What the document says“the Secretary of Homeland Security, after consultation with the Secretary of Labor, and upon the determination that the needs of United States businesses cannot be satisfied during fiscal year 2026 with United States workers who are willing, qualified, and able to perform temporary nonagricultural labor, may increase the total number of aliens who may receive a visa”
Section 5016 allows the Secretary of Homeland Security, notwithstanding the numerical limitation in section 214(g)(1)(B) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, to increase the number of H-2B visas for fiscal year 2026. The Secretary must first consult the Secretary of Labor and determine that United States workers who are willing, qualified and able cannot meet the need. The increase may be no larger than the highest number of H-2B nonimmigrants who took part in the H-2B returning worker program in any fiscal year in which returning workers were exempt from the cap.
What the document actually says“the Secretary of Homeland Security, after consultation with the Secretary of Labor, and upon the determination that the needs of United States businesses cannot be satisfied during fiscal year 2026 with United States workers who are willing, qualified, and able to perform temporary nonagricultural labor, may increase the total number of aliens who may receive a visa”
One official may raise the number of these visas. First that official must ask the labor chief. First that official must also find that United States workers cannot fill the jobs.
An H-2B visa lets a person come here for short-term work outside farming. A cap limits how many are given. This part lets the cap rise for one year.
No action is recorded against this proposal. That is not evidence that none has been taken, and nobody has yet read it against the record. See what the tracker does not yet cover.