US - H-2B visa cap filled up

05 January 2005

The US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced January 4 that it has received enough petitions to fill the allocation for H-2B visas for this year.

USCIS will not accept any more new H-2B applications after January 3 because the Congressionally mandated cap of 66,000 workers has already been reached. Accordingly, the same procedures will be followed as for FY 2004, when a similar over subscribing occurred. USCIS will process all petitions received by the end of January 3, but will return all of those received after this date along with the filing fee and the premium processing fee, if applicable. Petitioners may resubmit or file new petitions from October 1 2005 after receiving labor certification.

You will find further details of US non-immigrant visas on our web-site.