Pabian Law clients and friends,
The winter-season H-2B visa cap has been reached. U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS) announced today that the H-2B numerical cap was reached on September 12, 2025 for the first half of the government’s 2025 fiscal year (the 2025 – 2026 winter season). In short, due to the numerical limit set by Congress when H-2B visas were created and the significant demand that we saw this season, there are no additional H-2B visas remaining for employers with seasonal start dates between October 1, 2025 and March 31, 2026.
***At Pabian Law, we witnessed a strange filing season where the U.S. Department of Labor moved extremely quickly after processing October 1st filings. As a result, we saw some organizations with November 15th start dates successfully file before the numerical cap was reached, but results were very varied in terms of which petition start dates made it in under the numerical cap. This is because the U.S. Department of Labor moved forward with post-October 1st start date applications essentially all at once where we saw later start dates processed before some earlier ones. Overall, and in general, October 15th was largely the cut-off this year in terms of the final start date to make it in under the numerical cap.***
A few brief notes/reminders on what this means:
- As a reminder, workers that transfer from one H-2B employer to another (i.e., “in-country transfers”) are exempt from the numerical cap. The cap only applies to those coming from outside the United States or those seeking to change visa type (example: J-1 visa to H-2B visa).
- The cap was officially reached on September 12, 2025. Any cap-subject H-2B petitions received by USCIS after that date will not be accepted.
- If we filed an out-of-country (cap-subject) petition for your organization that was received by USCIS prior to September 12, 2025, the petition should have been counted toward the cap, and (even if not yet approved) the petition will continue to be processed.
- The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has released supplemental visas (i.e., “cap relief”) due to the unprecedented demand for the past 3 years in a row. Therefore, although it is still very uncertain, cap relief could be issued again this year. Timing is also uncertain. Last year the supplemental visas for winter-season employers were released in early December, which could be a good estimate for this coming year, but we will not know for sure until relief is issued. Finally, filing a cap relief petition comes with additional hurdles, such as an increased likelihood of government audits to confirm compliance with the H-2B regulations, including the very strict “irreparable harm” and “returning worker” requirements. Therefore, cap relief should only be used as a last resort. ***For these reasons, in-country (cap-exempt) recruiting remains the best option for winter-season employers who have not yet filled all open H-2B spots.***
- This announcement only relates to the winter-season cap. Summer-season employers (those with start dates for the 2026 season that fall from April 1st through September 30th) are not affected by this announcement. The summer-season cap will be fully replenished in time for April 1, 2026 H-2B visa petition filers.
Please do not hesitate to contact us with any questions.
Thank you,
Keith and the Pabian Law Team