The federal government has announced that it will process nearly double the number of H-2B visas next year, about 130,000, to help seasonal businesses cope with employee shortages.
Ski Maine Executive Director Dirk Gouwens says last year was the second busiest season ever in Maine, and that the addition of H-2B visas could help sustain that momentum.
"It's been important for the last few years as it's become difficult to find enough employees. Our larger ski resorts have had open positions they cannot fill. It will be good to have these visas available to make the guest experience as good as it can be," he says.
Gouwens says at the end of each ski season resorts are already thinking about visa applications for the next winter and visa caps are being reached quickly in the process.
Not only that, employers have to win a visa through a lottery system.
Kathryn Ference, director of workplace development for the Maine Tourism Association, says the increased cap should help but there are other caveats.
"Even if you do get lucky and win the lottery, you might not get the person you need because of application delays," she says.
Ference says last spring those delays resulted in some H-2B workers arriving late in the summer, halfway through the busy tourist season.
U.S. Sens. Angus King and Susan Collins of Maine are calling upon the departments of Labor and Homeland Security to report how many visas would have met demand for open positions this year, the economic fallout from the inability to meet that demand and how they plan to fix the problem.
