H-2B Cap For Second Half Of Fy 2023 Has Been Reached

As per the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announcement on March 2, 2023. See below.

H-2B Cap for the Second Half of FY 2023

USCIS has received enough petitions to meet the congressionally mandated H-2B cap for the second half of FY 2023. Feb. 27, 2023, was the final receipt date for new cap-subject H-2B worker petitions requesting an employment start date on or after Apr. 1, 2023, and before Oct. 1, 2023. We will reject new cap-subject H-2B petitions received after Feb. 27, 2023, that request an employment start date on or after Apr. 1, 2023, and before Oct. 1, 2023.

On Feb. 27, 2023, the number of beneficiaries for whom USCIS received petitions surpassed the total number of remaining H-2B visas available for the H-2B cap for the second half of FY 2023. In accordance with regulations, we determined it was necessary to use a computer-generated selection process intended to ensure the fair and orderly allocation of H-2B visa cap numbers available, without exceeding the FY 2023 cap. On March 1, 2023, we conducted the selection process to randomly select petitions from those received on Feb. 27, 2023. Upon completion of this random selection process, we assigned all selected petitions a receipt date and began premium processing services.

We continue to accept H-2B petitions that are exempt from the congressionally mandated cap. This includes petitions for:

Current H-2B workers in the United States who wish to extend their stay and, if applicable, change the terms of their employment or change their employers;
Fish roe processors, fish roe technicians, and/or supervisors of fish roe processing; and
Workers performing labor or services in the Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands and/or Guam (until Dec. 31, 2029).
Filing Dates for Second Half of FY 2023 Supplemental Visas

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Department of Labor (DOL) jointly published a temporary final rule on Dec. 15, 2022, increasing the numerical limit (or cap) on H-2B nonimmigrant visas by up to 64,716 additional visas for all of FY 2023. These supplemental visas are available only to U.S. businesses that are suffering irreparable harm or will suffer impending irreparable harm without the ability to employ all the H-2B workers requested in their petition, as attested by the employer on the DOL Form ETA 9142-B-CAA-7 (PDF). 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. See www.uscis.com