Securities:
USCIS Reaches H-2B Cap for Second Half of Fiscal Year 2024, Announces Additional Visa Filing Dates – United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has received enough petitions to meet the H-2B cap for the second half of fiscal year 2024. USCIS also announced visa filing dates Additional H-2Bs for the remainder of FY 2024.
Final visa decision dates move forward into April, non-minister religious worker category set to expire – The Department of State’s April 2024 Visa Bulletin notes that little or no further progress in final action dates for visa categories is expected in the coming months, and that the special program for non-departmental immigrants (category EB-4 SR) expires March 22, 2024, without congressional reauthorization.
H-1B registration issue results in missing signatures on Form G-28 PDFs – Some practitioners have reportedly reported missing signatures on Form G-28, Notice of Appearance as Accredited Attorney or Representative (PDF version), for H-1B registrations.
Details:
USCIS Reaches H-2B Cap for Second Half of Fiscal Year 2024, Announces Supplemental Visa Filing Dates
The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced on March 8, 2024 that it had received enough petitions to meet the H-2B cap for the second half of fiscal year 2024, which ends September 30, 2024 USCIS also announced filing dates for additional H-2B visas for the remainder of fiscal year 2024 made available under the Temporary Final Rule for Supplemental H-2B Visa for Fiscal Year 2024.
March 7, 2024 was the final receipt date for new petitions from workers subject to the H-2B cap requesting an employment start date no later than April 1, 2024, and before October 1, 2024. USCIS stated that It rejected new subject cap H.-2B petitions received after March 7, 2024, requesting an employment start date within that range.
USCIS said it continues to accept H-2B petitions that are exempt from the cap imposed by Congress. This includes petitions for:
- Current H-2B workers in the United States who wish to extend their stay and, if applicable, modify their terms of employment or change employers;
- Fish roe processors, roe technicians and/or fish roe processing supervisors; And
- Workers performing work or services in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands and/or Guam (until December 31, 2029).
Below are the filing start dates for each of the remaining additional visa allocations under the rule:
- For employers seeking workers from El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Haiti, Colombia, Ecuador and Costa Rica, whether or not these nationals are returning workers: USCIS will begin accepting petitions from employers requesting an employment start date of April 1, 2024 through September 30, 2024, March 22, 2024.
- For employers looking for workers to return for the start of the second half of fiscal year 2024 (April 1 to May 14): USCIS will begin accepting applications for the 19,000 additional visas made available to returning workers, regardless of country of nationality, beginning March 22, 2024.
- For employers looking for workers to return for the end of the second half of fiscal year 2024 (May 15 to September 30): USCIS will begin accepting applications for the 5,000 additional visas made available to returning workers, regardless of their country of nationality, starting April 22, 2024.
USCIS stated that it will stop accepting petitions under the temporary final rule received after September 16, 2024 or after the applicable cap has been reached, whichever occurs first.
USCIS previously announcement that it received enough petitions to reach the cap on 20,716 additional H-2B visas made available to returning workers for the first half of fiscal year 2024 with employment start dates no later than 31 March 2024.
Details:
Final visa decision dates move forward into April, non-minister religious worker category set to expire
The Department of State’s April 2024 Visa Bulletin notes that little or no further progress in final action dates for visa categories is expected in the coming months, as final action dates for many categories have been brought forward to April 2024, in many cases by several months for a year.
The bulletin also notes that the Special Non-Departmental Immigrant Program (EB-4 SR category) expires on March 22, 2024, without congressional reauthorization. If extended, the category will be subject to the same final action dates as EB-4 categories listed by applicable foreign taxing state, the bulletin said.
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H-1B registration issue results in missing signatures on Form G-28 PDFs
Reportedly, some practitioners have reported missing signatures on Form G-28, Notice of Appearance as Accredited Attorney or Representative (PDF version), for H-1B registrations.
The American Immigration Lawyers Association said U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has advised any affected legal representatives not to submit registrations until further notice.