The Department of Labor’s (“DOL”) Office of Foreign Labor Certification (“OFLC”) has announced a plan to change the way it handles the ETA-9142B form which begins the H-2B application process.  Beginning July 3, 2019, all H-2B applications submitted to the National Processing Center (“NPC”) in the first three days of the filing period will be collected.  The filing period begins 90 days before the date of need, so for a date of need beginning October 1, 2019, the filing period begins on July 3, 2019.  On the fourth day of the filing period (July 6), the OFLC will conduct a random selection process on all applications collected by the NPC in the first three days.  Applications covering the first 33,000 H-2B workers will be assigned to Group A.  The Group A applications will then be assigned to NPC analysts in the order of the random selection.   If there are applications for more than 33,000 workers, the remaining applications will be assigned to Group B, Group C, etc. after the random selection process is complete.  Each subsequent group will cover 20,000 H-2B workers.  If there are not 33,000 H-2B worker applications in the first three days, after the random selection process is complete, processing will continue in the normal fashion based on when the application is received by the NPC.

Employers will receive either a Notice of Deficiency or a Notice of Acceptance just as in prior years.  It is in the employers’ best interest to be prepared to conduct their recruitment and submit their reports quickly.  That will allow them to receive Temporary Labor Certification and submit the I-129 to the United States Immigration and Customs Service (“USCIS”) before the 33,000 visas allotted in each six-month period are issued to other employers.

For questions or help with H-2B Non-Agricultural Worker visas, please contact Glen Krebs (859)288-7409.