Key areas of reform covered in the Final Rule include:

• Allowing H-2B petitioners to specify only the number of positions sought and not name the individual aliens, except where an intended alien beneficiary is already present in the U.S.; or where an alien is from a country not eligible for participation in the H-2B program;
• Reducing from six months to three months the time an H-2B worker who has spent three years in the U.S. must reside and be physically present outside the U.S. before being eligible to reobtain H-2B status;
• Reducing the period of time spent outside the U.S. that interrupts accrual towards the three-year maximum period of stay in H-2B status;
• Prohibiting H-2B employers and recruiters from imposing certain fees on prospective H-2B workers as a condition of securing employment;
• Requiring an approved temporary labor certification in connection with all H-2B petitions;
• Beginning with petitions filed for workers for Fiscal Year 2010, prohibiting H-2B petitioners from requesting an employment start date on the ?EUR??,,????'?????<
• Amending the definition of ?EUR??,,????'?????<
• Requiring employers to notify USCIS when H-2B workers fail to show up for work, complete the work more than 30 days early, are terminated, or abscond from the worksite;
• Permitting the approval of H-2B petitions only for nationals of certain countries designated as participating countries by the Secretary of Homeland Security, in consultation with the Secretary of State, and appearing on a list to be published annually in the Federal Register. The initial list of participating countries designated as important to the operation of the program and to be published simultaneously with this Final Rule, includes Mexico, Jamaica, and 26 others. DHS may allow on a case-by-case basis a worker from a country not on the list to be eligible for the H-2B program if such participation is in the U.S. interest;
• Delegating to the Department of Labor the statutory authority to impose certain administrative remedies and/or penalties where a substantial failure to meet any of the conditions of the H-2B petition or a willful misrepresentations of a material fact in such petition is found; and
• Establishing a land-border exit system pilot program that requires H-2B workers admitted through a port-of-entry participating in the pilot program to also depart through a participating port and to present designated biographic and/or biometric information upon departure.