New York, February 2 (Punjab Mail) – The US has received enough applications to reach the cap of an additional 18,216 H-2B visas made available for returning workers for the first half of fiscal year 2023. The Immigration Services gave this information on Wednesday. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) in December issued a notice to employers seeking to petition for additional workers sometime in the fiscal year prior to September 15, 2023. .S. The supplemental cap was announced as an interim final rule.
Under this rule, USCIS began accepting H-2B petitions for FY 2023 by up to 64,716 additional H-2B nonimmigrant visas. Of the 64,716 additional visas, 44,716 were available only for returning workers. The remaining 20,000 visas are reserved for citizens of Haiti, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras, who are exempt from the returning worker requirement. USCIS said it would continue to accept petitions from H-2B nonimmigrant workers for an additional 20,000 visas allocated to citizens of Haiti, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras.
USCIS said it will also continue to accept H-2B petitions for those who have been exempted from the cap mandated by Congress. This includes workers already in the U.S. who are petitioning to extend their residency. The cap is set at 16,500 visas for the early second half of fiscal year 2023 (April 1 to May 14). Nationality. For the second half of fiscal year 2023 – May 15 to September 30 – 10,000 visas are limited to returning workers regardless of country of nationality. Note that H-2B visas are issued for seasonal/temporary jobs. , which allow employers to hire skilled or unskilled workers to fill labor shortages in the US.
