H-2B Visas

US employers can hire foreign workers through H-2B visas to perform temporary non-agricultural labor. Like the H-2A program, the H-2B requires that the job is a temporary need and is often used for seasonal non-agricultural work. Some industries that commonly hire H-2B workers include hospitality (especially in seasonal resort areas), landscaping, seafood processing, and tourism. Approved workers will enter the US for the period of the employer’s temporary need (generally ranging from two months to nearly a year), with the possibility of extensions in limited circumstances.

Unlike the H-2A category, H-2B visas are subject to an annual cap of 66,000, allocated evenly across the fiscal year (33,000 for employment beginning October through March and 33,000 for April through September). Unused visas from the first half of the year may roll over into the second half, but numbers cannot roll over across fiscal years. When employer demand exceeds available slots, USCIS conducts a lottery to allocate visas. In recent years, Congress and the executive branch have sometimes authorized supplemental H-2B visas above the cap to address seasonal labor shortages.

Before a business can hire foreign workers through the H-2B visa program it must demonstrate doing so won’t adversely impact native workers, including by meeting these three requirements:

  1. Prevailing Wage Test—Employers must request a Prevailing Wage Test Determination from DOL and meet it.
  1. Active Recruitment Test—Employers must conduct a good-faith search for US workers, including filing job orders with the State Workforce Agency (SWA) 75-90 days before the start date, advertising in newspapers, contacting former workers, and posting notices of the job opening at the place of employment.
  1. US Worker Priority—During the recruitment period, the employer must hire any able, willing, qualified, and available US applicant.

To further protect US workers, H-2B employers must also guarantee that they provide the same wages, benefits, and worker conditions to US and foreign workers for the same job.