Status as of Sept. 11, 2026. The statutory H-2B cap for the first half of fiscal year 2027 is closed. Sept. 4, 2026 was the final receipt date for new cap-subject petitions with start dates before April 1, 2027. Cap-exempt petitions are still accepted. No supplemental H-2B allocation has been announced for FY 2027 as of this date.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has received enough petitions to meet the congressionally established H-2B cap for the first half of fiscal year 2027, the agency announced. The closure comes from the statutory ceiling set by Congress, not from any discretionary decision by USCIS — and it arrived eight days earlier in the calendar than the same cutoff a year ago.
What USCIS announced
Sept. 4, 2026 is the final receipt date: petitions filed on or before that day for employment starting before April 1, 2027 stay in the queue, and anything cap-subject received afterward for that same window will be rejected. USCIS also repeated its standing line that anyone, including U.S. workers and H-2B workers themselves, can report suspected fraud or abuse in the program through the agency's online tip form, and pointed employers to its Cap Count for H-2B Nonimmigrants page for running figures.
One nuance in the counting: the numbers USCIS publishes on that page are preliminary estimates of beneficiaries on approved and pending petitions, and the agency deliberately accepts filings in excess of the cap to absorb withdrawals, denials and cases where an employer ends up hiring fewer workers than requested.
How the H-2B cap is structured
The H-2B classification lets U.S. employers hire foreign nationals for temporary non-agricultural work — seasonal, peak-load, intermittent or one-time need — after testing the domestic labor market and obtaining a temporary labor certification from the Department of Labor. The annual ceiling is fixed in statute and split evenly across the fiscal year.
Item | Figure |
|---|---|
Annual statutory cap | 66,000 |
First half (start dates Oct. 1 – March 31) | 33,000 — now closed for FY 2027 |
Second half (start dates April 1 – Sept. 30) | 33,000 — still open for FY 2027 |
FY 2027 final receipt date, first half | Sept. 4, 2026 |
FY 2026 final receipt date, first half | Sept. 12, 2025 |
What employers can still file
A closed cap does not close the program. USCIS continues to accept petitions that are exempt from the numerical limit, which cover the situations most current H-2B workers face: extending stay with the same employer, moving to a new employer, and changing the terms of existing H-2B employment. Those filings are unaffected by the Sept. 4 cutoff.
Cap-subject petitions for the second half of FY 2027 — start dates on or after April 1, 2027 — also remain possible, but not yet. Under the filing rules USCIS applies to Form I-129, a petition cannot be submitted more than six months before the requested start date, which places the opening of second-half filings in early October 2026. That half has its own 33,000 allocation and its own eventual final receipt date.
How this cycle compares with last year
The pattern is tightening. In the previous cycle, the first half of FY 2026 filled on Sept. 12, 2025; this year the same threshold was crossed on Sept. 4, 2026, roughly four weeks before the fiscal year it covers even begins. Demand for seasonal labor in landscaping, hospitality, construction and food processing has consistently outrun 33,000 slots, which is why the statutory cap has functioned less as a limit employers plan around and more as a starting gun.
What happens next: the supplemental visa question
For most of the past decade, the statutory cap has not been the final number. Congress has repeatedly given the Secretary of Homeland Security time-limited authority to release additional H-2B visas, and DHS has used it in every fiscal year from 2017 through 2019 and from 2021 through 2026.
In FY 2026, that authority came from section 101 of the Continuing Appropriations Act, 2026, which extended the power originally granted in the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2024. DHS and DOL used it to authorize up to 64,716 supplemental visas, distributed in three allocations, available only to businesses attesting to impending irreparable harm, with 46,226 of them reserved for returning workers. That rule ran from Jan. 30, 2026 through Sept. 30, 2026, and USCIS stopped accepting petitions under it after Sept. 15, 2026.
Whether FY 2027 gets a comparable release depends on Congress granting the authority again in appropriations legislation and on DHS choosing to exercise it. As of Sept. 11, 2026, no FY 2027 supplemental rule has been announced. Employers watching for one should track the Federal Register and the USCIS temporary-increase page rather than secondary coverage, because the filing windows in these rules are short and keyed to dates USCIS announces separately.
Frequently asked questions
Does the Sept. 4 cutoff affect workers already in H-2B status?
No. Petitions to extend the stay of a current H-2B worker, to change employers, or to change the terms of existing H-2B employment are exempt from the cap and continue to be accepted.
Can an employer still file for a start date after April 1, 2027?
Yes. Those petitions count against the separate second-half allocation of 33,000, which remains open. They cannot be filed more than six months before the requested start date, so the window opens in early October 2026.
Will there be extra H-2B visas for FY 2027?
Unknown as of Sept. 11, 2026. Supplemental visas require Congress to grant time-limited authority and DHS to exercise it through a temporary rule. In FY 2026 that produced 64,716 additional visas, but no equivalent has been announced for FY 2027.
Official sources
USCIS alert: H-2B cap reached for the first half of FY 2027 — the announcement and the final receipt date.
Cap Count for H-2B Nonimmigrants — running beneficiary counts against each half-year allocation.
Temporary Increase in H-2B Nonimmigrant Visas for FY 2026 — how the most recent supplemental allocation worked.
Federal Register: FY 2026 time-limited authority rule — the legal basis and allocation structure.
This material is informational and current as of Sept. 11, 2026. It is not legal advice. Filing dates and allocations change; verify against USCIS and the Federal Register before acting.