by Barbara Rizzi, The Tortorella Group
barbara@tortorella.com
It is unfortunate but the media has not been covering the H2B visa cap issue that is affecting not only our local area but nationwide.
The Tortorella Group is spearheading a cross industry H2B coalition to voice the detrimental outcome of the visa cap not being lifted.
In respect of the seasonal demands of your time, especially if you were an unfortunate victim of the visa cap, I have provided a quick list of questions that can assist us in painting a CLEAR picture to our local and Washington Gov’t reps to further fight for permanent changes into the H2B program.
For those who have been utilizing the H2B visa program for years, you have experienced the ups and downs of a gov’t program and are familiar with the challenge that has impacted us in 2017 and 2018.
For those of you who are novice to the program, on Friday, December 9, 2016 when Congress passed its second continuing resolution of the year, extending short-term government funding through April 28, 2017. Unfortunately, for clubs who currently use H-2B visa workers, Congress did not include what is known as the “returning worker” provision, which expired in September of 2016.
This provision would continue to have exempted H-2B workers identified as “returning workers” from the annual H-2B cap of 66,000 visas. A “returning worker” is defined as an H-2B worker who was previously counted against the annual H-2B cap of 66,000 visas during the previous three fiscal years.
With DACA and the MS-13 gang issue taking media headlines, our needs for this successful program goes uncovered. We would like to combine all of your information from the questionnaire and share with specific local and regional reporters to see if they can start providing factual real impact coverage to achieve the needed attention to this issue.
If you are participating in the program, we’d appreciate your taking a moment to cut and paste this quick questionnaire below and email back to me at barbara@tortorella.com. Please feel free to contact me with any additional questions or concerns on this topic!
H2B Coalition
Industry:
Company Name:
Years utilizing H2B program:
# of petitions per year:
# of workers per petition:
# of workers returning:
# of new h2b workers:
Positions petitioned for:
Time frame of petitions:
Year round US workers:
Seasonal US workers:
Were you denied workers in 2017 for visa cap restrictions?
If so, how did you handle
Were you denied workers in 2018 for visa cap restrictions?
If so, how are you navigating without the workers?
Have you contacted any public officials?
Please name and include any support received.