US Citizenship and Immigration Services has received enough petitions to reach the congressionally mandated cap for the additional 20,716 visas made available for returning workers for the first half of fiscal year 2024 with start dates on or before March 31 the agency announced Friday.
In November, USCIS issued a temporary final rule to increase the cap for H-2B nonimmigrant visas by up to 64,716 additional visas for fiscal year 2024.
USCIS is still accepting petitions for H-2B nonimmigrant workers with start dates on or before March 31 for the additional 20,000 visas allotted for nationals of El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Haiti, Colombia, Ecuador and Costa Rica, as well as for those who are exempt from the congressionally mandated cap.
Covered workers could be employed as short-term personal care aides, nursing assistants and home health aides, among other positions.
Long-term care industry advocates have suggested that foreign nurses could be a solution to the sector’s workforce crisis, but US immigration policies make it difficult to recruit a sufficient number of immigrants, who already comprise 20% of registered nurses and 15% of licensed practical nurses working in nursing homes, according to LeadingAge.
New tools coming to help with FY25 H-1B cap season
USCIS also announced Friday plans to launch a package of tools meant to “increase efficiency and ease collaboration for organizations and their legal representatives” for H-1B immigration visa applications heading into fiscal year 2025.
The agency said it will launch organizational accounts for non-cap filings and the fiscal year 2025 H-1B cap season. The introduction of organizational accounts will allow multiple individuals within an organization, such as a company or other business entity, and their legal representatives to collaborate on and prepare H-1B registrations, Form I-129, Petition for a Nonimmigrant Worker, and associated Form I-907, Request for Premium Processing Service.
USCIS said that it expects to launch the organizational accounts next month, with online filing of Forms I-129 and I-907 following shortly thereafter. In addition to streamlining the Form I-129 H-1B petition process, those changes should help reduce duplicate H-1B registrations and other common errors, according to the agency.
“USCIS is always striving to improve and streamline our processes, and this is a big step forward,” USCIS Director Ur M. Jaddou stated in a press release. “Once we launch the organizational accounts and online filing of I-129 H-1B petitions, the entire H-1B lifecycle becomes fully electronic — from registration, if applicable, to our final decision and transmission to the Department of State.”
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