U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has reopened the fiscal year 2009 H-2B petition filing period and will immediately accept new H-2B petitions.
Although USCIS announced at the beginning of the year that it accepted and approved a sufficient number of H-2B petitions to meet the congressionally mandated annual cap of 66,000, the Department of State received far fewer than expected requests for H-2B visas and as a result, there are approximately 25,000 visas that may go unused. Because of the low visa issuance rate, USCIS is reopening the filing period to allow employers to file additional petitions for qualified H-2B temporary foreign nonagricultural workers.
The H-2B program allows U.S. employers to bring foreign nationals to the United States to fill temporary nonagricultural jobs for which there is a shortage of available U.S. workers. Typically, H-2B workers fill labor needs in occupational areas such as education, construction, health care, landscaping, manufacturing, food service/processing, and resort/hospitality services.
To qualify for a fiscal year 2009 H-2B cap number, the employment start date must be before October 1, 2009 and petitioners must utilize the premium processing service to ensure adjudication prior to October 1, 2009.
For more information about this reopening of the H-2B fiscal year 2009 filing period, see USCIS's announcement here. |
