Winter-season clients – understanding the critical next 2 weeks of the H-2B visa petition process

Winter-Season Clients,

I hope all is well. I want to provide an overview of the next couple of weeks, as we are heading into one of the most critical and impactful parts of the H-2B visa process.

Friday, July 3^rd is the first day that we can file H-2B visa applications with the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL). As a reminder, the first day that we can file with the agency is 90 days before a client’s H-2B visa start date. Therefore, for example, clients with a November 1^st start date still have another month before we can file. If you are a client with an October 1^st start date, and you still owe us information, documents, signed forms, or anything else, please send that over to us immediately!!! It is critical that we file on the first day possible, because…

On or around July 6^th, the DOL will conduct a randomized lottery on October 1^st start date petitions. We promise this is a random lottery. The lottery only applies to October 1^st start dates. No other winter-season start date will be entered into the lottery. The lottery results will impact:

1. Clients’ abilities to recruit out-of-country workers; and
2. DOL processing times.

You can learn more about the winter-season H-2B visa cap, cap strategy, and options if you do poorly in the lottery by watching this short video.

Due to an all-time high in demand, we are anticipating that not all October 1^st start dates will be able to recruit out-of-country workers. I know, I know – we have been shouting this from the rooftops for over a year now. But, next week will be the first time that we will understand if our predictions were correct. Here’s an early look into whether the H-2B visa out-of-country numerical cap will be hit for October 1^st start dates when the lottery results are released:

• If we only see Group A and B lottery results, then the cap may not be reached for October 1^st start dates
• Note: Unfortunately, it could still be reached, as – in the best of circumstances – only about 70% of Group B lottery results make it in under the out-of-country numerical cap
• If we see any Group C and later lottery results, the cap will be reached for October 1^st start dates

If we anticipate the cap being reached, some of you will need to pivot your out-of-country petitions to in-country filings. I know – we have been telling you about this too! This is a good place to remind you that our sister company, Seasonal Connect, has a huge amount of in-country workers waiting for you. You can sign up and learn more about Seasonal Connect at www.seasonalconnect.com and by emailing its CEO, Carly Eglin (carly.eglin@seasonalconnect.com).

Finally, the best way to distill all of this information and the news to come is by:

1. 1. Joining us for our client-only webinar about the winter-season cap. Details are below:
      1. Making Sense of H-2B Visa Demand and the Lottery
         1. Monday, July 13th at 2pm EST
         2. Complimentary, and only open to active Pabian Law clients
         3. Register here
2. Saying “yes” to our request for complimentary weekly phone calls with the Pabian Law team. My colleagues will be reaching out in the coming days and weeks to schedule these. I cannot begin to express how important these calls are to client success!

There is so much more news to come. We will be sending a detailed Client Alert, along with personalized emails to each of our October 1^st start date clients, after the release of the lottery results. As the results are made public, we kindly ask that you allow us time to compile all of the information and email you. I promise we will move forward as quickly as we can.

Thanks so much for everyone’s hard work, and wishing all of you October 1^st start dates the best of luck in the upcoming H-2B visa lottery.

Best regards,

Keith and the Pabian Law Team