From the Cook County Chamber of Commerce - February 7, 2022

For many years, our hospitality industry – and a significant portion of related county businesses – have needed to augment their local staff with temporary international workers. One essential program for recruiting abroad has been the H2B temporary worker visa program.

As those familiar with the H2B program know, it is perennially oversubscribed by huge numbers. Whereas the U.S. government typically allots 66,000 temporary visas annually for H2B applicants, it’s not unusual to see  American employers applying to hire more than 200,000 H2B workers. For the 33,000 visas available in the second half of 2022, the U.S. Department of Labor received 136,555 applications. Just days ago, 20,000 additional visas were made available to employers – still a mere drop in the bucket against the obvious need.

The U.S. Travel Association, representing the travel industry, is seeking to exert pressure on Congress and the Biden Administration to further increase the number of H2B visas available. The association is seeking our help. It requests that you fill out and submit a short survey on the H2B program if  you have familiarity with it. Completing the survey will help ensure Congress and the Biden Administration know just how badly needed additional H2B visas are.

You can find the survey here: https://survey.alchemer.com/s3/6717174/H-2B-Employment-Data-Survey