64,716 additional H-2B visas will be made available for the fiscal year 2023 by the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Department of Labor (DOL) under a temporary final rule.
According to the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), these supplemental H-2B visas are intended for US employers seeking to petition for additional workers during specific periods of the fiscal year prior to September 15, 2023.
“These visas will also provide non-citizens who are prepared to take jobs that are not filled by American workers with a safe and legal route to the United States at a time of record job growth.”
For seasonal or temporary jobs, H-2B visas are issued, allowing employers to hire skilled or unskilled workers to meet the US labor shortage.
A DOL certification must be obtained by the employer before beginning the visa application.
The roughly 44,700 supplemental H-2B visas available to returning workers who received an H-2B visa or were otherwise granted H-2B status during one of the last three fiscal years are included in this allocation.
Regardless of whether they are returning workers, the remaining 20,000 visas are reserved for nationals of El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Haiti.
On September 12, 2022, the statutory semi-annual cap of 33,000 visas authorized by the Immigration and Nationality Act for the first half of FY 2023 was reached.
For the first half of FY 2023, the USCIS reports that there are 18,216 immediately available visas for returning workers, regardless of nationality.
For the first half of FY 2023, from April 1 to May 14, 16,500 visas are only available to returning workers of any nationality.
For the late second half of FY 2023 (May 15 to September 30), employers are required to submit petitions for 10,000 visas no later than 45 days after the second-half statutory cap is reached, regardless of nationality.
This is the first time that the Departments have issued a single rule to make H-2B supplemental visas available for multiple allocations over the course of the entire fiscal year, including an allocation for the latter half.
A number of provisions in the temporary final rule aim to safeguard H-2B and US workers from exploitation and abuse.
DHS will put employers who have broken certain labor laws in the H-2B program under additional scrutiny during the supplemental cap petition process in this way.
In addition, the Departments will participate in the H-2B Worker Protection Taskforce, convened by the White House and announced in October, to address these issues extensively.
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