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News
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Thursday, February 15, 2018 02:00 AM |
Update on H-2B certification rollout
According to a source for the H-2B Workforce Coalition at the Department of Labor, we understand that:
- They will be releasing the first 40,000 worker certifications over a three day period. Day 1: 20-25,000; Day 2: 10-15,000; Day 3: Remaining visas up to 40,000.DOL does not have the capacity to release enough certifications on Day 1 to reach the cap. Their ability to print and send out does not allow them to do this, so the idea of this happening is incorrect.
- Their plan is to release 20,000-25,000 on Day 1, which will represent roughly 1000-1500 applications. These will be in order based on your time of submission to DOL.
- However, these certifications will be picked up for shipping at noon and again at 4-5pm. These are all mailed out as overnight, so the first pickup should arrive before the second pickup, but they could get mixed depending on where they are sending them.
- Timeline: DOL sends certs on 2/20, they will arrive to you on 2/21, at which point you will send back to DHS using overnight delivery, so USCIS should receive them on 2/22 at the earliest.
- If a recruitment report has incomplete information or DOL hasn’t received your revisions, your application will be taken out of order and pushed back to the next until they receive the full report. At this time, they will put you at the front of the line on whatever day your complete application is received.
- E.g. They may release cert 1, cert 2, cert 6, cert 9, and cert 12 all on the first day. If certs 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 10, and 11 have incomplete recruitment reports, they will be pushed to the next day until DOL has the complete application. This will also move visas to Day 1 that would otherwise be on Day 2.
- DOL will be notifying DHS as they send out applications (something they have not done in the past) so DHS knows what numbers they should be expecting so they can plan accordingly.
- Working with these numbers that DOL has verified for me, they expect DHS to use a lottery on Day 3 or 4. This lottery is only expected to involve 3,000-4,000 worker positions.
- After Day 3 or Day 4 – once they have issued the initial 40,000 certs – DOL will continue sending out responses until all of them are out (roughly 140,000 positions) or once DHS cuts off submissions (usually around 35,000 visas to account for those who do not submit to State Department or fail to do so in a timely manner)
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