H-2B Visa

If you are staffing a seasonal crew this year, the H-2B visa is likely the only lawful route you have. The math explains the pressure: employers filed 10,062 applications covering 162,603 worker positions in the first three days of January 2026, competing for the 33,000 visas allotted to April start dates. That imbalance shapes every decision you make, from when you file with the Department of Labor to whether premium processing is worth the fee. Timing, not paperwork quality, is usually what decides whether your workers arrive.

This guide covers who qualifies, how the cap works, the petition sequence across three agencies, what you will pay, how extensions run, and the compliance duties that follow approval.

What is the H-2B visa?

The H-2B visa is a temporary work visa that lets U.S. employers hire foreign nationals for nonagricultural jobs when not enough U.S. workers are available. For your business, it is the main path to seasonal labor outside farming, authorized by Congress under the Immigration and Nationality Act.

The H-2B vs H-2A visa distinction comes down to the work: the H-2A visa covers agricultural labor and has no numerical limit, while H-2B covers everything else and is capped.

The job you are filling can be permanent. Your need for the worker cannot. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) recognizes four kinds of temporary need:

• Seasonal need: The work is tied to a season or recurring event and is predictable rather than subject to change.
• Peakload need: You have permanent staff, but short-term demand requires extra workers who will not join the payroll.
• Intermittent need: You have no permanent workers in the role and need help occasionally for short periods.
• One-time occurrence: An event created a need you have not had before and do not expect again. Only this one can run up to 3 years.

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) denies certification where the need runs beyond 9 months, except in one-time occurrence cases.

Who qualifies for an H-2B visa?

H-2B visa sponsorship always starts with you, the employer, and your side of the test is the harder one. The H-2B visa requirements run on two tracks, and yours comes first. To sponsor a worker, you must establish that:

• U.S. workers are not available: Not enough qualified, willing U.S. workers exist for the position in the area of intended employment.
• Wages and working conditions are protected: Hiring foreign workers will not adversely affect similarly employed U.S. workers.
• Your temporary need is genuine: It fits one of the four categories above and ends in the near, definable future.
• You hold a certification: The Office of Foreign Labor Certification (OFLC) approved your H-2B temporary labor certification.

Workers face a lighter bar. No degree or specialty-skill standard is built into the H-2B classification. A worker must meet the minimum qualifications in your job order, be admissible, and intend to leave when the job ends.

H-2B visa jobs cluster in a narrow band of industries. American Immigration Council analysis of DOL data found landscaping and groundskeeping workers made up 39.1% of 2023 certifications, followed by maids and housekeeping cleaners at 7.0% and forest and conservation workers at 5.8%. Hospitality, restaurants, seafood processing, forestry, and construction fill most of the rest.

Which countries are eligible for the H-2B program?

You no longer need to check a country roster before you recruit. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) eliminated the H-2B eligible countries list through the H-2 modernization rule effective January 17, 2025, so USCIS can now approve petitions for nationals of any country.

Before that change, DHS named eligible countries in an annual Federal Register notice, and workers from unlisted countries needed case-by-case approval.

Important note: Citizenship still matters at the consulate, because entry restrictions imposed by presidential proclamation can block nationals of specific countries even when the petition is approved. Check the Department of State visa page before building a pipeline around one country.

H-2B visa cap 2026: how the numbers break down

Your filing window matters more than your paperwork. Congress set the H-2B visa cap at 66,000 per fiscal year: 33,000 for jobs starting October 1 through March 31, and 33,000 for those starting April 1 through September 30.

Both halves filled early in fiscal year 2026, and USCIS reached the second-half cap on March 10. You can track what remains on the USCIS H-2B cap count page.

Congress also authorized DHS to release H-2B supplemental visas. On January 30, 2026, DHS and DOL announced a temporary final rule adding up to 64,716 visas across three allocations:

The H-2B returning worker exemption drives the first two allocations. A returning worker is someone issued an H-2B visa or granted H-2B status in fiscal year 2023, 2024, or 2025. Supplemental petitions also require an attestation on Form ETA-9142-B-CAA-10 that your business faces irreparable harm without them.

Some petitions never count against the H-2B cap. Fish roe processors, technicians, and supervisors are exempt, as is employment in Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands through December 31, 2029, along with workers already in H-2B status who are extending their stay, changing employers, or changing employment terms.

How the H-2B petition process works

You are dealing with three agencies in sequence, and a delay at any one cascades. Plan backward from your first day of need and work through these six steps:

1. Request a prevailing wage determination. File Form ETA-9141 with the National Prevailing Wage Center through the DOL FLAG system, the online portal for foreign labor certification filings. Start months out: DOL reported 4,054 wage requests from November 2025 still pending on January 3, 2026.
2. File the job order and Form ETA-9142B. Between 90 and 75 calendar days before your date of need, submit a job order to the State Workforce Agency and file Form ETA-9142B with the OFLC National Processing Center in Chicago. In peak season, everything filed in the first three days counts as filed on day one, then goes into randomized assignment groups.
3. Complete recruitment. After the certifying officer issues a Notice of Acceptance, recruit U.S. workers, accept referrals until 21 days before the date of need, and file a recruitment report.
4. Receive the temporary labor certification. OFLC issues the certified ETA-9142B, which unlocks the next stage.
5. File Form I-129 with USCIS. Submit the Petition for Nonimmigrant Worker with the certification and supporting evidence. This is where the cap applies.
6. Complete consular processing. Each worker files Form DS-160, pays the $205 visa fee, and interviews at a U.S. consulate or U.S. embassy. Workers may enter up to 10 days before validity begins.

H-2B visa processing time in 2026

Your realistic H-2B visa processing time is 4 to 6 months from prevailing wage request to workers on site. The DOL stages alone consume 90 to 120 days when nothing goes wrong.

Once you hold a certification, standard USCIS adjudication typically runs 2 to 4 months, and consular appointments add another 2 to 8 weeks depending on the post. Check the USCIS processing times tool for the current estimate at your service center.

Premium processing for H-2B petitions

You can buy speed at the USCIS stage through Form I-907, which commits the agency to act within 15 business days. As of March 1, 2026, the H-2B fee is $1,780, below the $2,965 charged for the H-1B visa and most other I-129 classifications.

Premium processing buys a response, not an approval, and a request for evidence (RFE) stops the clock until your answer arrives. It earns its cost when a cap window is closing or when a contract or season fixes your start date.

H-2B visa cost in 2026: what employers actually pay

Budget for the full stack, not the petition fee alone. Your H-2B visa cost turns on employer size and whether you name beneficiaries on the petition:

Attorney or agent fees sit on top. Confirm amounts on the USCIS fee schedule before filing, since a wrong payment gets the petition rejected.

You cannot pass these costs to workers

Recruitment-related fees are your responsibility. Under 20 CFR 655.20, you must reimburse each worker in the first workweek for visa, visa processing, and border-crossing fees, and contractually prohibit any recruiter you engage from collecting payments from workers.

Passports remain the worker's expense. Collecting a prohibited fee is grounds for revocation of the H-2B petition, so audit any third-party recruiter you use before the season starts.

Validity, extensions, and the three-year limit

Your approval period tracks the certification, so it generally caps out at 9 months, or up to 3 years for a one-time occurrence. USCIS cannot grant a validity period longer than the one on the temporary labor certification.

An H-2B visa extension comes in increments of up to 1 year, and each one needs a new temporary labor certification. Total time in H-2B status is capped at 3 years, and prior time in other H or L classifications counts toward that ceiling.

After 3 years, a worker must spend an uninterrupted 60 days outside the United States before the clock resets.

Employer responsibilities under the H-2B program

Your obligations do not end at approval. The Wage and Hour Division audits H-2B employers, and DOL can debar you from the program for 1 to 3 years, so treat these five duties as continuous:

• Pay the required wage: You owe the highest of the prevailing wage or the applicable federal, state, or local minimum wage for the certified period.
• Recruit and do not displace: You cannot lay off similarly employed U.S. workers around your date of need without first offering them the job on the same terms.
• Document everything: Give each worker the job order, issue earnings statements every pay period showing hours offered and worked, and keep records for 3 years. Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) rules apply on top.
• Report changes to USCIS: Notify USCIS within 2 workdays if a worker fails to report, absconds, or is terminated, and if employment ends more than 30 days early.
• Expect site visits: USCIS can conduct compliance reviews, and refusing to cooperate is a basis for revocation.

Violations can also bring civil money penalties and back wages. Employers running seasonal hiring alongside specialty-occupation roles often split the work between an H-2B agent and a provider such as Lighthouse for H-1B, O-1, and L-1 filings.

Family members of H-2B workers

If your worker has a spouse or unmarried children under 21, they can apply for an H-4 visa to accompany or follow the worker, and that status lasts only as long as the principal's H-2B status.

H-4 dependents of H-2B workers cannot work in the United States, since the employment authorization document (EAD) available to some H-4 spouses is limited to certain H-1B families. They may attend school.

Can an H-2B visa lead to a green card?

If your worker is thinking long term, be direct: H-2B is a nonimmigrant category without dual intent, so they must maintain the intention to depart when their authorized stay ends.

The 2025 modernization rule softened the edges. Filing or approval of a permanent labor certification or an immigrant petition does not by itself mean a worker failed to maintain H-2B status.

A green card still needs its own pathway, usually PERM (the permanent labor certification process) followed by an EB-3 immigrant petition for skilled, professional, and unskilled workers. Unskilled worker backlogs in that category run past a decade.

Where H-2B demand is growing in 2026

Your competition is concentrated by geography as much as by sector. Texas has led the country in certified H-2B workers for years, with 21,800 in fiscal year 2023, followed by Florida, Colorado, Louisiana, and Pennsylvania.

Persistent labor shortages keep demand far above what the annual cap supports, which is why Congress has authorized supplemental visas in each recent fiscal year. Those releases arrive on their own schedule and carry their own eligibility limits, as the 2026 allocations show.

What this means for your 2026 filing

Your best protection is a calendar that starts with the prevailing wage request, not the petition. Build backward from your date of need and treat the 66,000 cap as binding rather than counting on a supplemental release. If your team also hires for specialty occupations, Lighthouse prepares H-1B, O-1, and L-1 cases in under 3 weeks with attorney review included.

How Lighthouse fits alongside your H-2B program

Your H-2B filings run on a DOL calendar and a hard cap. The specialty-occupation roles you hire for the rest of the year run on a different clock, and most employers end up managing both.

Lighthouse prepares H-1B, O-1, L-1, and employment-based green card cases for the year-round side of your workforce, with attorney review included in every case and applications prepared in under three weeks. Your initial eligibility evaluation is free, and if USCIS issues a request for evidence, the response is included at no additional charge.

Start your H-1B, O-1, or L-1 evaluation today.

Frequently asked questions on the H-2B visa

Who qualifies for an H-2B visa?

Workers with an offer from a U.S. employer holding an approved temporary labor certification, who meet the job order's minimum qualifications, are admissible, and intend to return home. No degree required.

Can I hire H-2B workers from any country?

Yes. DHS removed the eligible countries list in January 2025, so USCIS can approve petitions for nationals of any country. Consular entry restrictions can still apply to specific nationalities.

Can an H-2B visa lead to a green card?

Not directly. H-2B does not permit dual intent, though filing an immigrant petition no longer automatically breaks H-2B status. Permanent residence needs its own pathway, usually PERM plus EB-3.

How long can you stay with an H-2B visa?

Initial stays generally run up to 9 months, matching the labor certification, with extensions of up to 1 year and a 3-year maximum.

What is the difference between H-1B and H-2B?

H-1B covers specialty occupations requiring at least a bachelor's degree in a specific field, while the H-2B visa program covers temporary nonagricultural work with no degree requirement.

What happens if the cap fills before my petition is filed?

Your petition is rejected and returned. Your options are a later start date in the next half-year allocation, a supplemental release if one is issued and you qualify, or a cap-exempt category.

What do I have to provide workers on site?

You must offer the certified wage and the conditions in your job order, provide tools and equipment at no cost, and meet safety standards for any transportation you provide.

What are my ongoing obligations after approval?

You carry the recruitment, wage, notice, recordkeeping, and reporting duties, absorb petition and visa fees, and remain open to Wage and Hour Division audits, USCIS site visits, and debarment.