Cap Reached for Additional Returning Worker H-2B Visas for 2nd Half of FY 2022
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Under the recently declared H-2B supplemental cap temporary final rule expanding the cap by up to 35,000 extra H-2B nonimmigrant visas through the end of the fiscal year (FY) 2022, USCIS has received enough petitions to reach the cap for 23,500 extra visas made available for returning workers only. USCIS continues to accept petitions for H-2B nonimmigrant workers for the additional 11,500 visas allotted for nationals of El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Haiti, regardless of whether they are returning workers.
Because no properly filed petitions were gotten on the date of the temporary final rule’s publication. USCIS started accepting H-2B petitions on 19th May 2022. In the initial five business days of filing, USCIS got petitions for more beneficiaries. Then the additional 23,500 visas were made available for H-2B returning workers. As per DHS guidelines, USCIS used a computer-generated process to conduct a random selection of petitions. To meet, yet not exceed, the 23,500 returning worker allotment for FY 2022. The random selection finished on 27th May 2022 and included all H-2B cap-subject petitions. Filed under the H-2B returning worker allotment that was gotten between 19th May and 25th May 2022.
USCIS Announced H-2B Visas for the Second Half of FY 2022 Reached
USCIS will reject and return any cap-subject petitions for H-2B returning workers. (Not including petitions for nationals of El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Haiti) received after May 25, together with any accompanying filing fees. Petitions accepted for processing will have a receipt date of May 31, 2022. Premium processing service for these petitions starts on that receipt date.
Petitioners whose workers were not chosen for the 23,500 returning worker allotment. Are encouraged to refile for workers from El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Haiti while visas for that allotment stay available. The final date for filing petitions for nationals of El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Haiti who are exempt from the returning worker requirement is 15th Sept 2022. Or when the cap is reached, whichever happens first.
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USCIS will continue to accept H-2B petitions for workers filing under El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Haiti allotment. As well as those that are exempt from the congressionally mandated cap. This includes petitions for:
- Current H-2B workers in the United States petitioning to expand their stay and, if applicable, change the terms of their employment or change their employers;
- Fish roe processors, fish roe technicians, as well as supervisors of fish roe processing; and
- Workers performing labor or services in the Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands and/or Guam from Nov. 28, 2009, until 31st December 2029.
