U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) today announced that the 33,000 H-2B visas authorized by Congress for the first half of fiscal year 2020 have been exhausted.
The H-2B visas are used to bring foreign nationals to the United States to work temporarily in industries that require more employees for a specific period of time. For example, hotel, ski resort or amusement park employees.
USCIS determined November 15, 2019 as the deadline to submit new petitions for temporary nonagricultural (H-2B) workers who wanted to begin work before April 1, 2020.
USCIS will reject and return all petitions that were not timely filed, along with the payment of fees.
New H-2B visa petitions received after November 15, 2019 will be denied, with the following exceptions:
- H-2B workers applying to start employment on or after April 1, 2020
- H-2B workers who are currently in the United States and are requesting an extension of stay that may change the terms of their employment or change employers.
- Fish egg processing workers, technicians or supervisors.
- Workers on active duty from November 28, 2009 through December 31, 2029 in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands and/or Guam.
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