These are the deadlines to apply for work visas in 2024
US Citizenship and Immigration Services has shared the deadlines to apply for H-2 work visas for the second half of fiscal year 2024. Here are the details.
The US government has several options to work legally in the country, such as the H-2 programs. With regards to this class of visa, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has shared the deadlines to apply for work visas this year.
H-2 programs allow certain U.S. employers or agents to bring foreign nationals to the United States to fill temporary jobs for which there are not enough U.S. workers who are able, willing, qualified, and available to fill them. Among this class of visa program are the H-2A visas, which are granted to temporary agricultural workers and the H-2B visa, which is granted to temporary non-agricultural employees.
The deadlines to apply for work visas in 2024
Through a statement, USCIS reported that it has received enough requests to reach the maximum regulatory number of H-2B visas for the second half of fiscal year 2024.
However, it still has supplemental H-2B visas for the remainder of fiscal year 2024. The agency noted that it continues to accept H-2B petitions that are exempt from the limit required by Congress.
These H-2B visas are for employers looking to request additional workers at certain periods of the fiscal year, so they have different deadlines.
These are the filing start dates for each of the supplemental visa assignments:
- Employers wishing to employ nationals of El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Haiti, Colombia, Ecuador and Costa Rica, regardless of whether such nationals are returning workers: USCIS will begin to accept requests on March 22, 2024 from employers requesting an employment start date from April 1, 2024 to September 30, 2024.
- Employers seeking workers for the start of the second half of fiscal year 2024 (April 1 to May 14): USCIS will begin to accept petitions for the additional 19,000 visas available to returning workers, regardless of country of nationality, on March 22, 2024.
- Employers seeking workers by the end of the second half of fiscal year 2024 (May 15 to September 30): USCIS will begin to accept petitions for the additional 5,000 visas available to returning workers, regardless of country of nationality, on April 22, 2024.
These supplemental visas are available only to U.S. businesses that are suffering irreparable harm or will suffer imminent irreparable harm without the ability to employ all of the H-2B workers requested in their petition.
USCIS will stop accepting petitions after September 16, 2024 or after the applicable limit has been reached, whichever comes first. Here are more details about the dates for submitting supplemental visa petitions for the second half of fiscal year 2024.