The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) have announced that they plan to make an additional 64,716 H-2B visas available for fiscal year (FY) 2024. The announcement should bring relief to industries experiencing an unmet need for seasonal, intermittent, peak load, or one-time occurrence workers.

Quick Hits

• DHS and the DOL recently announced a plan to make more than 64,000 additional H-2B visas available for FY 2024.
• Industries, including hospitality and tourism, seafood processing, and landscaping, are experiencing an unmet need for additional workers.

Specifically, the measure is expected to allow for:

• 20,000 country-specific visas for H-2B workers from Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, and Honduras; and
• 44,716 visas for returning workers.

It is anticipated that the visas for returning workers will be split between the first half and second half of the fiscal year—22,358 for each.

The H-2B program, widely utilized in the hospitality and tourism, seafood processing, and landscaping industries, permits employers to hire foreign workers for nonagricultural labor or services on a temporary basis.