USCIS Receives Enough Petitions to Reach Additional Maximum 30,000 H2B Visas for Returning Workers Under FY 2019 Cap

On June 7, 2019, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that it has received enough H2B petitions to reach the additional maximum 30,000 H2B visas that were made available for returning workers under the H2B cap for FY 2019 [PDF version]. The USCIS will reject and return any FY 2019 cap-subject H2B petitions received after June 5, 2019, together with any accompanying filing fees.

The USCIS will continue to accept any H2B petitions that are exempt from the annual H2B cap. This includes the following types of H2B petitions:

Current H2B workers in the United States filing petitions to extend their stay and, if applicable, change the terms of their employment or change their employers;
Fish roe processors, fish roe technicians, and/or supervisors of fish roe processing; and
H2B workers performing labor or services in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands and/or Guam from November 28, 2009, until December 31, 2029.

To learn more about the H2B category and other nonimmigrant work visa categories, please see our website's growing selection of articles on Work Visas [see category].