United States Immigration Update: Nearly 65,000 additional H-2B visas available for 2025

As expected, the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and the Department of Labor (DOL) have issued a temporary final rule (TFR) making available an additional 64,716 H-2B temporary non-agricultural worker visas for fiscal year (FY) 2025.

These supplemental visas are aimed at helping US employers who are unable to find US workers who are available, willing, and qualified to do the temporary work in industries such as hospitality and tourism, landscaping, seafood processing, and many other sectors.

What is a H-2B visa?

The H-2B program permits employers to temporarily hire noncitizens to perform non-agricultural labour or services in the United States.

The employment must be for a limited period of time, and the petitioner must have a temporary need for services or labour to be performed that is a one-time occurrence, peak load need, seasonal need, or intermittent need.

H-2B allocations for FY 2025

DHS, in coordination with DOL, has authorized supplemental cap numbers in FY 2017, FY 2018, FY 2019, FY 2021, FY 2022, FY 2023, and FY 2024 in accordance with the time-limited statutory authority granted for each of those fiscal years by Congress.

The supplemental H-2B visa allocation consists of roughly 44,700 visas available to returning workers who received an H-2B visa or held H-2B status in FY 2022, FY 2023, or FY 2024, regardless of their country of nationality. The remaining 20,000 visas are reserved for nationals of Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, and Honduras, regardless of whether they are returning workers.

The supplemental H-2B visas have been divided into the following four allocations:

• First half of FY 2025 (1 October 2024, to 31 March 2025): 20,716 immediately available visas are limited to returning workers – those who were issued H-2B visas or held H-2B status in fiscal years 2022, 2023, or 2024, regardless of country of nationality.  These petitions must request employment start dates on or before 31 March 2025.
• Early second half of FY 2025 (1 April 2025, to 14 May 2025): 19,000 visas are limited to returning workers – those who were issued H-2B visas or held H-2B status in fiscal years 2022, 2023, or 2024, regardless of country of nationality.      These early second half of FY 2025 petitions must request employment start dates from 1 April 2025 to 14 May 2025.
• Late second half of FY 2025 (15 May 2025, to 30 September 2025): 5,000 visas are limited to returning workers – those who were issued H-2B visas or held H-2B status in fiscal years 2022, 2023, or 2024, regardless of country of nationality.  These late second half of FY 2025 petitions must request employment start dates from 15 May 2025 to 30 September 2025.
• Entirety of FY 2025: 20,000 visas immediately available are reserved for nationals of Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, and Honduras, regardless of whether those nationals are returning workers. Employers requesting an employment start date in the first half of FY 2025 may file their petitions immediately after the publication of this TFR. Employers requesting an employment start date in the second half of FY 2025 must file their petitions no earlier than 15 days after the second half statutory cap is reached. 

Employer responsibilities

Employers seeking to hire H-2B workers under the FY 2025 supplemental cap must attest that they are suffering or will suffer impending irreparable harm without the ability to employ all of the H-2B workers requested on the petition.

Employers seeking to hire H-2B workers must take a series of steps to test the US labour market. They must provide certification from DOL that proves there are not enough US workers who are able, willing, qualified, and available to do the temporary work for which they seek a prospective foreign worker, and that employing the H-2B workers will not adversely affect the wages and working conditions of similarly employed US workers.

It is critically important to protect H-2B workers from exploitation and abuse. The temporary final rule features several provisions to protect H-2B workers. DHS will subject employers that have committed certain labour law violations in the H-2B program to additional scrutiny in the supplemental cap petition process. This additional scrutiny is aimed at ensuring compliance with H-2B program requirements and obligations.

Further, on 20 September 2023, DHS published a notice of proposed rulemaking to modernize and improve both the H-2B and H-2A programs, including by providing greater flexibility and protections for participating workers.

United States immigration support

If you have questions about hiring international workers in the United States under the H-2B program, our global immigration team is here to help.

Smith Stone Walters is now part of Envoy Global, the leading corporate immigration services provider committed to delivering a better way for companies to manage global immigration.

This partnership will significantly expand our United States immigration services and enable us to offer an even higher level of support for employers across the Americas region. To find out more, please contact us today.