The US announces an increase of 22,000 visas for the H-2B program

As per a recent update by the Department of Homeland Security [DHS], an additional 22,000 temporary, non-agricultural worker visas are to be made available by the US government.

An official News Release by the DHA has stated that the action is being taken for ensuring that “American businesses are equipped with the resources needed” for recovering successfully and contributing to “the economic health of local communities”.

The announcement for a supplemental increase of 22,000 visas for the H-2B Temporary Non-Agricultural Worker program has been made in the light of increased labour demands.   The H-2 US visa category allows US employers to bring into the country noncitizens on temporary visas that can be either – ·       Agricultural [H-2A], or ·       Non-agricultural [H-2B].   The H-3 category, on the other hand, allows noncitizens to come to the US – on a temporary basis – for receiving training or participating in a special education exchange visitor training program.

For the purposes of establishing the basic eligibility for the H-2B, an employer’s need is regarded to be ‘temporary’ if it is a – [1] one-time occurrence, or is a [2] seasonal need.

These additional H-2B visas are to be made available in the coming months. Of the 22,000 H-2B visas announced by the US, 6,000 will be reserved for the nationals of El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala in keeping with the President’s Executive Order 14010.

Employers that will be seeking H-2B workers must –

• Test the US labour market, certifying in their petitions that there were not enough US workers that were available/qualified/willing/able to take up the temporary worker for which a prospective foreign worker was being sought by them, and
• That employing H-2B workers will not be adversely affecting the wages and working conditions of other similarly-employed US workers.

The supplemental increase will involve the US businesses – that is, those seeking H-2B workers – to engage in additional recruitment efforts.

The additional visas are to be made available to the US employers that testify that, were they not to receive H-2B workers under the cap increase, they would stand to suffer irreparable harm.

Moreover, the temporary final rule will also allow US employers to immediately hire H-2B workers that were already present within the US, without meeting the requirement for waiting for an approval of the new petition.

The H-2B visa has an annual cap or limit of 66,000 per fiscal year.   Of these, 33,000 H-2B visas are to be available for workers that begin employment in the US in the first half of the fiscal year, that is between October 1 to March 31 of a fiscal year.   The remaining 33,000 – including any unused H-2B visas from the first half of that fiscal year – will be available for workers that begin working in the US in the second half of the fiscal year, that is, between April 1 and September 30.   Unused H-2B visa places from one fiscal year are not carried forward into the next fiscal year.   The USCIS fiscal year runs from October 1 of each year to September 30 of the following year.

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