The week before last, U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services (USCIS) released a statement indicating that they had “received a sufficient number of petitions to reach the congressionally mandated H-2B cap for the first half of Fiscal Year (FY) 2016. March 15, 2016 was the final receipt date for new H-2B worker petitions requesting an employment start date before April 1, 2016.”
This means that USCIS will reject any new H-2B petitions that were received after March 15 and that request an employment start date before April 1.
As a result of the legislative victory achieved by NALP and its H-2B Workforce Coalition allies, USCIS will continue to accept H-2B petitions for workers identified as “returning workers” who were previously counted against the annual H-2B cap during FYs 2013, 2014 or 2015.
To avoid processing delays, petitioners who are including H-2B returning workers on their petition must complete and include the H-2B Returning Worker Certification and are encouraged to write “H-2B Returning Workers” prominently on the envelope and any cover page. You can find more information about this in the web alert, H-2B Returning Workers Exempted from the H-2B Cap for Fiscal Year 2016.
For the full story, on the NALP website, click here.