After U.S. businesses expressed concerns about labor shortages and the need for temporary foreign workers, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in late May authorized the issuance of an additional 15,000 H-2B visas for fiscal year 2018.
In the first five business days of the filing period, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) received more petitions than the number of H-2B visas available under the authorized temporary increase.
Therefore, the USCIS will conduct a lotteryThe computer-generated, computer-generated, randomly selected petitions will receive the available supplemental visas.
The lottery will include all H-2B petitions subject to the statutory maximum amount (15,000) received between May 31, 2018 and June 6, 2018.
USCIS will reject and return all unsuccessful petitions, along with payment of fees, received after June 6.
All selected petitions will be assigned the same receipt date once the lottery is completed. Priority processing service for accepted petitions will begin from the date of receipt.
USCIS will post another notice on its website when the lottery is completed.
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