H-2B Processing Times as of October 15, 2026: 10,474 Final Decisions, Prevailing Wage Backlog Persists
Updated: 49 minutes ago
WASHINGTON, October 22, 2026 — The Department of Labor has issued final decisions in 10,474 H-2B cases for the second half of fiscal year 2026, covering certified positions for 143,888 workers, according to processing data published by the Office of Foreign Labor Certification (OFLC) and summarized in a Berry Appleman & Leiden alert.
As of October 15, 2026, the figures provide employers with a limited view of a program still restricted by statutory caps and a backlog in prevailing wage determinations.
Final Decisions and Certified Positions
The 10,474 final decisions represent cases where OFLC has completed its adjudication of the temporary labor certification — the first mandatory step before an employer can file Form I-129 with USCIS.
The 143,888 certified positions attached to those decisions indicate the scale of the worker requests that have cleared the DOL stage. For employers in seasonal industries — hospitality, landscaping, seafood processing, construction — a final decision is the green light to proceed to the immigration component.
But a final decision is not a visa. The H-2B cap for the second half of FY 2026 was reached on March 10, 2026, meaning any employer relying solely on the statutory cap had to have filed by that date. The supplemental visa allocation — up to 64,716 additional visas for FY 2026 — provided a secondary route, but that too was subject to its own filing windows and exhaustion.
Prevailing Wage Determinations: The Persistent Bottleneck
For employers still awaiting a PWD, the picture is less encouraging.
As of September 30, 2026, the National Prevailing Wage Center is processing OEWS requests filed in August 2026 and earlier. For Non-OEWS cases — those relying on collective bargaining agreements or private wage surveys rather than the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics — the queue is at May 2026.
The backlog is quantifiable:
Receipt Month | Remaining H-2B PWD Requests |
July 2026 | Almost complete |
August 2026 | 548 |
September 2026 | 3,975 |
The September figure is the one to watch. It represents requests filed in the month immediately preceding the data update — a queue that will take weeks, if not longer, to clear at current processing rates.
DOL guidance is explicit on the planning implication: employers should request a PWD at least 60 days before the determination is needed. For employers targeting an April 2027 start date, that means filing the PWD request in early February 2027 at the latest.
The Two-Track Wage System
The distinction between OEWS and Non-OEWS is not academic. It determines how long an employer waits and what evidence the wage determination relies on.
OEWS uses the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey — a standardised dataset that the National Prevailing Wage Center can process comparatively efficiently.
Non-OEWS requires alternative sources: collective bargaining agreements, private wage surveys, or other published data. These cases take longer because they require individual review and validation.
An employer filing a Non-OEWS request in October 2026 would, on current timelines, be looking at a determination reflecting a May 2026 receipt date — a lag of roughly five months.
What This Means for Employers
Three planning consequences follow from the data.
PWD timing drives everything. The 60-day guidance is a minimum, not a target. Employers should assume a longer runway for Non-OEWS cases and build the PWD request into project planning at the earliest possible stage.
A final decision does not mean a worker. The 143,888 certified positions represent DOL clearance, not visa availability. With the second-half cap exhausted since March, and supplemental allocations also finite, employers who have not secured a visa number face a separate constraint.
Withdrawn and voided requests distort historical comparisons. OFLC notes that the remaining-request figures exclude withdrawn and voided applications, which causes prior months’ numbers to fluctuate. Employers tracking their own cases against the published queue should account for this.
The Broader H-2B Context
The FY 2026 programme has been defined by volume and constraint in equal measure.
In January 2026, DOL received 10,062 H-2B applications requesting 162,603 workers within the first three days of the filing window — the largest three-day volume on record. More than half of annual H-2B applications are submitted in that narrow January window, a concentration that strains processing capacity every year.
The supplemental visa rule added up to 64,716 additional visas for FY 2026, split between returning-worker and non-returning-worker allocations. But those numbers are finite, and the underlying statutory cap of 66,000 remains unchanged.
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Quick Reference Summary
Item | Detail |
Data Date | October 15, 2026 |
Final Decisions | 10,474 cases |
Certified Positions | 143,888 workers |
PWD Queue — OEWS | August 2026 and earlier |
PWD Queue — Non-OEWS | May 2026 |
Remaining PWD — August 2026 | 548 requests |
Remaining PWD — September 2026 | 3,975 requests |
DOL Filing Guidance | At least 60 days before determination needed |
Second-Half Cap Status | Reached March 10, 2026 |
FY 2026 Supplemental Visas | Up to 64,716 |
Official Processing Page |
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