October 5, 2007 (Incline Village, NV) – Tourist destinations such as hotels, casinos, ski resorts in America rely heavily on International workers to fill seasonal positions. There are two types of workers which generally come to America on temporary work visas, Students ˆ utilizing a J1 visa and skilled workers through the H-2B temporary work visa. For the J1 visa, a person must be a full-time, matriculated student at an American or foreign university and must (leave the country, if necessary to) return to school after their winter break is over. H-2B visa holders are able to stay in America longer on their visas because they don‚t have the time constraint of returning to school.

However, many long-time H-2B workers and ski resorts are in CRISIS right now. Two major developments occurred in the past week with respect to H2B visas. First, the exemption from the cap for returning workers expired on September 30, 2007. Second, the cap of 33,000 H2B visas for the first half of FY 2008 was reached on October 1, 2007. Any visa applications submitted after September 27, 2007 will be rejected unless and until Congress steps in to help the ski industry.

A bill called the Save Our Small and Seasonal Businesses Act of 2007 was introduced earlier this year. In this Bill, returning H-2B workers were slated to be permanently exempt from the H-2B visa quota. However, this bill has not been passed and the ski industry has been notified that the cap has been reached and all pending H-2B applications will be returned. The cap was reached earlier than normal this year because, to date, Congress has failed to renew the returning worker exemption from the quota.

Obviously, with the quota reached so quickly, many recreation and tourism based businesses have been blindsided with the fact that most, if not all of their returning H-2B workers, cannot return and work. This issue particularly affects ski resorts because ski resorts often don‚t start their employee recruitment process until mid-September/October.

Estimates indicate there are at least 50,000 outstanding H-2B applications and workers that are in grave danger of being unable to come to the U.S. to work. Even if Congress adopts a retroactive exemption for returning H2B workers and the cap is opened back up, applications submitted after September 27, 2007 are not likely to be processed in time for the holidays.

If this cap does not open back up, then it is possible that some recreation and tourism based businesses will be severely impacted or even forced to shut down due to lack of workers, which would in turn greatly affect many areas of the country and the national economy.

Diamond Peak and the U.S. Ski Industry need your help in emailing, faxing, or calling your representatives and senators to urge them to co-sponsor the legislation which will provide relief for the H2B visa program and allow resorts to obtain the help they need to supplement their domestic workforce. Please urge your Senators to support and co-sponsor S. 988. In the House, please ask your Representative to support and co-sponsor H.R 1843. For a sample letter, please go to www.nsaa.org.

If you want a shortcut, the Capitol operator at 202-224-3121 can put you through to any office in Washington.