The Next H-2B Season Starts on 1 October — Here’s How the Jobs Are Really Allocated, and Who Is Allowed to Take Them

H-2B Visa Jobs 2027 If you are looking at American seasonal work — hotels, resorts, landscaping, food service, construction crews — the next hiring window opens on 1 October 2026. That is the start of the US government’s fiscal year, and it is when a fresh block of H-2B visas becomes usable. Before you apply anywhere, or pay anyone, there are two things worth understanding: how the places are handed out, and whether your passport is even allowed into the queue.

The second one catches most people. It has nothing to do with your skills.

Quick answer: The H-2B programme is capped at 66,000 visas per US fiscal year — 33,000 for jobs starting between 1 October and 31 March, and 33,000 for jobs starting between 1 April and 30 September. Employers file the petition, not the worker, and only nationals of countries on an annual government list can normally be approved.

How the H-2B cap actually works

Congress sets the H-2B limit at 66,000 per fiscal year, split into 33,000 for workers who begin employment in the first half of the year, from 1 October to 31 March, and 33,000 for those starting in the second half, from 1 April to 30 September. Any unused numbers from the first half become available in the second half, but unused numbers never carry over into the next fiscal year.

The consequence for you is timing. Each half-year block is filled by employer petitions, and once enough are received, the window slams shut. For the second half of the 2026 fiscal year, USCIS hit the limit on 10 March 2026, and any petition arriving after that date asking for a start between 1 April and 1 October 2026 was rejected unless it was exempt from the cap.

The first half fills too, and earlier than most applicants expect. For the first half of FY 2026, USCIS announced the cap had been reached on 16 September 2025, with 12 September 2025 as the final receipt date for petitions requesting start dates before 1 April 2026.

Read that carefully if you are hoping for an October start. The equivalent deadline for the current season is likely to land in September 2026 — which means an employer who has not already begun the paperwork is probably too late for October, and you should be looking at spring instead.

The extra visas — and the 15 September date

Because the 66,000 limit is far below demand, the government has repeatedly added temporary extra numbers.

On 30 January 2026, the Department of Labor and USCIS announced a joint temporary rule allowing employers with a certified labour certification and a start date inside FY 2026 to apply for up to 64,716 additional H-2B visa numbers — and unlike previous years, these were available to nationals of all eligible countries, with none reserved for particular countries.

Those extras came in stages, and the final one is the only one that was ever open to first-time workers. Petitions in the third allocation must request start dates from 1 May through 30 September 2026, could be filed from 24 April 2026, and must be filed no later than 15 September 2026. That third block of 18,490 visas was available to both new and returning workers, while the earlier allocations were reserved for returning workers only.

So if an employer is telling you right now that they can still get you in for this summer season, that is not impossible — but it runs through this allocation, and the filing door closes on 15 September 2026.

Whether a similar top-up will exist for the 2027 fiscal year is not yet known. It has been granted repeatedly, but it is a discretionary rule each time, not a guarantee. Do not plan around it.

The rule that decides everything: eligible countries

This is the section other “H-2B jobs” pages leave out, and it is the reason many readers waste months.

Under DHS regulations, USCIS may generally only approve H-2A and H-2B petitions for nationals of countries that the Secretary of Homeland Security, with the agreement of the Secretary of State, has designated in a notice published in the Federal Register — and each notice is effective for one year from publication. Nationals of countries not on the list may still be approved on a case-by-case basis, but only where USCIS determines it is in the interest of the United States.

That case-by-case route exists on paper. In practice it is rare and requires a compelling reason.

The list changes every year. Designations are reviewed regularly, with countries added or dropped by notice, and exclusions are driven by factors such as fraud, programme abuse and visa overstay rates rather than by any judgement about individual workers.

According to a US immigration firm’s summary of the most recent update, USCIS published the current H-2B country list in January 2026, bringing the total to 82 eligible countries, and workers from Nigeria, Pakistan and Bangladesh cannot obtain H-2B status regardless of employer need or their own qualifications because those countries are not designated.

Two honest notes on that. First, the authoritative version is the Federal Register notice itself and the USCIS “Countries Eligible” page — check there before you act on any list you read online, including this one. Second, if your country is not designated, that is not a reflection on you, and it is not something an agent can fix for a fee. Anyone who says otherwise is selling you something they cannot deliver.

Who is exempt from the cap

Not every H-2B petition counts against the 33,000. Workers already in the US in H-2B status who extend their stay, change employers or change their terms of employment generally do not count against the cap, and neither do workers already counted in the same fiscal year in which the new employment begins. Spouses and children in H-4 status are also outside the cap, as are fish roe processors and technicians and workers performing services in Guam or the Northern Mariana Islands until 31 December 2029.

If you are already inside the system, in other words, moving between employers is far easier than getting in for the first time. That is worth knowing before you leave a job you already hold.

Where the real jobs are listed — for free

Here is the part almost nobody tells first-time applicants. Before a US employer can hire an H-2B worker, it must first advertise the job to American workers through the Department of Labor, and those job orders are published publicly. The Department of Labor runs a seasonal jobs listing site where H-2B and H-2A job opportunities, including reposted temporary and seasonal positions, are made available.

That listing costs nothing to search. It shows the employer name, the wage, the location and the dates — the exact information a fake agent will refuse to give you.

Practical way to use it:

1. Search by the season you want, not the state.
2. Note the employer’s own name, then find their real website independently.
3. Apply to the employer, or to the agent named in the official job order — not to a third party who contacted you first.

Money: what you pay, and what you must never pay

A worker can properly pay for their own visa application fee at the consular post, their transport to the United States and their passport costs — but under Department of Labor rules the employer cannot require the worker to reimburse petition-related fees as a condition of employment.

So the test is simple. Consular fee, flight, passport: normal. A demand for thousands of dollars to “secure” a petition, a “quota slot”, or a “guaranteed selection”: not normal, and not legal. The petition is filed by the employer. You cannot buy a place in the cap, and there is no lottery ticket to purchase.

If someone asks you to pay before you have seen the employer’s name and job order, stop.

What you should do between now and October

• If you want an October–March start: ask your prospective employer whether their labour certification is already certified and their petition filed. If not, you are realistically looking at the April–September window.
• If you are counting on the extra visas: the current allocation must be filed by 15 September 2026.
• Check your country first, not last. Five minutes on the USCIS eligible-countries page can save you five months.
• If your country isn’t listed: look at routes that do accept your nationality — Gulf employment contracts, Romania and Poland’s new work permit systems, and structured Asian labour programmes are all realistic alternatives for the same kinds of jobs.
• Keep every document. The job order, the offer letter, the employer’s registration details. If something goes wrong later, that paperwork is your evidence.

Key Takeaways

• H-2B is capped at 66,000 a year, 33,000 per half-year, and unused numbers do not roll into the next year.
• The October–March block has historically filled in September — early is the only strategy that works.
• Extra visas for the current fiscal year had to be requested by 15 September 2026; a repeat for the next year is not guaranteed.
• Only nationals of designated countries can normally be approved, and several major job-seeking countries are not designated.
• Job orders are published free by the Department of Labor; you never need to buy access to them.
• Your employer files the petition. Nobody can sell you a place in the cap.

FAQ

1. When does the H-2B season start for October 2026 jobs?
Jobs starting on or after 1 October 2026 fall in the first half of the 2027 fiscal year. That half has its own 33,000-visa allocation covering start dates from 1 October to 31 March.

2. How many H-2B visas are available each year?
66,000 in total, split evenly between the two halves of the fiscal year, with unused first-half numbers moving to the second half but never into the following year.

3. Can workers from Pakistan, Nigeria or Bangladesh get an H-2B visa?
Generally no. Those countries are not on the current designated list, so nationals cannot obtain H-2B status regardless of employer need or qualifications. A case-by-case approval is possible only where USCIS finds it to be in the interest of the United States