The COVID Project
The record
- Jurisdiction
- United States
- Level
- Federal
- Authority
- INA secs. 103(a), 214(a)(1), 214(c)(1); 8 U.S.C. 1103, 1184
- Issued
- 2020-05-14 May 14, 2020
- Effective
- 2020-05-14 through May 15, 2023 (temporary rule); flexibilities limited to petitions filed May 14 - Sept. 11, 2020 (read as 2020-05-14)
- End
- Flexibility window closed Sept. 11, 2020 (read as 2020-09-11)
- In force
- May 14, 2020 to Sept. 11, 2020
- Quarters
- 2020 Q22020 Q3
2020 Q22020 Q32020 Q42021 Q12021 Q22021 Q3
- Limitation types
- Travel and quarantineSupply chain
- Addressees
- H-2B petitioners and workers
- Functions reached
- LS landscaping (excluded from every flexibility: the rule confined relief to food-supply-chain H-2B workers)
- HR
- PL hospitality placements
- Collection
- Staffing and Support Services SEC-19
Operative words
[Flexibilities (immediate start with a new employer; extension beyond the three-year limit) available only where] the H-2B petitioner... [attests that the worker will perform] temporary nonagricultural services or labor that is essential to the U.S. food supply chain... [recital:] The Department of State suspended routine visa services at all U.S. Embassies and Consulates on March 20, 2020.
Enforcement
Petition adjudication; attestation subject to verification
Notes
Read with Proclamation 10052: in 2020 the federal government relieved only food-supply-chain H-2B employers and suspended entry for the rest; landscaping, the program's largest user, received neither the visas nor the flexibilities. The rule also records the consular suspension of Mar. 20, 2020 as a governmental fact.
Retrieval note85 Fed. Reg. 28843 (May 14, 2020); bracketed paraphrase in the clause field marks where the two-column text was summarized; quote from the exhibit when drafting.