The U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services is still accepting temporary, nonagricultural works, despite reaching a congressionally-mandated cap, authorities said in a statement.
Not all petitions for H-2B visas, allowing for foreign workers temporarily employed in nonagricultural jobs, fall under the cap, the service said in its March 1 news release.
"We continue to accept H-2B petitions that are exempt from the congressionally mandated cap," the news release said.
H-2B applicants who wanted to request employment start dates between April 1 and Oct. 1 had until Feb. 25 to apply.
The congressionally-mandated cap of 66,000 H-2B workers per fiscal year is stipulated under the Immigration and Nationality Act. The cap was set under the Immigration and Nationality Act, as amended. Businesses in the U.S. rely on the H-2B program to employ foreign workers in temporary nonagricultural jobs.
This year, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services received enough H-2B petitions to reach the cap for the second half of the fiscal year.
Despite the cap, there are three classes of H-2B workers whose petitions will be considered, according to the news release. Current H-2B workers already in the U.S. who want to extend their stay, change their employment terms or change their employers may apply without concerns about the cap.
Fish roe processors, fish roe technicians and those who supervise fish roe processing are not subject to the cap.
Workers who provide labor or services in the Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands and/or Guam through the end of 2029 also may apply without concerns about the cap.
Unused H-2B numbers from previous fiscal years are not included in the cap because those numbers do not carry over into succeeding fiscal years.
The Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Department of Labor are also considering whether supplemental visas should be issued, "in accordance with legal authority," the news release said.
