H-2B cap reached for 2009 first half

The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced on Thursday it has reached the H-2B cap for the first half of the fiscal year 2009. In other words, this means that no new H-2B visas, temporary employment permit, would be issued before April 1, 2009. Unlike H-1B visa, H-2B is a short-term non-immigrant visa which allows foreign nationals to enter into the United States temporarily to meet seasonal needs of an American company. Notably the 200 Indian guest workers who early this year had alleged that they were treated like slaves by their employee and given false promises by the recruiting agencies had come to work in the US under this H-2B visa.In a visa bulletin, the USCIS said the cap of 33,000 H-2B visa was reached July 29, much earlier than in previous years. The USCIS can issue a maximum of 66,000 H-2B visas. Half of these -- 33,000 – are issued in fall for employment through the winter and the rest half is issued in the spring for jobs in the summer, as per a congressionally mandated bi-annual H-2B cap. Workers must return to their country of origin after their temporary work visa expires.USCIS said it would now reject petitions for new H-2B workers seeking employment start date prior of April 1, 2009 and that arrive after July 29. For all those applications received before or on July 29, a computerized draw of lots would be taken up to determine the eligible candidates.Meanwhile, the American Hotel and Lodging Association has started a public campaign and lobbying at the Capitol Hill to push the Congress for increasing the cap for H-2B visas. Given the increasing demand and shortage of seasonal workers in this category, the association urged its members to approach their local representatives to push for a pending legislation in the Congress in this regard.However, given that there has been alleged abuse of the guest workers program; several Congressmen have blocked the pending legislation in this regard.Congressman George Miller, who is Chairman of House Education and Labor Committee, last year had introduced a bill to curb abuses by unscrupulous foreign labor recruiters. Following the allegations by Indian guest workers, Mullen in a letter to Labor Secretary said additional steps must also be taken to ensure that the H2-B program operates in the best interests of U.S. and foreign workers. "We must insist that the program pay workers the prevailing wage for the type of work they are performing in the locations where they are working, so that employers won't hire guest workers in order to drive U.S. workers' wages down," he said. "We must ensure that guest workers have a way to seek justice when they believe they have been wronged. And the U.S. Department of Labor must stop shirking its responsibilities and start enforcing the law. Finally, at a time when a growing number of American workers are losing their jobs, we should make sure that U.S. workers are recruited first before turning to guest workers," he said. Meanwhile, USCIS, however, clarified that this cap would not be applicable to certain categories of applicants. It would continue to process petitions to extend the stay of a current H-2B worker, change the terms of employment for current H-2B workers and extend their stay and finally allow current GH-2B workers to change or add employers and extend their stay.