Articles Posted in nonimmigrant visas

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has announced that the congressionally mandated H-2B cap for fiscal year (FY) 2015 was reached on Thursday, March 26, 2015.

The H-2B non-agricultural temporary worker program allows U.S. employers to bring foreign nationals to the United States to fill temporary non-agricultural jobs. There is a cap limit of 33,000 for the first half of the fiscal year (10/01 – 03/31) and 33,000 for the second half (04/01 – 9/30) for a total of 66,000 H2B visas issued per fiscal year.

Timeline for H-2B cap for fiscal year (FY) 2015:

On Tuesday, March 17th, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) resumed adjudication of H-2B Visa petitions! They announced that they would continue the suspension on H-2B premium processing until further notice. Premium Processing is a service which for an added cost can be used to expedite processing of certain employment-based petitions and applications, such as an H-2B Visa petition.

On March 16, 2015 the Department of Labor (DOL) requested and was granted a stay of the March 4th order of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida in Perez v. Perez until April 15. That order vacated DOL’s H-2B regulations on the grounds that DOL had no authority under the Immigration and Nationality Act to issue them.

Please review the link to USCIS News Alert, “USCIS Resumes H-2B Adjudications; Premium Processing Remains Suspended” for more information and for more background information, view our blog post, “USCIS Temporarily Suspends Adjudication of H-2B Petitions As of 3/5/2015“.

The H-2B non-agricultural temporary worker program allows U.S. employers to bring foreign nationals to the United States to fill temporary non-agricultural jobs. There is a cap limit of 33,000 for the first half of the fiscal year and 33,000 for the second half for a total of 66,000 per year. If the cap is not reached during the first half of the fiscal year, the extra numbers are then made available for the second half.

The H-2B cap limit for first half of FY 2015 (October 1 – March 31) is 33,000. As of the last count (1/26/15) this first half cap count has been reached. Please read USCIS update below!

The H-2B cap limit for second half of FY 2015 (April 1 – September 30) is 33,000. As of the last count (2/27/15); 14,740 beneficiaries have been approved and 1,779 are pending for a total of 16,519.

On Thursday, March 5, 2015, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) temporarily suspended adjudication of Form I-129 for H-2B petitions for temporary non-agricultural workers!

As a result of a federal court decision on March 4, 2015 (Perez v. Perez, No. 3:14-cv-682 (N.D. Florida, Mar. 4, 2015)) against the Department of Labor (DOL), the DOL can no longer accept or process requests for Prevailing Wage Determinations or temporary labor certifications under the H-2B Visa program. A Federal Judge vacated the DOL’s 2008 H-2B regulations on the ground that the DOL lacks the authority under the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) to issue regulations in the H-2B program. USCIS has also temporarily suspended its adjudication of H-2B petitions because H-2B petitions require temporary labor certifications issued by the DOL. The USCIS has stated that the suspension is temporary while they consider the appropriate response to the court order.

H-2B visas are available for individuals to perform nonagricultural work of a temporary or seasonal nature, if U.S. workers capable of performing such service or labor cannot be found in the U.S. This classification requires the Sponsoring Employer to conduct active recruitment to determine if U.S. workers are available to fulfill the temporary need.

The H-2B non-agricultural temporary worker program allows U.S. employers to bring foreign nationals to the United States to fill temporary non-agricultural jobs. There is a cap limit of 33,000 for the first half of the fiscal year and 33,000 for the second half for a total of 66,000 per year. If the cap is not reached during the first half of the fiscal year, the extra numbers are then made available for the second half.

The H-2B cap limit for first half of FY 2015 (October 1 – March 31) is 33,000. As of the last count (1/26/15) this first half cap count has been reached. Please read USCIS update below!

The H-2B cap limit for second half of FY 2015 (April 1 – September 30) is 33,000. As of the last count (2/13/15); 9,761 beneficiaries have been approved and 1,345 are pending for a total of 11,106.