This article was prepared with the assistance of ABIL, the Alliance of Business Immigration Lawyers, of which Loan Huynh is an active member.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), in consultation with the Department of Labor (DOL), will publish a temporary final rule on December 2, 2024, making available an additional 64,716 H-2B temporary nonagricultural worker visas for fiscal year 2025. This followed an announcement on November 15, 2024.
The temporary rule provides effective dates for the various allocations. The rule allocates 20,000 visas for workers from Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Haiti, Colombia, Ecuador and Costa Rica, and 44,716 supplemental visas for returning workers who received an H-2B visa, or were otherwise granted H-2B status, during one of the last three fiscal years." The regulation would allocate the supplemental visas for returning workers between the first half and second half of the fiscal year to account for the need for additional seasonal and other temporary workers over the course of the year, with a portion of the second half allocation reserved to meet the demand for workers during the peak summer season," DOL said.
The rule notes that these visas "will be available only to businesses that are suffering or will suffer impending irreparable harm, as attested by the employer. In addition, DHS is again providing temporary portability flexibility." The rule provides details on what employers must do to qualify for the FY 2025 supplemental caps.
