U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has enough petitions to reach the 33,000 cap for the first half of fiscal year 2022 on the H-2B visa program that lets employers hire foreign workers.
Such employees, LeadingAge told the McKnight’s Business Daily previously, could be employed as short-term personal care aides, nursing assistants and home health aides.
Earlier this year, President Biden directed the secretary of homeland security to increase the statutory limit from 22,000 to 33,000 H-2B immigrant visas per half-year. Sept. 30 was the final receipt date for new cap-subject H-2B worker petitions requesting an employment start date before April 1, 2022. The agency will not accept additional H-2B visa applications for employment starting before next April.
“Generally, workers in the United States in H-2B status who extend their stay, change employers, or change the terms and conditions of employment will not be subject to the cap. Similarly, H-2B workers who have previously been counted against the cap in the same fiscal year that the proposed employment begins will not be subject to the cap if the employer names them on the petition and indicates that they have already been counted,” according to USCIS. “The spouse and children of H-2B workers classified as H-4 non-immigrants also do not count against this cap.”
