On December 6, 2018, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services
(USCIS) reached the statutory numerical limit or “cap” on
the number of petitions for temporary nonagricultural workers
“who may be issued H-2B visas or otherwise granted H-2B
status” for the first half of fiscal year (FY) 2019, thus
completing one of the briefest cap periods for the first half of
the year in more than five years. In addition, USCIS announced that
the total number of cap-subject H-2B petitions received exceeded
the number of H-2B visas available, suggesting that demand for the
temporary visa continues to grow.
To ensure a fair and orderly process of H-2B visa numbers, USCIS
therefore “conducted a lottery on December 11, 2018, to
randomly select petitions received on December 6. As a result,
USCIS assigned all petitions selected in the lottery the receipt
date of December 11. Premium processing service for petitions
selected in the lottery also began on that date.”
