On September 14, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that the agency had received enough petitions to reach the congressionally mandated cap on H-2B visas for temporary nonagricultural workers for the first half of FY 2023. September 12 was the final receipt date for new cap-subject H-2B worker petitions requesting an employment start date before April 1, 2023. Congress currently has the H-2B cap set at 66,000 visas per fiscal year 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 during the second half of the fiscal year (April 1 - September 30). USCIS will continue to accept H-2B petitions that fall under the following situations:
The USCIS will reject new cap-subject H-2B petitions received after September 12 with a requested start date before April 1, 2023.