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The H-2B grassroots organization Save Small Business reached out to its membership recently with a reminder of the importance of contacting Congress to effect legislative change. “The coming weeks will be critical to H-2B legislation and it is crucial that you contact your representative in the House of Representatives to voice your support for H-2B legislation,” the organization said in its announcement.
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In the coming weeks, Save Small Business is urging its members and other industry professionals to contact Members of Congress by e-mail, phone, fax and mail to ask for their support on permanent H-2B legislation. Contact information for senators and representatives are available from www.senate.gov and www.house.gov, respectively.
Additionally, Save Small Business has asked H-2B users to contact the organization with stories on how the first half of the H-2B cap has affected their businesses. Temporary H-2B legislation passed in May 2005 split the 66,000-visa H-2B cap into two 33,000-visa seasons and exempted H-2B workers from the past three years from counting against the cap. Still, some companies were caught by surprise when the first 33,000-visa cap was reached on Dec. 16, 2005.
A recent Lawn & Landscape Online Poll revealed that 35 percent of respondents who use the H-2B program got their visa applications in to the U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Service prior to Dec. 16. Another 35 percent said their application did not make it in before the cap was reached, but that they’ll apply again with a later start-date. Ten percent said their applications did not beat the cut-off and that they won’t re-apply, while 20 percent said their workers don’t count against the cap this year.