The American Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA) praised the federal government’s release of additional H-2B visas for fiscal year 2026, with AHLA CEO Rosanna Maietta calling the move “critical to help hotels address staffing shortages and maintain the level of service guests expect.”

The H-2B nonimmigrant program allows employers to temporarily hire workers from other countries to perform nonagricultural labor or services in the US.  

The Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Labor have jointly announced a temporary final rule, creating 64,716 H-2B supplemental visas on top of the Congressionally mandated 66,000. The US government issued supplemental H2-B visas last year, as well.

The supplemental visas are being made available to businesses that can demonstrate they are suffering or will suffer “irreparable harm” without access to H-2B workers. 

Of the 64,000-plus supplemental visas, 46,226 are reserved for returning workers who held H-2B status in one of the last three fiscal years. The remaining 18,490 visas, designated for employers with “late season needs,” are available for workers starting between May 1 and Sept. 30.

Maietta said that as the hotel industry “prepares to welcome the world for major celebrations this year, we applaud today’s temporary rule releasing tens of thousands of much-needed H-2B visas.” She also urged Congress to “modernize the H-2B program, advance commonsense reforms that reduce red tape for returning workers and pursue workable solutions that grow the legal labor pool while protecting US workers and supporting local economies.”

AHLA called the H-2B visa program “vital” to hotels in remote destinations with a seasonal need for more workers.