Changes Proposed to the H-2B Program

he proposed rule, which has been sent to the Federal Register, supplements the extensive reforms of the H-2B program in regards to temporary workers already proposed by the Department of Labor in its proposed rule published on May 22.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced in August a series of proposed rule changes that will streamline procedures for hiring workers under the H-2B program.

The proposed rule is designed to remove unnecessary limitations on H-2B employers while both preventing fraud and abuse and protecting the rights of temporary workers. The proposed rule will:

1. Reduce from six months to three months the time H-2B workers must wait outside the United States before they are eligible to re-obtain status under the H or L classification
2. Require employer attestations on the scope of the H-2B employment and the use of recruiters to locate H-2B workers
3. Crack down on employers and recruiters who impose fees on prospective H-2B workers in connection with or as a condition of an offer of H-2B employment
4. Require an approved temporary labor certification in connection with all H-2B petitions
5. Preclude, with limited exception, the change of the employment start date after the grant of the temporary labor certification
6. Require employers to notify DHS when H-2B workers fail to show up for work, are terminated, or abscond from the worksite
7. Change the definition of “temporary employment” to provide that a job is of a temporary nature when the worker will end in the near, definable future and to eliminate the requirement that employers show “extraordinary circumstances” to be eligible to hire H-2B workers where a one-time need for the workers is longer than one year but shorter than three years
8. Prohibit the approval of H-2B petitions for nationals of countries that are determined to be consistently refusing or unreasonably delaying repatriation of their nationals
9. Establish a land-border exit system pilot program, which requires H-2B workers admitted through a port of entry participating in the pilot H-program to also depart through a participating port and to present designated biographic and/or biometric information upon departure.