U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has received enough petitions to reach the congressionally mandated H-2B cap for the first half of fiscal year 2009, according to an update from the agency's communications office. Congress caps the number of H-2B visas to 66,000 per year, with half designated for the first half of the fiscal year (October through March) and half reserved for April through September. Last year the first-half cap was met on Sept. 27.
Landscape companies who use the H-2B program to hire temporary workers November through March are among those who likely missed the cap, said Hank Lavery, president of Save Small Business, an H-2B advocacy group, today in an e-mail announcement. The second-half cap will likely be met in record time, as well, placing stress on landscape companies who use the program for the spring and summer months.
During fiscal years 2005, 2006 and 2007, more than 66,000 H-2B visas were granted thanks to the returning-worker exemption, which allowed repeat workers not to count agains the cap. Last fall, Congress failed to pass that provision for fiscal year 2008 and has not yet done so for fiscal year 2009.
Lavery called on H-2B program supporters to "Let your friends and neighbors, including your elected officials, know just how happy you are about how badly Congress has messed up the H-2B crisis."
He added: "Democrats and Republicans – especially those in positions of leadership – in the House and Senate should be very proud of the fact that Congress, by allowing the H-2B returning-worker exemption to expire, has likely now condemned to death the jobs of hundreds of thousands of full-time American workers employed year-round by these seasonal businesses, and jeopardized the future of the spouses and children dependent upon these U.S. workers for their family’s livelihoods."
The USCIS announcement said July 29 was the “final receipt date” for new H-2B worker petitions requesting employment start dates prior to April 1, 2009. USCIS will reject petitions for new H-2B workers seeking employment start dates prior to April 1 that arrived after July 29. USCIS will apply a computer-generated random selection process to all petitions received on July 29 to select the number of petitions needed to meet the cap. USCIS will reject, and return the fee, for all cap-subject petitions not randomly selected. Petitions for workers who are currently in H-2B status do not count towards the congressionally mandated bi-annual H-2B cap. USCIS will continue to process petitions filed to:
- Extend the stay of a current H-2B worker in the United States;
- Change the terms of employment for current H-2B workers and extend their stay; or
- Allow current H-2B workers to change or add employers and extend their stay.