October 3, 2007

USCIS Reaches H-2B Cap for First Half of FY 2008

On October 1, 2007, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that that cap of 33,000 H-2B nonimmigrant work visas available for the first half of FY 2008 had been reached. U.S. employers in a number of industries use the H-2B visa category to fill the need for temporary or seasonal workers when there are not enough U.S. worker available.

On September 27, 2007, the USCIS received enough petitions to meet its 33,000 limit. For cases that were received on the “final receipt date” of September 27, 2007, the USCIS will apply a computer-generated random selection process to choose petitions. Cases that are not randomly selected, or that are received after September 27, 2007 will be rejected and the filing fees will be returned.

Employers should note that the USCIS will continue to accept and process petitions that do not count towards the H-2B cap, including petitions to:

Extend the stay of a current H-2B workers in the U.S.;

Change the terms of employment for current H-2B workers and extend their stay; or

Allow current H-2B workers to change or add employers and extend their stay.

For now the “returning worker” worker provisions have not been extended. For FY 2007, this provision exempted from the annual limit H-2B workers who held the status between 2004 and 2006. GT will continue to provide updates on any developments impacting the H-2B category and its availability.