The United States Department of Labor’s (DOL) Employment and Training Administration and Wage and Hour Division, and the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS), U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, are jointly proposing to update the H-2B visa program regulations at 20 CFR part 655, subpart A, the related prevailing wage regulations at 20 CFR 656, and 8 CFR 214 governing the certification of the employment of H-2B nonimmigrant workers in temporary or seasonal non-agricultural employment and the enforcement of the obligations applicable to employers of such nonimmigrant workers and recruited U.S. workers. Specifically, the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) would update the process by which employers seeking to employ H-2B workers would obtain temporary certification from DOL for use in petitioning DHS to employ a nonimmigrant worker in H-2B status.

The updates would also establish standards and procedures for employers seeking to hire foreign temporary non-agricultural workers for certain itinerant job opportunities, including entertainers, tree planting, and utility vegetation management.