USCIS: H-2B cap met for first half of FY 2025

USCIS says that once the congressionally mandated cap is reached, it will only accept petitions for H-2B workers who are exempt or not subject to the cap.

The US Citizenship and Immigration Services announced on September 19 that they had met the H-2B cap for the first half of fiscal year 2025. It means that noncitizens looking to apply for the non-agricultural temporary worker program will have to wait a bit longer.

September 18 was the “final receipt date” for new cap-subject H-2B worker petitions requesting employment start dates before April 1, 2025. (AFP)

September 18 was set as the “final receipt date” for receiving the congressionally mandated cap of H-2B worker petitions for the first half of fiscal year 2025. USCIS will no longer be accepting any other H-2B worker petitions requesting employment start dates before April 1, 2025. The official USCIS website details that Congress has set the H-2B cap at 66,000 per fiscal year, with 33,000 for workers who begin their jobs in the first half of the fiscal year (October 1 - March 31) and the remaining 50% for workers whose employment begins in the second half (April 1 - September 30).

Worker exempt from congressionally mandated H-2B cap

However, the official notice also revealed that some workers in the United States who fall under the H-2B status are exempt from the H-2B Cap. Therefore, all those noncitizen workers in this status who extend their stay, switch employers or change the terms and conditions of employment are not restricted to the congressionally mandated limit.

Additionally, H-2B workers who were previously included against the cap in the same fiscal year that the employment commences will not be subject to the cap if the employer names them on the petition and clearly mentions that they have already been counted. H-2B workers' spouse and children, who are classified as H-4 nonimmigrants, also don't count against this cap.

Moreover, petitions for fish roe processors, fish roe technicians, or supervisors of fish roe processing; and workers performing labour or services in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands or Guam until Dec. 31, 2029, are exempt from the H-2B statutory numerical limit.