Release Date 11/18/2020
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has received enough petitions to reach the congressionally mandated cap on H-2B visas for temporary nonagricultural workers for the first half of fiscal year 2021. Nov. 16 was the final receipt date for new cap-subject H-2B worker petitions requesting an employment start date before April 1, 2021. USCIS will reject new cap-subject H-2B petitions received after Nov. 16, that request an employment start date before April 1, 2021.
The H-2B visa category is used by U.S. employers to temporarily employ skilled or unskilled foreign nationals in nonagricultural positions for which the employer has a temporary need and for which qualified U.S. workers are unavailable. The company must plan to employ the foreign nationals for a temporary period and the employer’s need for the skills of the foreign nationals must also be temporary. In addition, the employer must seek a “labor certification” from the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) certifying that: