H-2B Cap as of October 22, 2018

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has updated its count of H-2B filing for temporary non-agricultural visas (H-2Bs) for employment for the first and second halves of FY 2019.

As of October 22, 2018,  USCIS has receipted 19,987 petition beneficiaries towards the 33,000 H-2B cap amount.  This count includes 17,865 approved and 2,122 pending petitions.  For the Second Half of the 2018 Fiscal Year, USCIS has not yet receipted any petitions.  SOURCE

There is a statutory numerical limit, or “cap,” on the total number of foreign nationals who may be issued an H-2B visa or otherwise granted H-2B status during a fiscal year (FY). Currently, Congress has set the H-2B cap at 66,000 per fiscal year, with 33,000 for workers who begin employment in the first half of the fiscal year (October 1 – March 31) and 33,000 for workers who begin employment in the second half of the fiscal year (April 1 – September 30). Any unused numbers from the first half of the fiscal year will be available for employers seeking to hire H-2B workers during the second half of the fiscal year. However, unused H-2B numbers from one fiscal year do not carry over into the next.