Congress has extended the H-2B visa program, taking the pressure off Colorado businesses that depend on seasonal foreign workers to fill jobs.
Congress on Saturday extended the Save Our Small and Seasonal Business Act, which caps the number of visas at 66,000 per year. The act also allows workers who have previously filled jobs in the program to return without counting toward the national quota.
If the extension hadn’t passed, only 52,000 visas would have been available next year, said Ilene Kamsler, president of the Colorado Hotel and Lodging Association.
H-2B visas allow foreigners to work in the United States for less than a year at a time.
Allowing those who participated in the program over the previous three years to get the visas without counting toward the limit increases the number of workers available and allows businesses to bring back experienced help.
Colorado is one of the nation’s largest employers of H-2B seasonal workers, who often return year after year from places such as Jamaica, Mexico and Austria to work in housekeeping and landscaping and at ski areas. Colorado businesses employ about 16,000 guest workers, primarily in the hotel, skiing and landscaping industries.
Businesses that use the workers say they can’t find enough U.S. citizens willing to do the jobs they have available.
The one-year extension came only hours before the act would have expired at midnight Saturday. Businesses that depend on the workers had asked for a three-year extension.
“It is great having this emergency put off for even a short time,” said Kristen Sirovatka Fefes, executive director of the Associated Landscape Contractors of Colorado.
Seasonal employers worried that Congress would adjourn without extending the H-2B program, leaving them without needed employees.
Staff writer Tom McGhee can be reached at 303-820-1671 or tmcghee@denverpost.com.
