The current state of the H-2B visa program may leave many business owners without the summer help they need, according to www.constructiondive.com. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security's switch to a lottery system for the second half of fiscal year 2018 is affecting companies in construction, landscaping, tourism and hospitality.
As the number of visa applications far exceeds the 66,000 allotted job slots for the year, the low unemployment rate and worsening labor shortages are exacerbating the problem by causing even more employers to search for foreign seasonal workers.
On Jan. 1, U.S. employers submitted 82,000 visa applications compared with 24,000 requests on the same date in 2017. Many employers struggled last summer when Congress refused to increase the number of visas available, as it has done in the past. At employers' urging, 15,000 extra visas were added in July 2017, but the business community said it was "too little, too late."
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services shifted H-2B processing at the beginning of the year to try and accommodate the massive number of visa applications received; however, after receiving another large number of applications for the second half of the fiscal year—47,000—a lottery system was installed, which was discouraging news for employers who depend on the visas.
Experts say U.S. workers are not expected to pick up the seasonal jobs left open by a lack of visas because in a tight labor market with record unemployment, U.S. workers tend to bypass the hardest and lowest-paying seasonal jobs for better-paying permanent jobs—despite employers' efforts to engage employees at the ground level.
Although it is uncertain whether officials will raise the cap on H-2B visas, it reportedly does not yet look likely.
