2014 H-2B Cap Count Almost Reached
H-2B Visa
If a U.S. employer is facing a problem where it cannot fill employment positions due to a lack of U.S. workers willing, able, or qualified to do the temporary work, the H-2B program may be a solution. The H-2B non-agricultural temporary worker program allows employers to bring foreign nationals into the country to fill these temporary, non-agricultural jobs.
Cap Count
Congress puts a cap on the total number of aliens who can receive a certain visa during a fiscal year. There are 66,000 H-2B visas that may be issued each fiscal year. 33,000 of those are specifically allocated for employment beginning in the 1st half of the fiscal year, which runs from October 1 to March 31. The other 33,000 visas are allocated for employment beginning in the 2nd half of the fiscal year, which runs from April 1 to September 30. Any unused visas from the first half of the fiscal year can be rolled over to the second half of the fiscal year, but unused numbers of H-2B visas at the end of a fiscal year do not roll over.
Cap Count Almost Reached
On March 14, 2014, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that the congressionally mandated H-2B cap for the first half of the 2014 fiscal year had been met. There were not any spots available from the first half of FY 2014 to roll over to the second half of 2014.
The cap for the second half of the fiscal year has almost been met. As of August 22, 2014, USCIS awarded 26,730 beneficiaries toward the 33,000 H-2B cap for the second half of 2014. 3,796 visas have already been awarded for the first half of the 2015 fiscal year.
Ivener & Fullmer, LLP, a business immigration law firm, serves business owners, human resource professionals, in-house counsel, international business people, investors, and entertainers. If you have any questions, please contact one of our partners in our Los Angeles office.
