The U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Department of Labor announced they are raising the cap of H-2B visas for the second half of fiscal year 2022.
According to a March 31 news release, the department has opened up an additional 35,000 H-2B visas with the goal of helping support American businesses while also expanding legal pathways for workers seeking to come into the U.S. The H-2B program allows for employers to temporarily hire non-US citizens to perform non-agricultural labor or services in the U.S.
“Informed by current demand in the labor market, today we are announcing the availability of an additional 35,000 H-2B visas that will help to support American businesses and expand legal pathways for workers seeking to come to the United States,” Secretary Alejandro N. Mayorkas said. “Recognizing the importance of strong worker protections, we will apply greater scrutiny to those employers who have a record of violating obligations to their workers and the H-2B program.”
The supplemental H-2B visa allocation is divided into 23,500 visas that will become available to returning workers who have received an H-2B visa or were otherwise granted H-2B status, during one of the last three fiscal years. That leaves a total of 11,500 visas that are exempt from the returning worker requirement to reserve them for nationals of Haiti, Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador.
In January, DHS and DOL also announced an additional 20,000 H-2B temporary nonagricultural worker visas were being added for the first half of fiscal year 2022.
