On Feb. 2, the Department of Homeland Security revealed the H-2B cap was reached for the first half of fiscal 2015, hence the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) now is rejecting new H-2B petitions that were received after Jan. 26 and that requested an employment start date prior to April 1.
The cap is a congressionally mandated limit on the total number of foreign nationals who may seek a visa or otherwise obtain H-2B status. Currently, the H-2B cap is 66,000 per fiscal year, with 33,000 allocated for employment beginning in the first half of the fiscal year, Oct. 1 to March 31, and 33,000 allocated for employment beginning in the second half of the fiscal year, April 1 to Sept. 30. Any unused numbers from the first half of the fiscal year are made available for use by employers seeking to hire H-2B workers during the second half of the fiscal year, but there is no “carry over” of unused H-2B numbers from one fiscal year to the next.
Still, USCIS will continue to accept H-2B petitions that are exempt from the congressionally mandated cap.
