Last Updated on November 25, 2022 by Anda Malescu
On March 31, 2022, the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Department of Labor (DOL) jointly announced that they are making available an additional 35,000 H-2B temporary nonagricultural worker visas for the second half of fiscal year (FY) 2022 which is the period starting on April 1, 2022 and ending on Sept. 30, 2022.
The 35,000 visas are in addition to the 33,000 visas available each half fiscal year under the H-2B program. While this is a step in the right direction, the number of additional visas is not enough to satisfy demand, given that there were requests for 136,555 positions for H-2B visas submitted in January 2022.
Out of the 35,000 additional H-2B visas, 23,500 visas are available to returning workers. Returning workers are the ones who received an H-2B visa or were granted H-2B status, during one of the last 3 fiscal years. The remaining 11,500 H-2B visas are exempt from the returning worker requirement, and are reserved for nationals of Haiti, Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador.
The H-2B program allows U.S. employers to temporarily employ foreign citizens from certain countries to fill nonagricultural positions in the United States. The employment period must be for a limited time and to fulfill a temporary need, such as a one-time occurrence, seasonal need, peakload or intermittent need.
U.S. employers seeking to hire H-2B workers must take a series of recruitment steps to test the U.S. labor market in order to show there are not enough U.S. workers who are able, willing, qualified, and available to do the temporary work for which they seek a prospective foreign worker. U.S. employers must also certify that employing H-2B workers will not adversely affect the wages and working conditions of similarly employed U.S. workers. To find out more you can visit our H-2B visa page and H-2B visa requirements page.
If you are U.S. employer seeking to hire foreign workers to fill a temporary need for employees, contact us, your trusted H-2B visa attorneys or schedule an appointment with our H-2B visa lawyers.
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