United States: H-2B Cap Reached for Second Half of FY 2025; Filing Dates Announced for Second Half of FY 2025 Supplemental H-2B Visas
March 27, 2025
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At a glance
- On March 5, 2025, USCIS received enough H-2B petitions to exhaust the cap for the second half of FY 2025.
- USCIS will reject H-2B petitions received after March 5 that request a start date on or after April 1, 2025 and before October 1, 2025, unless the petition is exempt from the H-2B cap.
- USCIS also announced filing dates for the supplemental H-2B visa numbers available in the second half of FY 2025. The filing dates differ depending on the case type, requested employment start date and nationality of the H-2B worker.
A closer look
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has announced that the H-2B cap for the second half of FY 2025 has been reached. March 5, 2025 was the final receipt date for new cap-subject H-2B worker petitions requesting an employment start date on or after April 1, 2025, and before October 1, 2025. USCIS will reject any new H-2B petitions received after March 5, 2025 requesting these start dates.
The agency will continue to accept H-2B petitions that are exempt from the cap; exempt petitions include those in which current H-2B workers are seeking to extend their stay, change employers, or change the terms of their H-2B employment.
USCIS also announced the filing dates for supplemental H-2B petitions for the remainder of FY 2025. These supplemental H-2B visas were made available under the December 2024 temporary rule authorizing up to 64,716 additional H-2B visas for the fiscal year.
Background
The H-2B cap for each fiscal year is 66,000, with 33,000 for workers who begin employment in the first half of the fiscal year (October 1 – March 31) and 33,000 for workers who begin employment in the second half of the fiscal year (April 1 – September 30). USCIS accepts filings in excess of this amount to account for petition withdrawals, revocations and denials, as well as cases in which employers ultimately employ fewer H-2B workers than requested in their petitions.
In December 2024, the Departments of Homeland Security (DHS) and Labor (DOL) authorized an additional 64,716 H-2B visa numbers for FY 2025. The additional visas are made available in a series of allocations over the course of FY 2025.
Filing dates for remaining supplemental H-2B allocations
Fiscal Year 2025 supplemental H-2B visas are available in separate allotments based on the case type, requested employment start date, and the nationality of the H-2B worker. For the second half of FY 2025, the supplemental visas are divided into the following allocations, with corresponding filing dates:
- Nationals of El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Haiti, Colombia, Ecuador, and Costa Rica (regardless of whether such nationals are returning workers): There are 20,000 supplemental visas reserved for nationals of El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Haiti, Colombia, Ecuador, and Costa Rica over the entirety of FY 2025. As of March 20, 2025, USCIS began accepting petitions requesting an employment start date from April 1, 2025 to September 30, 2025 for nationals of these countries. USCIS began accepting petitions requesting employment start dates from October 1, 2024 to March 31, 2025 in December 2024 and will continue to accept these petitions. A cap count for this allocation is available on the USCIS Temporary Increase in H-2B for FY 2025 webpage. As of March 27, 2025, USCIS reports a projected 12,862 beneficiaries remaining in this category.
- Returning workers for the early second half of FY 2025: 19,000 supplemental visas have been allocated to returning workers of any nationality with requested employment start dates between April 1, 2025 and May 14, 2025. USCIS began accepting petitions for these workers on March 20, 2025.
- Returning workers for the late second half of FY 2025: 5,000 supplemental visas have been allocated to returning workers of any nationality with requested employment start dates between May 15, 2025 and September 30, 2025. USCIS will begin accepting petitions for these workers on April 21, 2025.
USCIS will not accept petitions under this temporary final rule that are received after September 15, 2025, or after the applicable cap has been reached, whichever occurs first. The agency will also deny all pending petitions not approved before October 1, 2025, and will not refund any fees.
What it means
Employers seeking to file new H-2B petitions under the supplemental H-2B visa allocation for the second half of FY 2025 may do so according to the filing timeline that applies to the worker’s case.
This alert is for informational purposes only. If you have any questions, please contact the immigration professional with whom you work at Fragomen.
