This article was prepared with the assistance of ABIL, the Alliance of Business Immigration Lawyers, of which Loan Huynh is an active member.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced on April 18, 2024, that it has received enough petitions to reach the cap for the additional 19,000 H-2B visas made available for returning workers for the early second half of fiscal year (FY) 2024 with start dates from April 1 to May 14, 2024, under the H-2B supplemental cap temporary final rule (FY 2024 TFR). USCIS said that April 17, 2024, was the final receipt date for petitions requesting supplemental H-2B visas under the FY 2024 early-second-half-returning-worker allocation.
USCIS said it is still accepting petitions for “H-2B nonimmigrant workers for the additional 20,000 visas allotted for nationals of El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Haiti, Colombia, Ecuador, and Costa Rica (country-specific allocation) who are exempt from the returning worker requirement, as well as those who are exempt from the congressionally mandated cap.”
Starting April 22, 2024, USCIS will begin accepting petitions for workers for the late second half of FY 2024, requesting employment start dates from May 15 to September 30, 2024. USCIS said that the 5,000 visas available under this allocation are limited to returning workers who were issued H-2B visas or held H-2B status in fiscal years 2021, 2022 or 2023, regardless of country of nationality.
