In May 2021, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Department of Labor (DOL) announced 22,000 non-agricultural H-2B visas intended to help businesses that rely on immigrant labor. In an announcement, DHS said the visas are intended to help businesses reopen after more than a year of COVID-19 closures and travel restrictions.

“As the nation’s economy continues to reopen safely, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is taking action to ensure that American businesses are equipped with the resources needed to recover successfully and contribute to the economic health of local communities,” the announcement stated.

These visas provide short-term relief to businesses that have been suffering from a much larger overseas recruiting problem. Let’s take a closer look at what the visas are and how they relate to some of the broader labor shortage issues facing companies in a variety of sectors.

What Are H2-B Visas?

According to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, H2-B visas are intended for non-farm businesses that rely on seasonal labor. Companies utilizing these workers are typically in the hospitality and tourism sector, including restaurants, hotels, landscaping, and other businesses that do the bulk of their business during the summer.

In order to qualify for H-2B workers, businesses must demonstrate that there are not enough U.S. workers who are willing, qualified, and available to fill their open positions. They must also show that employing immigrant workers will not negatively impact the wages and working conditions of non-immigrant workers.

Workers who come to the U.S. on H2-B visas are intended to be seasonal or temporary and must return home once their employment ends. However, they can return the following year if employment is still available.

H-2B visas have been capped at 66,000 per year for decades, but Congress has routinely authorized lifting the cap over the past decade as demand for foreign workers increased. The Trump administration banned many H2-B workers in an effort to pressure businesses to hire American labor.

H2-B Visas and COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic and resulting travel restrictions upended the entire H2-B visa process. Last summer, it was not as much of an issue because many parts of the tourism sector were still shut down or operating at reduced capacity. This summer, however, is a different story.

Maine Senators Angus King and Susan Collins led the call to expand the pool of H2-B visas this year to help the state’s tourism-based businesses reopen at full capacity amid ongoing labor shortages among American workers.

"Many Maine businesses rely on temporary workers during the busy summer tourism season," Maine Department of Labor Commissioner Laura Fortman said in a statement. "I encourage qualifying businesses who are still looking to hire nonagricultural, nonimmigrant temporary workers to consider taking advantage of these additional visas to help fill the gaps in their workforce."

Of the 22,000 additional visas made available this year, 16,000 are dedicated to returning workers or those who’ve had H2-B visa status in the last three years. The remaining 6,000 visas are intended for the region known as the Northern Triangle, Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador.

Job Shortages and Recruiting Challenges

Applications for the new visas filled up within two weeks of the announcement in late May, thanks in part to the record number of job openings across the country. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics showed that in March 2021 there were 1.2 unemployed people for every open job, compared to .82 at the beginning of the pandemic in 2020.

These vacancies apply for both skilled and unskilled labor. In a market where competition for workers is greater than ever, temporary and seasonal jobs are more likely to be passed over by workers in favor of more permanent, higher-wage positions.

Further complicating matters is the fact that pandemic-era unemployment benefits continue through the end of the summer, which could give workers an additional incentive to stay home and enjoy the summer instead of taking a temporary or seasonal job.

Though the Biden administration reversed the Trump administration's ban on H2-B visas, some argue that the steps the administration has taken do not go far enough given the worker supply issues that persist in the U.S.

David J. Bier, a research fellow at the Cato Institute, argues that DHS should be doing even more than it already is to support immigrant workers given the extreme demand and other policies working against businesses that were among some of the hardest hit during the pandemic.

The good thing about H2-B visas is that the cap can be adjusted every year as the economy settles into a post-pandemic sense of normalcy. The government can listen to market demands and set policy accordingly, rather than relying on decades-old precedent or political motivations to control how many seasonal workers can enter the country.

For this year, though, the chances of getting a visa remain slim to none if you have not already submitted an application. There’s no indication at this point that DHS will release any more H2-B than it already has, which means businesses will need to make do with the workers they have or come up with other creative solutions to meet their employment needs.