Washington, DC, July 30, 2008 —The US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that the H-2B cap for the first half of fiscal 2009 has been reached, more than two months before the start of the fiscal year on October 1, 2008. According to USCIS, it has received a sufficient number of petitions to reach the statutory 33,000 H-2B cap for the first half of fiscal year. A USCIS press release states that yesterday, July 29, 2008, was the “final receipt date” for new H-2B worker petitions requesting employment start dates prior to April 1, 2009.

Any new petitions for H-2B workers with a start date between October 1, 2008 and March 31 will be rejected. The press release also states that USCIS will apply a computer-generated random selection process to all petitions which are subject to the cap and were received on or before July 29, 2008. USCIS will use this process to select the number of petitions needed to meet the cap. USCIS will reject, and return the fee for, all cap-subject petitions not randomly selected.

USCIS will continue to process petitions for workers who are currently in H-2B status, who do not count towards the congressionally mandated bi-annual H-2B cap. Continued processing will be available for petitions to:

• Extend the stay of a current H-2B worker in the United States;

• Change the terms of employment for current H-2B workers and extend their stay; or

• Allow current H-2B workers to change or add employers and extend their stay.

According to ANLA Director of Legislative Relations, Corey Connors, “The closing of the cap so early is extremely problematic for the landscape industry. Many ANLA members suffered significant losses this year as a result of not getting H-2B workers for fiscal 2008 or getting workers later in the spring than when they were first needed.”

Connors warns, “Congress must act now in order to save the landscape industry and other seasonal employers from further economic turmoil. Small, green industry businesses cannot absorb two consecutive years of financial losses resulting from Congress’s failure to renew the H-2B cap extention and provide small businesses with a reliable and legal source of seasonal labor.”