U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, Washington, D.C., announced that the cap for H-2B visas for temporary nonagricultural workers for the first half of fiscal year 2024 has been reached.
The final receipt date for new cap-subject H-2B worker petitions requesting an employment start date before April 1, 2024, was Oct. 11, 2023. USCIS will reject any new cap-subject H-2B petitions received after this date that request an employment start date before April 1, 2024.
USCIS will continue to accept H-2B petitions that are exempt from the cap. These exemptions apply to petitions for current H-2B workers in the United States seeking to extend their stay, change employers or change the terms and conditions of their employment. Exemptions also include petitions for fish roe processors, fish roe technicians and supervisors of fish roe processing, as well as workers performing labor or services in the Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands and Guam from November 28, 2009, until December 31, 2029.
The H-2B program is utilized by U.S. businesses to employ foreign workers for temporary nonagricultural jobs. Congress has set the H-2B cap at 66,000 visas per fiscal year, with 33,000 allocated for workers who begin employment in the first half of the fiscal year (Oct. 1 – March 31) and 33,000, plus any unused numbers from the first half, for workers who begin employment in the second half of the fiscal year (April 1 – Sept. 30).
