Exercise of Time-Limited Authority To Increase the Numerical Limitation for FY 2025 for the H-2B Temporary Nonagricultural Worker Program and Portability Flexibility for H-2B Workers Seeking To Change Employers

<RULE> DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY <CFR>8 CFR Parts 214 and 274a</CFR> <DEPDOC>[CIS No. 2788-25]</DEPDOC> <RIN>RIN 1615-AC95</RIN> DEPARTMENT OF LABOR <SUBAGY>Employment and Training Administration</SUBAGY> <CFR>20 CFR Part 655</CFR> <DEPDOC>[DOL Docket No. ETA-2024-0002]</DEPDOC> <RIN>RIN 1205-AC20</RIN> <SUBJECT>Exercise of Time-Limited Authority To Increase the Numerical Limitation for FY 2025 for the H-2B Temporary Nonagricultural Worker Program and Portability Flexibility for H-2B Workers Seeking To Change Employers</SUBJECT> <HD SOURCE="HED">AGENCY:</HD> U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and Employment and Training Administration and Wage and Hour Division, U.S. Department of Labor (DOL). <HD SOURCE="HED">ACTION:</HD> Temporary rule. <SUM> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUMMARY:</HD> DHS, in consultation with DOL, is exercising time-limited Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 authority and increasing the total number of noncitizens who may receive an H-2B nonimmigrant visa by up to 64,716 for the entirety of FY 2025. These supplemental visas will be distributed in four allocations throughout the fiscal year. This rule reserves 20,000 of these visas for nationals of Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Haiti, Colombia, Ecuador, or Costa Rica. All visas will be available only to businesses that are suffering or will suffer impending irreparable harm, as attested by the employer. In addition, DHS is again providing temporary portability flexibility. </SUM> <EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> <E T="03">Effective dates:</E> The amendments at instructions 1, 3, and 5 are effective December 2, 2024; instructions 2 and 4 amending 8 CFR 214.2 and 274a.12, respectively, are effective from December 2, 2024, through December 2, 2027; instruction 6, adding 20 CFR 655.64, is effective from December 2, 2024, through September 30, 2025; and instruction 7, adding 20 CFR 655.68, is effective from December 2, 2024, through September 30, 2028. <E T="03">Petition dates:</E> DHS will not accept any H-2B petitions under provisions related to the FY 2025 supplemental numerical allocations after September 15, 2025, and will not approve any such H-2B petitions after September 30, 2025. The provisions related to portability are only available to petitioners and H-2B nonimmigrant workers initiating employment through the end of January 24, 2026. <E T="03">Comments on the Information Collection:</E> The Office of Foreign Labor Certification within the U.S. Department of Labor will accept comments in connection with the new information collection Form ETA-9142B-CAA-9 associated with this rule until January 31, 2025. The electronic Federal Docket Management System will accept comments prior to midnight eastern time at the end of that day. </EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">ADDRESSES:</HD> You may submit written comments on the new information collection Form ETA-9142B-CAA-9, identified by Regulatory Information Number (RIN) 1205-AC20, electronically by the following method: <E T="03">Federal eRulemaking Portal: https://www.regulations.gov</E> . Follow the instructions on the website for submitting comments. <E T="03">Instructions:</E> Include the agency's name and the RIN 1205-AC20 in your submission. All comments received will become a matter of public record and may be posted without change to <E T="03">https://www.regulations.gov</E> . Comments submitted after the deadline for submission will not be considered. Please do not submit comments containing trade secrets, confidential or proprietary commercial or financial information, personal health information, sensitive personally identifiable information (for example, social security numbers, driver's license or state identification numbers, passport numbers, or financial account numbers), or other information that you do not want to be made available to the public. The agency reserves the right to redact or refrain from posting such information and libelous or otherwise inappropriate comments, including those that contain obscene, indecent, or profane language; that contain threats or defamatory statements; or that contain hate speech directed at race, color, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, ethnicity, age, religion, or disability. Please note that depending on how information is submitted through regulations.gov, the agency may not be able to redact the information and instead reserves the right to refrain from posting the information or comment in such situations. <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD> Regarding 8 CFR parts 214 and 274a: Charles L. Nimick, Chief, Business and Foreign Workers Division, Office of Policy and Strategy, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, Department of Homeland Security, 5900 Capital Gateway Drive, Camp Springs, MD 20746; telephone 240-721-3000 (this is not a toll-free number). Regarding 20 CFR part 655 and Form ETA-9142B-CAA-9: Brian D. Pasternak, Administrator, Office of Foreign Labor Certification, Employment and Training Administration, Department of Labor, 200 Constitution Ave. NW, Room N-5311, Washington, DC 20210, telephone (202) 693-8200 (this is not a toll-free number). Individuals with hearing or speech impairments may access the telephone numbers above via TTY by calling the toll-free Federal Information Relay Service at 1-877-889-5627 (TTY/TDD). </FURINF> <SUPLINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD1">Table of Contents</HD> <EXTRACT> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">I. Executive Summary</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">II. Background</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">A. Legal Framework</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">B. H-2B Numerical Limitations Under the INA</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">C. FY 2025 Public Law 118-83</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">D. Joint Issuance of the Final Rule</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">III. Discussion</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">A. Statutory Determination</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">B. Numerical Increase and Allocations for Fiscal Year 2025</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">C. Returning Workers</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">D. 20,000 Allocation for Nationals of Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Haiti, Colombia, Ecuador, or Costa Rica</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">E. Business Need Standard—Irreparable Harm and FY 2025 Attestation</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">F. Portability</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">G. DHS Petition Procedures</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">H. DOL Procedures</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">IV. Statutory and Regulatory Requirements</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">A. Administrative Procedure Act</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">B. Executive Order 12866: Regulatory Planning and Review; Executive Order 14094: Modernizing Regulatory Review; and Executive Order 13563: Improving Regulation and Regulatory Review</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">C. Regulatory Flexibility Act</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">D. Unfunded Mandates Reform Act of 1995</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">E. Executive Order 13132 (Federalism)</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">F. Executive Order 12988 (Civil Justice Reform)</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">G. National Environmental Policy Act</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">H. Congressional Review Act</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">I. Paperwork Reduction Act</FP> </EXTRACT> <HD SOURCE="HD1">I. Executive Summary</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD2">FY 2025 H-2B Supplemental Cap</HD> With this temporary final rule (TFR), the Secretary of Homeland Security, following consultation with the Secretary of Labor, is authorizing the release of an additional 64,716 H-2B visas for FY 2025, subject to certain conditions. The 64,716 visas are divided into the following allocations: • For the first half of FY 2025: 20,716 immediately available visas limited to returning workers, in other words, those workers who were issued H-2B visas or held H-2B status in fiscal years 2022, 2023, or 2024, regardless of country of nationality. These petitions must request employment start dates on or before March 31, 2025; • For the early second half of FY 2025 (April 1 to May 14): 19,000 visas limited to returning workers, in other words, those workers who were issued H-2B visas or held H-2B status in fiscal years 2022, 2023, or 2024 regardless of country of nationality. These early second half of FY 2025 petitions must request employment start dates from April 1, 2025, to May 14, 2025. Furthermore, employers must file these petitions no earlier than 15 days after the second half statutory cap   The term “statutory cap” refers to the 66,000 cap set forth at INA section 214(g)(1)(B) or the 33,300 semiannual caps at INA section 214(g)(10). </FTNT> • For the late second half of FY 2025 (May 15 to September 30): 5,000 visas limited to returning workers, in other words, those workers who were issued H-2B visas or held H-2B status in fiscal years 2022, 2023, or 2024 regardless of country of nationality. These late second half of FY 2025 petitions must request employment start dates from May 15, 2025, to September 30, 2025. Furthermore, employers must file these petitions no earlier than 45 days after the second half statutory cap is reached; and • For the entirety of FY 2025: 20,000 visas reserved for nationals of El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Haiti, Colombia, Ecuador, and Costa Rica (country-specific allocation) as attested by the petitioner (regardless of whether such nationals are returning workers). Employers requesting an employment start date in the first half of FY 2025 may file such petitions immediately after the publication of this TFR. Employers requesting an employment start date in the second half of FY 2025 must file such petitions no earlier than 15 days after the second half statutory cap is reached. To qualify for the FY 2025 supplemental caps provided by this temporary final rule, eligible petitioners must: • Meet all existing H-2B eligibility requirements, including obtaining an approved temporary labor certification (TLC) from DOL before filing the Form I-129 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 485k characters. Full document text is stored and available for version comparison. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━