USCIS announces that it has now resumed processing of I-129 H-2B
petitions for temporary non-agricultural workers. The agency had
temporarily suspended adjudication of most I-129 Forms, the Petition for
Nonimmigrant Worker, for H-2B petitions while the government reviewed
the correct action it should take in response to a court order included
in Comite de Apoyo a los Trabajadores Agricolas et al v. Solis.
This court order, according to USCIS, “vacated a portion of the 2008
wage methodology rule dealing with the way the Department of Labor (DOL)
determines the prevailing wage when relying on the Bureau of Labor
Statistics’ Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) survey.”
The court order gave the Department of Labor 30 days to come into
compliance. On April 24, 2013, the Department of Homeland Security and
the DOL jointly published an interim final rule, Wage Methodology for
the Temporary Non-Agricultural Employment H-2B Program, Part 2. This
rule revised the prevailing wage methodology used by DOL to calculate
certain prevailing wages that were paid to H-2B and U.S. workers
recruited as part of an H-2B Application for Temporary Employment
Certification.
According to USCIS, “employers are required to offer and pay this new
wage for any work performed on and after the date the employer receives
the supplemental prevailing wage determination from DOL.
