The U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Foreign Labor Certification (OFLC) has released assignment groups for H-2B applications requesting an employment start date of October 1, 2024.

Quick Hits

• Each fiscal year (FY), 66,000 H-2B visas are available to employers for nonagricultural temporary workers. Thirty-three thousand visas are available for start dates between October 1 and March 31, and 33,000 visas are available for start dates between April 1 and September 30.
• Beginning in FY 2020, OFLC started utilizing a randomized selection process designed to establish the order in which H-2B applications are assigned to analysts for review.
• The assignment process is based on when employers submit their applications and the start dates they request, with OFLC first processing those applications with the earliest start dates.
• Group A will always include the number of H-2B applications containing a sufficient amount of worker positions to reach the visa cap (33,000).

H-2B Assignment Groups

OFLC has released the assignment groups for H-2B applications with start dates of October 1, 2024. The randomization process was completed on July 6, 2024, and Group A applications were assigned to analysts for review. The applications in Group A contain sufficient positions to reach the semiannual H-2B cap of 33,000. Only one additional assignment group was created for the remaining applications and positions.