TCIA is excited to see the U.S. Department of Labor and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security issue a Temporary Final Rule that increases the number of H-2B temporary non-agricultural worker visas for the fiscal year (FY) 2023. These visas play a crucial role in allowing our industry and others to maintain job capacity when U.S. workers are unavailable. In making available an additional 64,716 H-2B temporary non-agricultural worker visas for FY 2023, 44,716 will be provided to returning workers from the past three fiscal years, and an additional 20,000 are reserved for nationals of El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Haiti, regardless of whether they are returning workers.

Employers interested in petitioning for the supplemental allocation must file with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service’s (USCIS) California Service Center and attest that they are or will suffer irreparable harm if they are unable to employ the number of workers requested in their petition. Premium processing for H-2B supplemental cap petitions has been paused and will resume on January 3, 2023. Petitioners filing H-2B supplemental cap petitions will be eligible to upgrade to premium processing by filing Form I-907 once premium processing resumes on Jan. 3, 2023.

Read more on the supplemental cap announcement.