FY2024 H-2B Cap Relief Scenario
Courtesy of our partners at the Seasonal Employment Alliance (SEA)
The cap relief strategy for this season will be a "parallel path" strategy centered on both short term and permanent cap relief.
We expect the government to pass what is known as a "Continuing Resolution (CR)" at the end of the month. Funding levels from FY23 will carry forward while Congress continues to negotiate the FY24 spending bill. We anticipate the CR will include language granting DHS authority to release additional H-2B visas for FY24.
DHS expectations
When will DHS make the visa release announcement? We expect DHS to announce the visa release shortly after the FY24 first half cap is met. We predict the cap will be met on or around September 29.
How many visas will DHS release? We expect DHS to release the same number of visas it released last year: 64,716. This is the maximum number of visas DHS is permitted to release.
When will the visas be made available? We expect the visas to be released between mid-November and early December. We anticipate the rule will spell out the filing instructions for both the first and second half (April 1) releases.
What will the allocations be between first half, second half, and North Central America (NCA)? We do not expect another May 15 allocation this year. Our recommendation is that DHS release roughly 25,000 visas for the first half (start dates between October 1, 2023 and March 31, 2024), 19,000 visas to the second half (start dates between April 1, 2024 and September 30, 2024) and the remaining 20,000 visas to the NCA countries.
We are working to insert a NCA cap exemption into the Continuing Resolution so DHS would not have to allocate 20,000 visas to the NCA countries from the 64,716 total. This is a longshot but we are trying.
All grassroots outreach from our membership will center on the permanent fix (Graham/Padilla bill). Under the circumstances, we do not believe that grassroots outreach on the DHS visa release is necessary or helpful.
Permanent relief
Over the last six months, we have worked with Congressional offices, Labor Unions, and industry colleagues on H-2B reform legislation that delivers permanent workforce certainty to the majority of SEA members.
On Tuesday, we met with Padilla and Graham’s staff to discuss the Padilla team’s remaining questions, the introduction date and bill rollout strategy. We expect to receive the final bill text next week.
Once we receive the text, we will send it to the SEA membership with a grassroots call to action. The first point of focus will be to ask our Senate supporters to agree to be original cosponsors of the legislation.