Guestworker Visas for Spring, Summer No Longer Available

Employers have submitted enough petitions for H-2B seasonal guestworker visas to reach the 33,000 cap for the second half of fiscal year 2020, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced.

The cap was reached on Feb. 18, meaning the number of potential workers for whom USCIS received petitions surpassed the total number of remaining H-2B visas available. A lottery to select visa petitions already submitted was held Feb. 20. The timing is similar to FY 2019, when the H-2B cap for the spring and summer season was met on Feb. 19, the agency said Wednesday.

H-2B visas are reserved for seasonal jobs outside the agriculture industry, such as those with landscaping, resorts, and seafood processing.

The visas are capped at 66,000 per fiscal year, divided into 33,000 per each half of the year. But for the last four years, the Department of Homeland Security has approved additional H-2B visas beyond the program’s annual limit. Last year, the agency authorized an additional 30,000 visas for the spring and summer season, which were reserved for businesses that could demonstrate severe financial hardship without them. The agency allowed an extra 15,000 in each of the prior two years.

DHS already has approval from Congress to once again release additional visas for FY 2020, but no official announcement has been made.

The USCIS will continue to accept H-2B petitions that are exempt from the mandated cap, including current H-2B workers extending their stay in the U.S. or changing jobs. Other workers exempt from the cap include fish roe processors, fish roe technicians, and/or supervisors of fish roe processing; and workers in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands and/or Guam between Nov. 28, 2009, and Dec. 31, 2029.