USCIS to Accept Petitions for H-2B Workers Seeking Work in Fiscal Year 2023

Starting April 13, 2023, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will accept petitions for H-2B workers seeking employment from May 15, 2023, through Sept. 30, 2023.  

USCIS issued this notice under the H-2B supplemental cap temporary final rule published on December 15, 2022, by the Department of Labor (DOL) and Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The temporary final rule increased the H-2B nonimmigrant visa cap by 64,716 additional visas for fiscal year 2023. Of that total, 44,716 are reserved for returning workers who received an H-2B visa or were granted H-2B status in fiscal years 2020, 2021 and 2022. The remaining 20,000 visas are reserved for nationals from the Northern Central American countries of Guatemala, El Salvador, Haiti and Honduras who are exempt from the returning worker requirement.   

Individuals seeking a supplemental allocation under the temporary final rule must file their petitions at the California Service Center. Petitions that are filed at any other location will be rejected.  

Envoy is pleased to provide you this information, which was prepared in collaboration with Meghan O’Keefe and Sofia Pate, who are Attorneys at Corporate Immigration Partners (CIP), one of the two independent U.S. law firms Envoy exclusively works with on the Envoy Platform (the “U.S. Law Firms”).