US announces cap hit for 18,490 additional work visas for temporary foreign workers

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has communicated that it has received enough petitions to reach the cap for the additional 18,490 H-2B visas in the first round of allocations.

On January 30, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Department of Labor (DOL) jointly announced a temporary final rule increasing the numerical limit (or cap) on H-2B nonimmigrant visas by up to 64,716 additional visas for fiscal year 2026.

For the first allocation of returning workers of fiscal year 2026 with start dates from January 1 to March 31, 2026, under the H-2B supplemental cap temporary final rule, the additional 18,490 H-2B visas were made available and USCIS has received enough petitions for them.

For the second allocation, there will be 27,736 visas, plus any unused visas from the first allocation, limited to returning workers, who were issued an H-2B visa or otherwise granted H-2B status in FY 2023, 2024, or 2025, and who will be available for eligible employers with a need for workers to begin work between April 1, 2026 and April 30, 2026.

For the third allocation, there will be 18,490 visas, plus any unused visas from the first or second allocations, for foreign workers who will be available for eligible employers with a need for workers to begin work between May 1, 2026 and September 30, 2026.

DHS will not accept any H-2B petitions under provisions related to the FY 2026 supplemental numerical allocations after September 15, 2026, and will not approve any such H-2B petitions after September 30, 2026.

18,490 available visas were limited to returning workers, who were issued an H-2B visa or otherwise granted H-2B status in FY 2023, 2024, or 2025, and who are available for eligible employers with a need for workers to begin work between January 1, 2026, and March 31, 2026.

USCIS used a computer-generated selection process to allocate the visas without exceeding the first FY 2026 supplemental cap allocation. On February 13, USCIS conducted this random selection process for petitions received on the first five business days of filing (February 2 through February 6, 2026) and began premium processing services afterward.

February 6, 2026, was the final receipt date for petitions requesting supplemental H-2B visas under the first allocation of returning worker H-2B visas for FY 2026. But USCIS received more petitions than available H-2B visas for the FY 2026 first allocation of returning workers. Therefore, USCIS stated that it has received enough petitions to reach the cap for the additional 18,490 H-2B visas.

The H-2B program is used by US companies to hire foreign nationals for temporary non-agricultural occupations in the United States. The maximum length of stay under the H-2B classification is three years. A person who has had H-2B nonimmigrant status for three years must leave the United States and stay outside for three months before applying for reentry.

Currently, Congress has set the H-2B cap at 66,000 per fiscal year, with 33,000 for workers who begin employment in the first half of the fiscal year (Oct. 1 – March 31) and 33,000 for workers who begin employment in the second half of the fiscal year (April 1 – Sep. 30). The US laws give the Secretary of DHS the authority to make available additional H-2B visas for FY 2026.

Of the 64,716 additional visas, 46,226 will be available only for returning workers (workers who received an H-2B visa or were otherwise granted H-2B status in one of the last 3 fiscal years). The remaining 18,490 visas do not require the alien to be a returning worker. These visas are for employers with late-season needs for H-2B workers who will begin work between May 1 and Sept. 30, 2026.