Making the decision to bring foreign workers to the United States through the H-2B program is usually an easy one, and most contractors agree that the results are outstanding. But where, exactly, do the workers come from and how can an employer identify which workers to hire?
The answers to these questions lie with recruiting firms that work closely with H-2B providers and create links between the providers and the foreign country. Attorney Robert Kershaw, Robert Kershaw & Associates, Austin Texas, subcontracts with a recruiter in Mexico to help his clients find the right workers for their businesses.
“What most employers do is put a memo out to their existing employees who are from Mexico and have friends and relatives still down there,” Kershaw comments. “They’ll say, ‘We’re going to be hiring 20 people on the H-2B program. Do you know people in Mexico who would like to come work for us and are able to do this type of work?’ They employer might give an age range or other criteria that the new employees must meet, but most of the time they find their workers through existing employees.”
Recruiter Jeff West, general manager, LLS International, Goodrich, Mich., agrees that the majority of companies who employ H-2B workers already know the people they’re hiring. “About 80 percent of all companies applying for H-2B are asking for requested or named workers – sometimes they’re called preferred workers,” he notes, adding that the reason for this is because many companies hire the same workers year after year.
West explained, “the employer will tell their H-2B provider company, who will then notify us, they want these certain people and we locate them and put all the necessary information about that individual into a database that’s linked with the H-2B provider.” LLS International’s database includes statistics such as each worker’s name, address, phone number and birthday, passport number, picture ID and information on when the workers are needed and what their current status is regarding the employer’s H-2B application. Once the application is approved, West’s colleagues in Mexico can then call in the individual workers to complete paperwork for the U.S. consulate, allowing them to enter the United States.
“For new companies who don’t have a named worker they want us to recruit, we can still find employees for them,” West assures. “We maintain a current database of eligible workers based on work experience, occupation, education, language skills, etc. If a company requests that a worker have experience in masonry, we perform a database search and find a worker who agrees to the terms of the job set forth by the employer.” Additionally, employers can request that their employees be able to acquire a U.S. drivers license and, for a fee, LLS International can recruit bilingual workers as well.
Kershaw noted that there are fees associated with recruitment that are applied to requested workers, although a worker should never pay for a visa itself, as visa selling is against the law. Charges generally include an application fee of about $100, a $100 consulate fee, and about $50 to go over the application with the worker and make sure everything is properly filled out.
The author is Assistant Editor of Lawn & Landscape magazine and can be reached at lspiers@lawnandlandscape.com.