Pabian Law Client Alert: Update Regarding Winter-season H-2B Group Assignment Lottery

Pabian Law Clients and Friends,

I hope you all had a great 4^th! At Pabian Law, we were very busy on July 3^rd filing H-2B applications for winter-season H-2B organizations with October 1, 2026 start dates. For the fourth year in a row, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) conducted a lottery today on those October 1^st cases, and emailed lottery group assignments on Monday, July 6^th for each case (either Group A or Group B). We will be reaching out directly to all Pabian Law October 1^st clients to inform them directly of their lottery assignment.

We are providing this Client Alert to outline what this means, not only for organizations with October 1^st start dates, but also for all 2026-27 winter-season H-2B organizations.

Please note that I am emailing you while on vacation. I will be returning to the office on Monday, July 13^th. If you have any questions before I return, please email H2BManagers@pabianlaw.com or 617-939-9444 and one of my amazing colleagues will be happy to assist.

Importantly, this Client Alert applies only to winter-season H-2B organizations (employers with start dates from October 1^st through March 31^st), and nothing in this Client Alert impacts summer-season H-2B employers. Additionally, if you are a winter-season employer who is only hiring “in-country” workers (i.e., workers who are transferring between H-2B employers within the U.S.), then this Client Alert is not directly applicable to you, as in-country workers are “cap-exempt.”

Key Takeaways of this Client Alert

• The U.S. Department of Labor conducted an H-2B visa lottery for October 1, 2026 start dates for the fourth consecutive year, reflecting continued record demand for winter-season H-2B visas.
• Pabian Law filed all October 1^st client applications on the first available filing day, and we will contact each affected client directly with their lottery assignment.
• Winter-season employers planning to hire out-of-country workers should expect the H-2B visa cap to be reached early again this year.
• Employers with later winter-season start dates should continue prioritizing in-country recruiting, as those workers are cap-exempt.
• We expect additional government data later this week and will provide another Client Alert with our analysis and projections.

Background on the H-2B cap and lottery process

There are 66,000 H-2B visas available each year (33,000 for winter-season organizations and 33,000 for summer-season organizations*). October 1^st is the beginning of the new government fiscal year (FY2027). July 3^rd (90 days before October 1^st) marks the opening of the DOL’s H-2B filing window for winter-season employers with October 1^st start dates. If applications for more than 33,000 visas are filed on the first three (3) days of the filing window (July 3^rd – July 5^th), the DOL will conduct a lottery and assign the first 33,000 requests to Group A and the remainder to Group B (and Group C, and so on, if necessary).

*Note: the 66,000 cap is split into two separate “half-year” caps of 33,000. This announcement relates to the first half of the FY2027 fiscal year, which is for employers with start dates between October 1, 2026 and March 31, 2027 (i.e., “winter-season” organizations). This Client Alert does not have any impact on the second-half FY2027 cap, which is for 2027 summer-season employers (start dates of April 1, 2027 and later).

What happened

This is the fourth year that more than 33,000 visa requests were filed for October 1^st start dates, resulting in a lottery. This lottery shows that winter-season demand continues to increase.

At Pabian Law, we worked hard to move cases forward and filed H-2B applications for October 1^st employers on the first day possible in anticipation that a lottery could take place in order to put our clients in the best position possible. We also held many, many public and client-only webinars and other education initiatives regarding the H-2B cap and increasing winter-season demand.

We are still unsure exactly how many H-2B visa requests were made for October 1^st cases this week, as the government has not yet published this data. We will provide an update on how many H-2B visa requests were made for October 1^st cases once the DOL releases this information, which we expect to be later this week. This data is integral in understanding the ability for winter-season employers to recruit out-of-country workers.

What the lottery means

Because of the higher demand, the winter-season H-2B cap will again be reached early this year. This means that some winter-season employers that seek to hire out-of-country workers may not be able to do so because there will be no visas remaining by the time they are able to file their final petitions with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS)*. As mentioned above, if you are a winter-season organization that only plans to hire “in-country” workers (i.e., workers who are transferring between H-2B employers within the U.S.), then this Client Alert is not applicable to you, as in-country workers are “cap-exempt.”

*Please keep in mind that before filing with USCIS, employers must receive a Notice of Acceptance from the DOL and then go through a 15-day recruiting period among other things, and therefore, USCIS petitions typically cannot be filed until around 5-7 weeks after filing with the DOL.

Who will be affected

We have been holding countless webinars and communicating with our winter-season clients regarding the risks surrounding the cap ever since we saw a big increase in demand over the past few years. We have been encouraging all winter-season organizations, and especially those with post-October 1^st start dates, to explore in-country recruiting as a way to avoid any potential cap risks.

It is very difficult to predict when exactly the H-2B cap will be hit and, therefore, whether all October 1^st cases will make the cut-off, as well as whether any post-October 1^st cases might have a chance. The reason why is that it is impossible to know how many employers will request out-of-country, cap-subject workers, as opposed to in-country workers who are not counted toward the cap. We will send an additional Client Alert once we the U.S. Department of Labor releases the total number of October 1^st start date petitions received. This will help us understand this year’s demand versus last year’s demand and project when we expect the numerical cap to be reached. We hope to receive that information this week.

Pabian Law clients, please join us for our upcoming client-only Pabian Law Town Hall Webinar about the winter-season lottery and cap for more of a discussion on the contents of this email update. Details are below:

• Making Sense of H-2B Visa Demand and the Lottery
  • Tuesday, July 15^th at 2pm EST
  • Complimentary, and only open to active Pabian Law clients
  • Registration information was already sent to Pabian Law clients. If you are an active Pabian Law client and would like to join, please email me and we will resend you the registration link.

In-country recruiting resources & Seasonal Connect

In country recruiting (i.e., recruiting H-2Bs who are currently in the U.S. working for summer-season employers) will likely be more competitive this year due to the higher demand for H-2B visas. Therefore, we are providing the below resources in hopes that they are helpful:

1. Recruiting Best Practices Q&A sheet (linked); and
2. Seasonal Connect Overview (linked) document.

To learn more about Seasonal Connect and sign up for this incredible resource, you can go to www.seasonalconnect.com. You can also reach out to Carly Eglin at carly.eglin@seasonalconnect.com with any questions.

Cap relief

The government may decide to release additional out-of-country H-2B visas for winter-season employers (typically referred to as “supplemental cap” or “cap relief”). However, this is not guaranteed, comes with additional requirements, and may not happen (if at all) until later in the winter. Additionally, in the past two years, the government has implemented winter-season cap relief so late that it helped very few of our clients. Therefore, we would not recommend relying on this as a primary strategy and instead focus on finding in-country workers. We will provide an update as soon as we receive any information regarding winter-season cap relief.

Please do not hesitate to contact us with any questions. We will be in touch as more information becomes available.

Thank you,

Keith and the Pabian Law Team