From Jennifer Leavitt-Wipf,
Your Guide to Immigration Issues.
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Mar 11 2004

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, known as the USCIS, has announced that the H-2B cap for 2004 has been met. This means that the agency has received enough H-2B applications to meet this year's congressionally mandated limit of 66,000 new H-2B workers. As of March 9, 2004 no more H-2B applications will be accepted for this year.<p> The USCIS will follow these procedures for the remainder of FY 2004:<p> * USCIS will process all petitions that were received by the end of the business day on Tuesday, March 9.<p> * USCIS will return all petitions received after that, along with related fees.<p> * Petitioners may re-submit or file new petitions when they have received labor certification approval for work to start on or before October 1, 2004. <p> <p> Petitions for current H-2B workers are not affected by the cap. As such, the USCIS will continue to process applications for:<p> * Extend the stay of a current H-2B worker in the United States.<p> * Change the terms of employment for a current H-2B workers. <p> * Allow current H-2B workers to change or add employers. <p> Source: USCIS, formerly the INS.