New York, Jan 14 (IANS): The US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has announced that it has received enough petitions to reach the cap for additional 20,716 H-2B visas made available for returning workers for the first half of fiscal year 2024.

The visas were made available for positions with start dates on or before March 31 under a temporary final rule made in November.

January 9 was the final receipt date for petitions requesting supplemental H-2B visas under the FY 2024 first half returning worker allocation.

"We will reject and return any cap-subject petitions received after Jan 9, 2024, for H-2B returning workers with start dates on or before March 31, 2024, together with any accompanying fees," the USCIS said on Friday.

However, it is still accepting petitions for H-2B non-immigrant workers with start dates on or before March 31, 2024, for the additional 20,000 visas allotted for nationals of El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Haiti, Colombia, Ecuador, and Costa Rica.

As of January 12, 2024, USCIS has received petitions requesting 4,500 workers under the 20,000 visas set aside for nationals of these seven countries.

Petitions are also being accepted for all those who are exempt from the congressionally- mandated cap.

"Petitioners with start dates on or before March 31, 2024, whose workers were not accepted for the 20,716 returning worker allocation are encouraged to file under the country-specific allocation while visas remain available," the USCIS said in a release.

On November 17 last year, the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Labor jointly published a temporary final rule increasing the numerical limit on H-2B non-immigrant visas by up to 64,716 additional visas for all of fiscal year 2024.

These supplemental visas are available only to US businesses that are suffering irreparable harm or will suffer impending irreparable harm without the ability to employ all the H-2B workers requested in their petition, as attested by the employer on a new attestation form.

The supplemental visas are distributed in several allocations, including two separate allocations for the second half of FY 2024.

Of the 64,716 additional visas, 44,716 are available only for returning workers, that is, workers who received an H-2B visa or were otherwise granted H-2B status in one of the last three fiscal years.

The remaining 20,000 visas are set aside for nationals of El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Haiti, Colombia, Ecuador, and Costa Rica (country-specific allocation) who are exempt from the returning worker requirement.

The H-2B visas are issued for seasonal/temporary jobs which allow employers to hire skilled or unskilled workers to fulfil the shortage of workers in the US.

The employer must obtain a Department of Labor certification before the visa application can be initiated.