During this unprecedented labor shortage, filling open jobs is the hotel industry’s top priority. As you know, the H-2B visa program helps hotels and other industries with strong seasonal business and workforce needs to do just that.
That’s why AHLA, along with our partners in the H-2B Workforce Coalition, which AHLA co-chairs, have been lobbying the Biden Administration and the Departments of Homeland Security and Labor to provide additional H-2B visas for the busy summer season.
I’m pleased to share that those efforts paid off: earlier today, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Department of Labor (DOL) announced they would make available an additional 35,000 H-2B visas for the second half of fiscal year 2022 (FY22), which begins April 1. Of these, 23,500 visas will be available for returning workers, while 11,500 are reserved for nationals of Haiti, Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador. In December, for the first time ever the Departments released an additional 20,000 H-2B visas for the first half of the fiscal year.
These additional visas will provide critical help to seasonal resorts as we enter the busy summer travel season, and they suggest that the Biden Administration recognizes the acute workforce shortage we are facing. AHLA will continue to push for legislation and policies that will help fill open jobs and keep us on the road to recovery.
