How We Do It: Sept. 1999, Managing The H2-B Program

As an owner of a commercial and residential landscape management and maintenance company for more than 10 years in Austin, Texas, we know the labor concerns of the green industry first hand. As business owners, we have felt the pressures of ensuring that our labor force was legal, in place and with valid social security numbers.

We have had our own labor shortages and needed to find a solution as well as improve our employee turnover rate. We employed laborers with documents that enabled us to fill out I-9 forms, thus we felt certain that we had a legal workforce. The Immigration Naturalization Service told us otherwise. We quickly realized we had to find a solution. We discovered the H2-B program and have successfully utilized it within our company for five consecutive years. Although complicated, bureaucratic and time consuming, we discovered a solution.

The H2-B program allows us to recruit individuals from Mexico to work for what we can establish as our peak season. In the past, we found that we needed additional laborers from March through the middle of December. Most of our laborers want to return to Mexico for the Christmas holidays and are not ready to return until early spring. As a landscape contractor, that works great for us. From the Christmas season through February we are able to perform our contracted work with our full-time laborers and do not feel the financial strain of excess employees. No only does this program allow us to employ legal laborers, it does not require that we employ them longer than 10 months of the year. The H2-B program is perfect for our business.

Soon, our business associates and competition heard of our labor solution and asked that we assist them in this endeavor. With this, we started Foley Enterprises and have obtained work visas for not only our own company but for many others. Any labor-oriented industry with a seasonal need is eligible for H2-B visas.

So little is known about this program that during our first year with work visas, the INS picked up one of our landscape crews even though they had all of their appropriate paperwork on them. We then went to the station and informed the INS agents they had incorrectly detained our employees. This type of visa was unfamiliar even to them. They realized their mistake and quickly released our employees with an apology to our firm.

Due to the program’s lack of exposure in the industry, many contractors are confused by it or doubtful that it works. Many potential clients have gone to an immigration lawyer for a second opinion. The lawyer, out of his or her unawareness of the program, advised them that it couldn’t be done. Many clients are simply afraid of being duped or that they somehow will divulge information that could come back to haunt them.

With the economy as it is now, the lack of available labor is a frightening situation. The INS knows this and is ready to take action against any company hiring illegal laborers. The H2-B program is like a form of labor insurance. You can sleep at night knowing the next day’s work can be completed without interruption.

This program allows contractors to have legal, temporarily immigrant laborers for up to 10 months of the year. When the visa expires, the worker is required to return to their home but can return to the U.S. the next year if the employee should be re-certified. INS will not simply renew the visas but has to evaluate the employing company’s needs each year.

The visas cost $750 each when purchasing three to 10, and $700 when purchasing 11 to 20. The cost decreases $50 for every 20 visas bought. This amount can be divided into three payments. Also, there are no housing requirements to worry about with this visa. The contractor does, however, have to pay prevailing wages, which are set by the U.S. Department of Labor and are based on what the industry as a whole is paying its laborers.

The process is not an immediate solution and can take up to 120 days to produce visas. Contractors considering using the H2-B program should begin this process as early as November to be assured certification for the end of February the following year.

The author is with Foley Enterprises, Austin, Texas.

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