H-2B Program Requirements

Congress sets a 66,000 annual limit or “cap” on newly issued H-2B visas. Up to 33,000 H-2B visas are available to employers with start dates between October 1st and March 31st. The remaining 33,000 H-2B visas, plus any carryover from the first half, are available to employers with start dates between April 1st and September 30th. The cap continues to be a significant challenge for H-2B employers, as the demand for visas greatly exceeds the supply.

You must have full-time job opportunities for all workers requested during your temporary peakload or recurring seasonal employment period of nine months or less. A provision for a one-time non-recurring need is also available.

Except under extremely limited circumstances, you must afford all U.S. workers, performing the same or substantially similar work as foreign workers, the same terms and conditions of employment, including the H-2B wage rate.

You must guarantee to offer each covered worker employment for a total number of hours equal to at least 75% of the workdays in each twelve or six-week period of the employment period, whichever is applicable.

You must actively recruit U.S. workers, and offer employment to all qualified applicants up until 21 days before the employment start date, or until a positive recruitment period has ended, whichever is later. Federal law prohibits anyone from seeking or receiving compensation of any kind from prospective employees in consideration of employment.

You must offer and pay a prevailing wage set by the federal government. The prevailing wage may be based on an average for the occupation in your area of intended employment, a private survey, a collective bargaining agreement, or the federal, state or local minimum wage.

You must provide, pay in advance, or reimburse non-local workers’ reasonable inbound and outbound travel costs. This may include the reasonable cost of transportation to and from the worker’s home, a daily subsistence allowance for meals, overnight lodging and visa issuance costs. You must also provide outbound costs in the event a worker is terminated.

You must furnish, at no cost to the worker, all tools and supplies necessary to perform the work.