March 17, 2004

It’s Official: H-2B Cap Has Been Reached

The USCIS has now officially announced that the H-2B visa cap for FY’04 of 66,000 H-2B visas has been hit. In a Federal Register notice published March 16, 2004, the USCIS said as of March 10, 2004, it was no longer accepting H-2B petitions for temporary nonimmigrant workers for the remainder of FY 2004. Any H-2B cases received by the Service on or before March 9, 2004 will continue to be adjudicated in the order that they were receive. Moreover, amendments to previously approved petitions and petitions for extension of stay for H-2B individuals will also continue to be processed normally as they are not affected by the cap.

Any H-2B applications received by the USCIS on March 10 or after will be returned along with the filing fee and, if applicable, the premium processing fee) to the petitioner. Petitioners may refile petitions with a new starting date of October 1, 2004, or later when the H-2B visa numbers for FY’05 are released.