Today, USCIS reopened the FY2015 H-2B cap and are now accepting requests for new H-2B workers with an employment start date between April 1 and September 30, 2015.
On April 2, 2015, USCIS announced that it had accepted and approved a sufficient number of H-2B petitions to meet the annual cap of 66,000 H-2B visas. Between June 3, 2014 and March 26, 2015, USCIS had accepted roughly 3,900 petitions, consisting of about 77,000 beneficiaries. It believed this number was sufficient enough to use up the FY15 cap.
A recent analysis of the issuance of H-2B visas and USCIS petition data show that the number of actual H-2B visas issued by DOS is “substantially less than the number of H-2B beneficiaries seeking consular notification listed on cap-subject H-2B petitions approved by USCIS.” Because of this, USCIS has determined that there are still available H-2B visa numbers for the second half of FY15.
In light of this new information, USCIS has determined that there are still available H-2B visa numbers remaining for the second half of the FY15 cap.
