H-2B Visas: Too Little, Too Late?

{2:54 minutes to read} The administration finally issued its regulations regarding the process for allocating additional H-2B visas during the late summer and early fall. H-2B visas are visas for seasonal or peak workers in the New York metropolitan area. They're most commonly used on Long Island and the East End for hotels or pool companies, for example, that do all or most of their business during the summer months. These workers come up, usually from the Caribbean or Central South America, work for up to 10 months, and then go back once the season is over. It's a win-win. The employers fill a need during the busy season and the workers are legal, paying taxes, and return home when the season is over.

The problem is, Congress has only allocated 66,000 visas, and most years 100,000 or more applications flood in. This year, in particular, a lot of companies were frozen out, but Congress allocated additional H-2B visas and now, finally, procedures have been issued that provide for these additional visas.

The process, however, is very cumbersome, requiring a new round of recruitment, which means additional newspaper advertisements in order to determine whether US workers are available. It also requires submission of an attestation that says that the employer's business will suffer "irreparable harm" if they can't hire these additional H-2B workers.

The total additional H-2B allocation is 15,000, which will certainly help those businesses that rely on these workers. But as a practical matter, by the time these applications can be submitted, approved and sent to the consulate, employers will be lucky to get workers started in mid to late September and on into the next fiscal year. They are not going to benefit very many people, including companies on the East End of Long Island where the season will be over before the additional workers arrive.  

Once again, we have another example of an administration that continues to drag its feet and erect roadblocks even to legal immigration. These are visas, by the way, which the President himself continues to use in order to help run his businesses.  

Mitchell C. Zwaik
Zwaik, Gilbert & Associates, P.C.

5014 Express Drive South
Ronkonkoma, NY  11779
www.zwaik.com 

300,000 Legal Immigrants Fear End of TPS

{2:24 minutes to read} Over 300,000 individuals from Haiti and Central America, living legally in the U.S. under TPS, are fearful of losing their status under the Trump Administration. U.S. immigration law provides for a special program called Temporary Protected Status also known as TPS. This program allows the DHS Secretary to provide temporary legal status and work authorization to citizens of a country, or countries, suffering through the devastation caused by a political or natural disaster. Currently, people from Haiti, Honduras, El Salvador and Nicaragua are benefiting from this program. These are people who were in the U.S. when these disasters occurred.

Some of these designations extend almost 20 years—Honduras first received TPS in 1999 due to Hurricane Mitch. The law requires DHS to review the TPS designation every 18 months and to announce its decision to extend or not, 60 days before the current expiration date.

TPS is set to expire in January 2018 for Haiti, Honduras, and Nicaragua, and in March 2018 for El Salvador. The TPS beneficiaries living in the U.S. are frightened that this administration, which has shown little humanitarian support for immigrants, may refuse any further extensions. Obviously, many of these people, living legally in this country for so many years, raising families, starting businesses, buying homes and paying taxes, are rightfully concerned.
 
Apply for permanent residency now!

I urge people who are from these countries and have TPS to begin the process of trying to get permanent residency as soon as possible. The federal courts have indicated that someone who is here with TPS can adjust status and get a green card without leaving the United States.
 
People who have certain family relatives and/or employer sponsors should begin the process of trying to get green cards through these sponsors immediately before the administration pulls the rug out from under them by denying the extension of TPS. 

Mitchell C. Zwaik

Zwaik, Gilbert & Associates, P.C.
5014 Express Drive South
Ronkonkoma, NY  11779
www.zwaik.com