H-2B visas open for late second half returning workers for FY 2023
Darpan News Desk IANS, 12 Apr, 2023 05:14 PM
New York, April 12 (IANS) The US will begin accepting petitions for H-2B visa workers for the late second half of fiscal year 2023 under the supplemental cap temporary final rule, the federal agency for immigration services announced.
Under this rule, which was announced in December last year, there are 10,000 visas limited to returning workers regardless of country of nationality, for the late second half of fiscal year 2023, that is May 15 to September 30.
"The 10,000 visas made available under this allocation are limited to returning workers who were issued H-2B visas or held H-2B status in fiscal years 2020, 2021, or 2022," the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) said.
These supplemental visas are available only to the US businesses that are suffering irreparable harm or will suffer impending irreparable harm without the ability to employ all the H-2B workers requested in their petition, as attested by the employer on a new attestation form.
On December 15, 2022, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Department of Labor (DOL) jointly published a temporary final rule increasing the cap on H-2B non-immigrant visas by up to 64,716 additional visas for all of FY 2023.
Of the 64,716 additional visas, 44,716 are available only for returning workers (workers who received an H-2B visa or were otherwise granted H-2B status in one of the last three fiscal years).
The remaining 20,000 visas are set aside for nationals of El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras (collectively called Northern Central American countries) and Haiti, who are exempt from the returning worker requirement.
As of April 10, 2023, USCIS has received petitions requesting 11,537 workers under the 20,000 visas set aside for nationals of Haiti, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras.
USCIS is continuing to accept H-2B petitions under this allocation.
This is the first time the Departments have issued a single rule making available H-2B supplemental visas for several allocations throughout the entire fiscal year, including an allocation for the late second half.
The temporary final rule features several provisions to protect both, the US and H-2B workers, from exploitation and abuse.
The H-2B visas are issued for seasonal/temporary jobs which allow employers to hire skilled or unskilled workers to fulfil the shortage of workers in the US.
The employer must obtain a Department of Labor certification before the visa application can be initiated.
Matthew Rycroft, the senior-most civil servant at the Home Office, reportedly informed him that he and another officer who had been short-listed for the job that they would not be selected. He is not known to have spelled out a reason for the decision.
Soon after the aircraft went out of contact, the Nepal Army deployed its personnel in the Lete area for search. The plane was carrying 13 Nepalese, four Indians, and two Germans.
In a public session on Monday, WHO's Dr. Rosamund Lewis said it was critical to emphasize that the vast majority of cases being seen in dozens of countries globally are in gay, bisexual or men who have sex with men, so that scientists can further study the issue and for those at risk to be careful.
The incident commander who was on scene during the 45 minutes it took for tactical officers to storm a bullet-strewn classroom in Uvalde, Tex., on Tuesday made the "wrong decision" to wait, the head of the state's Department of Public Safety acknowledged.
The gunman entered the school at about 11:40 a.m. local time through an apparently unlocked door, and contrary to initial reports, encountered no resistance, Escalon said — the armed school safety officer, normally a fixture at educational facilities around the U.S., was not there.
Act 1 came Tuesday, when an 18-year-old gunman, armed with an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle, killed 19 pre-teen children and two teachers in a fourth-grade classroom before dying himself at the hands of law enforcement.
