The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced the completion of the random selection of H-2B visas for the second half of the 2018 fiscal year. USCIS will reject and return the petitions and associated filing fees to petitioners that were not selected.
The first half of the cap was met in December, nearly a month earlier than the previous year, leaving an influx of applications submitted for the second half of the year. The USCIS received requests for approximately 47,000 workers. To expedite the selection process, USCIS announced they would use a randomized lottery process to issue the visas.
According to the National Association of Landscape Professionals, more than 60 percent of seasonal businesses were unsuccessful in getting their H-2B workers.
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