The Department of Labor (DOL) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced that 64,716 more H-2B temporary nonagricultural worker visas were approved for Fiscal Year 2025.
Employing seasonal labor for occupations like tourism, gardening, and seafood processing is made easier for companies nationwide by H-2B visas. The work must be transient, such as a one-time event, a seasonal demand, a need for peak load, or an intermittent necessity.
Each fiscal year, approximately 66,000 H-2B visas that are required by Congress are available nationwide. Now that the new visas have been approved, there are over 130,000 in total.
Senators Susan Collins and Angus King of Maine joined other senators in advocating for more visas.
The nation’s labor has been sustained throughout its history by immigrants, according to Sen. King. He clarified that Maine, like many other states, depends significantly on tourism.
“Every business that I talk to, workforce is their number one issue, and there are lots of solutions to it,” King stated. “Community college, training, all of those kinds of things. But certainly, one of the solutions is new people, and that’s a fundamental part of our economy.”
King stated that he thinks we need additional workers who can sustain the economy because of Maine’s aging workforce and the fact that the population doubles, if not triples, during the booming summer tourist season.
Twenty thousand visas are available to workers from Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Haiti, Colombia, Ecuador, or Costa Rica under the H-2B supplemental rule.
A special allotment of 44,716 supplemental visas is also included, which would be accessible to returning employees who were awarded H-2B status or received an H-2B visa in any of the previous three fiscal years.
“Sometimes my friends say, ‘Well they’re taking American jobs.’ They’re actually saving American jobs,” King stated. “If you have a restaurant that needs 10 people and you can only find 6 American, Maine people to fill those jobs, if you don’t have the other four, you either have to restrict your hours or close. And then you’ve lost 6 American jobs.”
These additional H-2B visas are the same as the additional temporary visas granted in Fiscal Year 2024 and represent the maximum allowed under the authorization granted by Congress.
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Citizenship is not granted to non-citizen workers on H-2B visas. The DOL must certify that there are insufficient U.S. workers who are available, qualified, willing, and able to undertake the temporary labor before firms can hire non-citizen workers on H-2B visas.
Additionally, the firm must demonstrate that hiring H-2B workers won’t have a negative impact on the pay and working conditions of similarly employed American workers.
Three years is the longest stay allowed under the H-2B classification. Before requesting reentry as an H-2B, an individual who has maintained H-2B nonimmigrant status for a total of three years must depart and stay outside the country for a continuous three months.
