the U.S. to work seasonally. They recruited the other workers we needed and also helped by talking with the recruits about what was expected of them when they came to work at DCC. After you identify who your workers will be, background checks are run on them through the Department of Homeland Security. You are not guaranteed that your workers will be here the day their visas allow them to be. Our workers visas were valid on April 1st but did not get here until April 10th. This was due to the back log of workers coming through the embassy in Monterrey and the office being closed over Easter. Once workers arrive they will need to find hous-
ing and transportation to work. Our crew lived at the shop until they found housing and we had to advance them some funds so they could buy groceries, etc. We used a law firm in Texas to do all the paper work and filing and we did the recruiting. The additional cost of the program over hiring locally was $5,300 dollars. These were the fees from the attorney’s office as well as the filing and process fees. There are a number of challenges to the program but it has worked well for us and allowed us to create the consistency and quality our owner was looking for.
return to the same employer year after year illustrates the significant opportunities that H-2B workers enjoy. What happens to lingering H-2B workers who overstay their visas, which exacerbates illegal immigration in America? The program provides H-2B workers with well-paying seasonal jobs that allow them to provide for their families and still maintain their homes in their native countries. When approving H-2B visas, the U.S. Consulate confirms workers’ ties to their home countries. Workers who overstay their visas are barred from using the program in the future, a risk these workPageers 40 are not willing to take since they generally return to the same employer