The US government announced it will give out an extra 64,716 temporary work visas for the year 2025. These visas are called H-2B visas and are for jobs that are not in farming.
There are not enough American workers to fill all these jobs, so the government is allowing companies to hire people from other countries. These jobs are often in industries like hotels and restaurants, landscaping, fish processing, and many others.
Who can get these visas?
There are two main groups of people who can get these visas:
People who have already had an H-2B visa in the past 3 years (roughly 44,700 visas)
People from Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, and Honduras (20,000 visas)
When can companies apply for these visas?
The extra visas are divided into different time periods:
October 2024 to March 2025: This is for returning workers only (people with past H-2B visas)
April to May 2025: This is for returning workers only
May to September 2025: This is for returning workers only (fewer visas available)
All year 2025: This is for people from the listed 7 countries (no need for past H-2B visa)
How do companies get these visas?
Companies need to prove two things:
They can't find enough American workers to do the job.
Hiring foreign workers won't hurt American workers' wages or job security.
The government will also take steps to protect the foreign workers from being treated unfairly.
What are H-2B visas?
These visas allow companies to hire non-citizens for temporary, non-farm jobs. The jobs need to have a specific start and end date, and the company can't just be looking for cheap labor.
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