H-2B for tree companies: what the Department of Labor and USCIS say an employer does, and when

This page reports what the official source says. It is not legal advice: ask the office named here. It describes the employer side of H-2B. The worker side is covered in the guide on working abroad as a tree worker. The pages read for this guide do not give a sector list, so nothing here says which tree jobs qualify.

What H-2B is

The Department of Labor's Employment and Training Administration says the programme lets employers who meet its requirements hire nonimmigrant workers to come temporarily to the United States for non-agricultural services or labor. The employer has to show a temporary need, whether or not the job itself is permanent. The Department says it must find that US workers are not sufficiently available and that the employment will not adversely affect the wages and working conditions of similarly employed US workers before it certifies.

USCIS lists the same four kinds of temporary need: a one-time occurrence, a seasonal need, a peakload need and an intermittent need. It says a US employer, or a qualifying US agent, files Form I-129, Petition for a Nonimmigrant Worker, for the worker, after first obtaining a temporary labor certification from the Department of Labor.

The calendar as the Department of Labor states it

Step	Form and office	Timing the page gives
Prevailing wage request	Form ETA-9141, National Prevailing Wage Center	At least 60 calendar days before it is needed
Job order and application	Job order to the State Workforce Agency; Form ETA-9142B to the National Processing Center	Within 75 to 90 days prior to the date of need
Job order review	State Workforce Agency	Six business days to report deficiencies
Application review	National Processing Center	Within seven business days of receipt
Worksite notice	Employer, where there is no bargaining representative	15 consecutive business days
Referrals of US applicants	Employer	Accepted until 21 days before the date of need

The page lists the recruitment duties after a Notice of Acceptance: contacting former US workers, contacting the bargaining representative or posting a notice of the job opportunity, any additional recruitment the Certifying Officer directs, and keeping the recruitment report updated. It says records are retained for three years.

Employer duties on the Wage and Hour Division page

The Wage and Hour Division page says employers attest that they will offer a wage that "equals or exceeds the highest of the prevailing wage" and the other comparison minimums it lists. It sends the other duties to numbered fact sheets: #78C on wage requirements, #78D on deductions and prohibited fees, #78E on job hours and the three-fourths guarantee, #78F on inbound and outbound transportation expenses and visa fees, #78H on the ban on retaliation, and #78I on record retention. The page itself prints no dollar amounts or hour counts for these duties.

The cap and the stay

USCIS says Congress set the cap at 66,000 per fiscal year: 33,000 for workers starting October 1 through March 31 and 33,000 for workers starting April 1 through September 30. It says unused first-half numbers move to the second half but do not carry into the next fiscal year. A USCIS alert dated September 4, 2026 says it received enough petitions to meet the cap for the first half of fiscal year 2027, and that it will reject new cap-subject petitions received after that date asking for a start date before April 1, 2027.

On length of stay, USCIS says the maximum period in H-2B classification is 3 years, extensions come in increments of up to 1 year each and need a new valid temporary labor certification, and a worker who has reached 3 years must stay outside the United States for an uninterrupted period of at least 60 days before seeking readmission in H-2B status. The USCIS page shows a review date of 09/11/2026.