The agency that oversees the work visa program says it has received enough applications to reach the congressionally mandated H-2B cap for the first six months of fiscal year 2006 (FY 2006).

Congress set a limit of 33,000 H-2B workers for the first half of FY 2006. The H-2B visa program allows U.S. employers to request foreign workers to fill a one-time, peak load, intermittent, or seasonal need for labor when no workers are available in the local job force.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services says that December 15, 2005 is the "final receipt date" for new H-2B worker petitions requesting employment start dates prior to April 1, 2006. The agency will apply a computer-generated random selection process to all petitions which are subject to the cap and were received on December 15, 2005. The process will select the number of petitions needed to meet the cap. USCIS will reject all cap-subject petitions not randomly selected. USCIS will also reject petitions for new H-2B workers

USCIS will continue to accept petitions for new H-2B workers seeking employment start dates on or after April 1, 2006 that arrive after the "final receipt date" only if such petitions are supported by a valid temporary labor certification.

Petitions for both current and returning H-2B workers do not count towards the congressionally mandated bi-annual H-2B cap.

"Returning workers" are exempt from H-2B cap limitations. In order to qualify, the worker must have counted against the H-2B numerical cap between October 1, 2002 and September 30, 2005. Any worker not certified as a "returning worker" is subject to the numerical limitations for the relevant fiscal year. Petitions received after the "final receipt date" which contain a combination of "returning workers" and workers subject to the H-2B cap will not be rejected, and petitioning employers will receive partial approvals for those aliens who qualify as "returning workers" if otherwise approvable.