Congress has passed and sent to the President the Iraq/Afghanistan Supplemental Appropriations bill.  The President is expected to sign it immediately. The bill includes legislation sponsored by Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) and supported by the horse industry that will ease the problems caused by the enforcement this year of the 66,000 cap on H-2B visas. The H2B working visa is a nonimmigrant visa which allows foreign nationals to enter into the U.S. temporarily and engage in nonagricultural employment which is seasonal, intermittent, a peak load need, or a one-time occurrence.

The new provision, which is effective immediately, will exempt from the cap for the next two years any foreign worker who has received a visa under the H-2B program in the three years previous.

The new provision will allow the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service to begin processing H-2B visas again immediately. USCIS stopped issuing H-2B visas on January 3 of this year when the cap was reached. This left many employers, including some in the horse industry, without their usual foreign workers. The Immigration Service is expected to issue instructions on filing these applications shortly.

“This will benefit many employers in the horse industry who rely on the H-2B program to bring semi-skilled, alien workers into the U.S. for non-agricultural jobs. Many trainers, training facilities, horse shows and other service providers in the industry rely on these workers to fill jobs American don’t want,” said AHC President Jay Hickey