On March 20, 2026, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that it has received enough petitions to meet the H-2B temporary nonagricultural worker statutory cap for the second half of Fiscal Year (FY) 2026. March 10, 2026, was the final receipt date for new cap-subject H-2B worker petitions requesting an employment start date on or after April 1 and before October 1, 2026.
USCIS also announced that filing dates for the second and third allocations of the supplemental H-2B visas for FY 2026 are now available. The supplemental visas are available only to U.S. 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” under a temporary final rule authorizing H-2B supplemental visas for FY 2026, USCIS said. To assist U.S. businesses that need workers to begin work on different start dates, the supplemental visas are being distributed in three allocations, USCIS said:
- The first allocation for employment start dates from January 1 through March 31, 2026, included 18,490 visas limited to returning workers who were issued H-2B visas or held H-2B status in fiscal years 2023, 2024, or 2025. As of February 6, 2026, USCIS had received enough petitions to reach the cap for this allocation.
- The second allocation for employment start dates from April 1 through April 30, 2026, includes 27,736 visas, plus any unused visas from the first allocation, limited to returning workers who were issued H-2B visas or held H-2B status in fiscal years 2023, 2024, or 2025. Employers must file these petitions between March 25, 2026, and April 23, 2026.
- The third allocation for employment start dates from May 1 through September 30, 2026, includes 18,490 visas, plus any unused visas from the first and second allocations. Employers must file these petitions between April 24, 2026, and September 15, 2026.
