Visa woes expected this year

Hotels, restaurants and other businesses in the hospitality industry have resigned themselves to another summer without seasonal workers from other countries amid an ongoing congressional stalemate over federal immigration policy.
For the second year in a row, the federal government has run out of H-2B visas long before the end of the fiscal year. The visas allow foreign workers to come to the U.S. temporarily to work in nonagricultural jobs.
Since employers are not allowed to apply for a visa more than 120 days before a position needs to be filled, local businesses that need employees this summer have lost out to ski lodges and southern resorts.
“There are no H-2B visas, for us [in Rhode Island] at least, because the cap has already been met,” said Dale Venturini, president and CEO of the Rhode Island Hospitality and Tourism Association.
When the H-2B program was first authorized in 1990, Congress capped at 66,000 the number of visas that could be issued annually. The cap was reached for the first time in 2004, and although returning workers were exempted from the cap between 2005 and 2007, even they are now being held hostage as part of the broader battle over comprehensive immigration reform. Opponents of lifting the caps also argue that employers should pay more to attract American workers.
Venturini has little hope that Congress will move quickly to allow more workers in for this year, let alone overhaul the program permanently. “This has not been a priority,” she said.
That has meant headaches for companies like the Newport Harbor Corp., a hospitality company that owns a number of restaurants, as well as a catering service, the Castle Hill Inn & Resort, and the Newport Yachting Center.
Newport Harbor started hiring workers using H-2B visas in the late 1990s because of ongoing difficulties filling positions for the May 1 to Oct. 31 summer season, said Paul O’Reilly, the company’s president. Many American workers were disinclined to work as housekeepers or dishwashers, while students’ schedules meant they would not be available for nearly three months of the season.
To fill the gap, the company turned to overseas workers, and at the program’s height Newport Harbor was employing 20 workers on H-2B visas. Some returned year after year, which meant they did not need to be retrained.
“We found the H-2B visa program worked great for us in order to get a six-month stretch, and it really built value over time as the same employees returned,” O’Reilly said. But with the visas unavailable, he is trying to recruit students from culinary and hospitality schools here and across the country.
Keith Stokes, executive director of the Newport County Chamber of Commerce, said it is possible that Rhode Island’s high unemployment rate could lead to more workers applying for seasonal hospitality work, though that remains to be seen.
Last summer, businesses did their best to fill the gap by holding job fairs to recruit local workers and having their remaining employees work overtime.
In an effort to connect employers and workers, the Newport Chamber and the Hospitality and Tourism Association plan to hold a job fair in the coming months. About 250 people applied for jobs at a similar event last year, Stokes said.
However, Venturini said that even if there is more interest this year, the labor shortage will return when the unemployment falls. “Everything is cyclical … and in the past, the industry has had a difficult time finding trained workers,” she said.
Businesses are also looking to other programs. Venturini’s association planned to hold a Webinar on Jan. 28 to provide information about J-1 visas, which allow companies to hire foreign students for four months at a time.
Separately, recent changes to the H-2B’s sister program, the H-2A visa, which is for seasonal agricultural workers, eased some requirements for farmers who want to bring in laborers. However, local agricultural observers said the changes would have little or no effect here because the use of H-2A visas is uncommon in Rhode Island.
“Under that program you have to provide [workers] with housing, and I don’t know anybody in Rhode Island that’s doing that,” said Al Bettencourt, executive director of the Rhode Island Farm Bureau. &#8226