USCIS Reaches H-2B Cap for First Half of Fiscal Year 2025
We have received enough petitions to reach the congressionally mandated cap on H-2B visas for temporary nonagricultural workers for the first half of fiscal year 2025. Sept. 18 was the final receipt date for new cap-subject H-2B worker petitions requesting an employment start date before April 1, 2025.
Key changes
We have received enough petitions to reach the congressionally mandated cap on H-2B visas for temporary nonagricultural workers for the first half of fiscal year 2025. Sept. 18 was the final receipt date for new cap-subject H-2B worker petitions requesting an employment start date before April 1, 2025. We will reject new cap-subject H-2B petitions we receive after Sept. 18 that request an employment start date before April 1, 2025.
We are still accepting H-2B petitions that are exempt from the congressionally mandated cap, including:
Current H-2B workers in the United States who extend their stay, change employers, or change the terms and conditions of their employment;
Fish roe processors, fish roe technicians, and/or supervisors of fish roe processing; and
Workers performing labor or services in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands and/or Guam from Nov. 28, 2009, until Dec. 31, 2029.
U.S. businesses use the H-2B program to employ foreign workers for temporary nonagricultural jobs. Currently, Congress has set the H-2B cap at 66,000 per fiscal year, with 33,000 for workers who begin employment in the first half of the fiscal year (Oct. 1-March 31) and 33,000 (plus any unused numbers from the first half of the fiscal year) for workers who begin employment in the second half of the fiscal year (April 1-Sept. 30).
