US finalises changes to H2-B visa

The US government will make permanent changes to a visa programme that brings foreign workers to the United States for temporary non-agricultural work. The aim is to streamline and simplify the application process and increase worker protections, Labour secretary Elaine Chao said in an interview on Wednesday. The H2-B visa programme allows foreign workers into the United States for specific seasonal jobs, provided the employer cannot find Americans for the work, and the foreigners return home within 10 months.

Workers in the programme must pass background checks, and the visas have provisions to ensure they return home. The visa programme is capped at 66,000 workers per year, who are placed mostly in landscaping, hospitality and other industries. Changes include eliminating duplicative applications at the state and federal levels, requiring employer to attest, under threat of fines and disbarment, that they follow all rules and let the government decide what workers should earn. Employers will be prohibited from passing along the cost of the new proposals to their workers, and the Labour Department, for the first time, will be able to enforce terms and conditions of temporary foreigner employment and impose fines on violators.

The homeland security department currently is responsible for enforcing the regulations, but the Labour department has more expertise in the area, Chao said. The Labour department also will become the final word on labour certification applications. The final changes will be in the Federal Register on Friday and go into effect in mid-January. The labour department made public its plans to change the H2-B visa rules in May. Also to be published on Friday are the department’s changes to H2-A visas, which are used by the agriculture industry to hire temporary farm workers. Regulatory changes in the waning days of the Bush administration will make it harder for US president-elect Barack Obama to change course on some policies favoured by Republicans and businesses.