By the time many could complete their visa applications, the cap had been reached.
“I like to joke and say we have more great white sharks than I have workers looking for a job on Cape Cod,” she says.īusinesses in colder areas like Cape Cod, which typically have later start dates, find themselves at a loss. Jane Nichols Bishop, who goes by the nickname “Mama Visa,” helps local companies secure annual H2B visas. This year, instead of potentially 264,000 visas, there are 66,000 - half allocated in the spring, the other half in the fall. But last September, Congress failed to renew a provision that effectively quadrupled the number of H2B visas available in 2016 by not counting returnees against the annual cap. Normally it’s the former group Sylvester has a hard time hiring. Fully staffed, the company employs seven to eight Americans and 13 H2B visa workers. Sylvester, who has been with the company since 1996, says it earns roughly 85 to 90 percent of its profits in five months - the region’s outdoor wedding season. “It could be 20 percent,” said Allen Sylvester, president of American Tent & Table, Inc., a family-owned tent rental and party accessory business in Cape Cod, Massachusetts. temporary work visa program, called H2B, are keeping out the workers that businesses count on.įor affected businesses, the financial loss could be plenty. Few Americans are willing to fill them and now, thousands of foreign seasonal workers may not be allowed into the U.S. The month is mostly a time of waiting for the fog and chill to lift off the Atlantic Ocean and the tourists to arrive.īut this year is a problem for seasonal businesses, whose model is built around five-to-six-month, low-skilled jobs in areas like hospitality. Along northeastern Cape Cod off the coast of Massachusetts, April doesn’t usually equate with sunshine and sandcastles.
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