More Seasonal Guestworker Visas to be Released Starting April 1

An additional 35,000 seasonal guestworker visas will start to become available next month in two waves, with the first 20,000 released to employers April 1 and the final 15,000 visas available May 15.

The Department of Homeland Security said the additional H-2B visas for the spring/summer season were released in conjunction with “necessary anti-fraud and abuse measures to protect the integrity of the H-2B visa program.” The new allocation, which will supplement the 66,000 visas that are regularly available during the fiscal year, also comes with new conditions to protect American workers, and provide relief to seasonal employers who “truly need it,” the agency said Thursday.

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

Additional measures announced by the agency include: requiring matching start dates on an H-2B petition and the employer’s start date of need; collaborating with the Department of Labor on increased employer site visits; and generally limiting the supplemental visas to returning workers “who are known to follow immigration law in good faith,” the agency said.

This year’s announcement also comes with policies meant to “complement DHS border security initiatives,” the agency said. Ten thousand of the supplemental visas are specifically designated for nationals of Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras, in support of these countries’ efforts to “work with the U.S. to stem the flow of illegal migration in the region and encourage lawful migration to the United States.”

This is the fifth straight year that the agency has approved additional H-2B visas beyond the program’s annual limit. In 2019, 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.

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

Additional details regarding this year’s H-2B allocation will be outlined in a forthcoming temporary final rule that DHS “aims to complete and publish as soon as possible,” it said.