Today, our office was notified by Department of Labor’s FLAG system that a number of ETA-9142B we submitted were assigned to Group A. This hasn’t always been the case. In past winter seasons, we would routinely see notices that no group assignment was made for our submitted applications, because there had not been enough applications to trigger use of the H-2B group assignment and lottery system.
The change in notice this year appears to indicate that enough H-2B applications were submitted to DOL system that the lottery system may finally come into play. If true, this is yet another milestone of an unfortunate trend: demand for H-2B visas outstrips supply. Winter filing seasons used to be a relatively safe bet for employers, but that appears no longer the case. While there have been some encouraging updates on H-2B legislations in recent weeks, those changes can’t come quickly enough.
For employers who has been assigned to a later group, this article discusses what group assignment means and preliminary options. To learn more about whether the H-2B is right for your company, contact us.
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DOL announced on 7/10/2023 that “2,157 H-2B applications covering 40,947 worker positions” have been submitted with an October 1, 2023 start date. That’s almost 8000 workers beyond the cap of the fiscal year half. Perhaps the sheer volume of applications will prompt the powers that be to issue supplementary visas as in year past.