Additional Returning Worker H-2B Visa Cap Exceeded for the First Half of FY 2023

Under the recently announced H-2B supplemental cap temporary final rule, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has received enough petitions to reach the cap for the additional 18,216 H-2B visas made available for returning workers for the first half of fiscal year (FY) 2023 with start dates on or before March 31, 2023. They are still accepting petitions for H-2B nonimmigrant workers for the 20,000 additional visas available to nationals of Haiti, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras.

They just began accepting H-2B petitions under the temporary final rule issued on December 15, which increased the quota by up to 64,716 more H-2B nonimmigrant visas for fiscal year FY 2023. Only 44,716 of the 64,716 new visas were available for returning workers. The remaining 20,000 visas are reserved for Haitian, El Salvadoran, Guatemalan, and Honduran nationals who are exempt from the returning worker requirement.

Petitioners whose workers were denied entry under the 18,216-person returning-worker allotment are encouraged to file under the Haiti, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras allotments while visas are still available. As of January 26, 2023, the USCIS had received applications for 4,260 workers under the 20,000 visas reserved for Haitians, El Salvadorans, Guatemalans, and Hondurans.

The USCIS will keep taking H-2B petitions from workers filing under the allotment for Haiti, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras, as well as those exempt from the congressionally mandated cap. This includes petitions for the following:

• Current H-2B workers in the United States who want to extend their stay and, if necessary, amend the terms of their employment or change employers;
• Processors of fish roe, technicians of fish roe, and/or supervisors of fish roe processing; and
• Employees that work or provide services in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands and/or Guam (until Dec. 31, 2029).