The Department of Homeland Security added a supplemental increase of 22,000 visas for the H-2B Temporary Non-Agricultural Worker program. The additional visas will be made available in the coming months via a temporary final rule in the Federal Register. The Department of Homeland Security said 6,000 of the visas will be reserved for nationals of the Northern Triangle countries of... read more
On Monday, June 22, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to suspend the issue of new H-2B visas, along with other temporary worker visas, through the end of 2020. This order applies to H-1B visas, H-4 visas, L-1 visas and some J-1 visas. These restrictions will be in place for the rest of the year and can be extended.... read more
Immigration lawyer Kevin Lashus, a partner in immigration and nationality law at Fisher Broyles, discusses visa programs for the landscape industry. read more
The Department of Homeland Security will make available 35,000 supplemental H-2B temporary nonagricultural worker visas for the second half of fiscal year (FY) 2020. The allocation also comes with new conditions to provide relief to seasonal employers who truly need it and reduce fraud and abuse in the program. DHS also announced that it will take necessary anti-fraud and abuse... read more
As expected, the annual statutory cap of 66,000 H-2B visas for the federal fiscal year 2019-2020 was reached on Feb. 18. This means that all for H-2B visas received after that date for a start date before Oct. 1 will be rejected by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service. The statutory cap was reached at about this same time last... read more
Last December, Congress approved an additional 65,000 H-2B visas above the statutory limit of 66,000, subject, however, to the approval of the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. H-2B advocates are now turning their efforts to convince acting secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf to release the full complement of visas authorized by Congress. Landscape contractors largest H-2B users... read more
