The U.S. Department of Labor announced it will not begin releasing H-2B temporary labor certifications until Feb. 20, 2018, due to an unprecedented number of applications. As a result of this demand, USCIS may receive more H-2B nonimmigrant worker petitions than there are H-2B visas available in the second half of Fiscal Year 2018.
USCIS is maintaining a flexible approach to this issue, which may include randomly selecting petitions received on the final receipt date to ensure that we allocate H-2B visas fairly and do not exceed the cap. More information will be forthcoming.
For more information, see Cap Count for H-2B Nonimmigrants.