The federal government has raised the limit on visas for temporary or seasonal workers in nonagricultural industries by as many as 15,000, or 23%, but employers seeking them must state, under penalty of perjury, that their businesses are “likely to suffer irreparable harm” without the new workers.
The U.S. Departments of Homeland Security and Labor, which on July 17 jointly announced the increase in the H-2B visas, said DHS’s Citizenship and Immigration Services agency had received enough H-2B petitions by March 17 to reach the full fiscal 2017 cap of 66,000.