U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced Friday it has received enough petitions to reach a cap on H-2B visas for returning workers with start dates in the first half of the 2024 fiscal year.

Key Points:

• In November, the Department of Homeland Security and Department of Labor published a regulation to provide 64,716 additional H-2B visas this fiscal year. This supplemental allocation included 20,716 visas for returning workers with start dates in the first half of the fiscal year (Oct. 1 to March 31).
• USCIS said Friday it has received enough petitions to reach 20,716 visas. Petitions with receipt dates on or after Jan. 10 will not be considered under this cap.
• The agency continues to accept country-specific petitions for H-2B workers from Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti and Honduras. As of Jan. 12, USCIS had received petitions requesting 4,500 workers for 20,000 country-specific visas available this fiscal year.

BAL Analysis: News that the returning worker cap for the first half of the fiscal year has been reached is a further sign of the popularity of the H-2B program. Despite high demand, however, employers with workforce needs in both the first and second half of the fiscal year still have options.