On August 6, 2009, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) reopened the FY2009 H-2B petition filing period based on lower usage by the Department of State than expected and stated that it will immediately accept up to approximately 25,000 new H-2B petitions. Because H-2B petitions for FY2009 visas must be received, evaluated, and adjudicated on or before September 30, 2009, employers should file as soon as possible and request premium processing of the petitions
In addition, USCIS announced on August 7, 2009 that it has received 8,974 H-2B petitions for the first half of FY2010. It has approved 8,183 and 791 are pending. USCIS approves a total of 33,000 H-2B visas during each half of the fiscal year. However, it accepts 47,000 petitions, with the expectation that some visas will be denied. Therefore, USCIS will accept an additional 38,026 petitions during the first half of FY2010. It is difficult to predict how long these visa numbers will last, but it appears that there is significantly less usage of the program compared with last year.
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.
