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H2-B or not to be?
Returning worker exemption allowed to die
By Pru Sowers
Banner Staff
PROVINCETOWN — Local employers were shaken Monday when Congress did not renew the returning worker exemption to the H2-B foreign worker legislation, instead allowing it to expire.
The exemption would allow seasonal foreign staff that had previously worked in a town to not be counted against the 66,000 cap on temporary workers allowed into the U.S. each year. If the exemption provision is not brought back before Congress, it could have a devastating impact on resort towns employing foreign workers, including Provincetown, which depends on staff from Jamaica, eastern Europe and other countries to make up a large percentage of its summer work force.
Joy McNulty, owner of the Lobster Pot restaurant on Commercial Street, said the bill was reauthorized last year at the last minute and many expected the same down-to-the-wire approval over the weekend. However, the bill never came up for a vote and expired on Saturday. As a result, the dozens of foreign workers who return to Provincetown each summer will now be counted against the cap, which could significantly reduce the number of people allowed here to work next summer.
The cap is split into two equal groups of 33,000, divided between winter and summer workers. The cap on winter workers was reached on Monday, almost two months earlier than last year, according to Shawn Saucier, a spokesperson for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. One reason the cap was reached so soon is because approximately 50,000 returning worker applications now have to be counted against the 33,000 winter cap, he said.
Congress still could act, Saucier said, saving Provincetown’s 2008 summer season.
“There still is time. Realistically, you can’t start submitting those petitions, if you are an employer, until 120 days before April 1st,” he said, referring to the deadline for submitting an H2-B visa application for workers beginning work after April 1.
McNulty said she was surprised the returning worker provision was allowed to expire, effectively killing the bill in both the House and Senate.
“Now they have to either bring those two bills back or have to tack them onto [another bill] as an amendment. But they haven’t been able to do that [so far]. It’s been blocked,” McNulty said, adding she will know more about the chances of passing the returning workers legislation in a week or so.
psowers@provincetownbanner.com
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Oct 4th, 2007