Start Processing Early for Your H-2B Workers

Many business owners employ legal foreign workersMany firms bring legal immigrants to the United
for their seasonal or intermittent job openings. TheseStates on H-2B visas and they are now denied the
people, whom their employers describe as seriouspossibility to rely on seasonal workers by the US
and very skilled, and who have been working withDepartment of Labor. The H-2B visa has been
them for many year, now find it hard to do thecreated to come to the aid of those employers that
same thing because of the complicated process ofhave intermittent or seasonal needs and who need
obtaining an H-2B visa. This is to the detriment ofto hire temporary workers in order to increase their
both employer and employee, having the greatestlabor force. Such employers include owners of
impact or the former rather than on the latter, asrestaurants, resorts, landscaping companies, or
many businesses, such as resorts or hospital cannotproperty management firms. Panic has been created
function without these legal immigrants.among most business owners, as the US Department
One of the recent immigration proposals drawn up byof Labor has denied the H-2B visas for seasonal
the White House refers to allowing illegal immigrantsworkers. Their only hope is that their petitions to the
to obtain the three-year Z-visa and giving them theUS Citizenship and Immigration Services be approved.
possibility to continue their work after having paidEven so, it would take longer than the usual for
fines in the total amount of $ 3,500, as well as theforeign workers to arrive in the United States, and in
same amount of money for each renewal. Moreover,the mean time employers would be left without the
after these illegal immigrants have passed backgroundpeople who make their business run.
checks and have been awarded the Z-visas, theyMost business owners who are in need of seasonal
should be given the possibility to become legalworkers agree that the H-2B visa is a wonderful
residents and therefore eligible for citizenship, butprogram, as it fills jobs that can't normally be filled in
only upon payment of up to $ 10,000 in penalties.the areas where the labor pool is missing. Employers
However, the White House proposals doesn't allowwho want to hire foreign workers must obtain a
temporary workers or Z-visa holders to bring theirtemporary labor certification from the State
families to the US. This proposal also came up with aWorkforce Agency in their area. All business owners
new guest program for temporary workers, whichmust proceed carefully and start this process early,
represented to way to citizenship in itself, for all illegalas petitions should be evaluated at the State
immigrants.Workforce Agency in no more than thirty days, but
The United States Senate passed a bill in 2006, whichit known that the actual evaluation can take even
is pretty much similar to the White House proposal,three times longer. Furthermore, upon completion of
but it differs in that illegal immigrants had to fulfill twothe evaluation, petitions are forwarded to US
very important conditions in order to becomeDepartment of Labor, which should communicate an
permanent residents and eventually citizens. Theseanswer to the petitioners within forty-five days, but
were the period of time they had to have spentthey are also known to have taken a whole lot
working in the United States, which was of at leastlonger, claiming that the number of petitions for
five years, and the obligation to learn English. Theforeign seasonal workers has increased substantially.
Senate bill demanded that those illegal immigrantsThe good part is that most petitions that have been
who had been in the country for less than two yearsinitially denied are approved when the petitioners
should leave. The same bill required immigrants whoappeal. However, this takes a lot of time and affects
had been in the country for more than two years,the beginning of the season, so all business owners
but less than five, to file an application of return atshould start processing early.
an entry point at the border.