iNDICA NEWS BUREAU-
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has said that it has received enough petitions to reach the cap for the additional 20,716 H-2B visas made available for returning workers for the first half of the fiscal year 2024 under the H-2B supplemental cap temporary final rule (FY 2024 TFR).
The final receipt date for petitions requesting supplemental H-2B visas under the FY 2024 first-half returning worker allocation was January 9, 2024. “We are still accepting petitions for H-2B nonimmigrant workers with start dates on or before March 31, 2024, for the additional 20,000 visas allotted for nationals of El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Haiti, Colombia, Ecuador, and Costa Rica (country-specific allocation), as well as those who are exempt from the congressionally mandated cap, as well as those who are exempt from the congressionally mandated cap,” USCIS informed in a statement.
On November 17, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Department of Labor (DOL) jointly published a temporary final rule increasing the numerical limit (or cap) on H-2B nonimmigrant visas by up to 64,716 additional visas for fiscal year (FY) 2024.
These supplemental visas are available only to U.S. businesses that are suffering irreparable harm due to the ability to employ all the H-2B workers requested in their petitions. This rule authorizes H-2B supplemental visas for the entirety of FY 2024. To assist U.S. businesses that need workers to begin work on different start dates, the supplemental visas will be distributed in several allocations, including two separate allocations for the second half of FY 2024.
Of the 64,716 additional visas, 44,716 are available only for returning workers who received an H-2B visa or were otherwise granted H-2B status in one of the last three fiscal years. The remaining 20,000 visas are set aside for nationals of El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Haiti, Colombia, Ecuador, and Costa Rica (country-specific allocation) who are exempt from the returning worker requirement. This increase is based on time-limited statutory authority that does not affect the H-2B program in future fiscal years.
USCIS began accepting H-2B petitions with start dates on or before March 31, 2024, for the 20,716 returning worker allocation for the first half of FY2024, and the 20,000 allocations for nationals of El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Haiti, Colombia, Ecuador, and Costa Rica who are exempt from the returning worker requirement.
The USCIS has encouraged petitioners whose workers were not accepted among the 20,716 returning worker allocations to file under the country-specific allocation while visas are available. USCIS has received petitions requesting 4,500 workers under the 20,000 visas set aside for nationals of El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Haiti, Colombia, Ecuador, and Costa Rica till January 12, 2024.