These supplemental H-2B visas are for U.S. employers seeking to petition for additional workers at certain periods of the fiscal year before Sept. 15, 2023.
- Employers requesting an employment start date in the first half of fiscal year 2023 may file petitions as of Dec. 15, 2022, and must request employment start dates before April 1, 2023.
- Employers requesting an employment start date for the early second half of fiscal year 2023 must file petitions within 15 days after the second half statutory cap is reached and must request employment start dates between April 1, 2023, and May 14, 2023.
- Employers requesting an employment start date for the late second half of fiscal year 2023 must file petitions within 45 days after the second half statutory cap is reached and must request employment start dates between May 15, 2023, and Sept. 30, 2023.
- Petitions requesting supplemental allocations under this rule must be filed at the California Service Center. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services will not accept any requests for premium processing until Jan. 3, 2023, for petitions requesting returning workers, or workers from El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti or Honduras with a start date in the first half of the fiscal year.
This is exciting news for the H-2B category as it is opening up additional slots for workers to be employed in various areas.