US reopens H-2B visa for semi-skilled foriegn workers

With some 25,000 visas still up for grabs

Sep 17, 2009

With some 25,000 visas still up for grabs, the US has reopened the H-2B visa window for semiskilled foreign workers. As in the case of H-1B visas for highly skilled workers, there has been a sharp drop in recruitment of foreign workers in recession-hit U.S. However, with the economy now appearing to be recovering slowly, the US citizenship and Immigration Services has decided to allow employers to file additional petitions for qualified H-2B temporary foreign nonagricultural workers.

Although other growth indicators are showing signs of improvement, the job market is still to stabilize. But analysts believe that the decline in the rate of job losses brought out in the latest official report is an indication that the worst recession is easing. Job loses during July have been put at 2,47,000, which is considerably lower than the figures for earlier months- 4,43,000 in June and more than 7,00,000 in January. While announcing its decisions, USCIS said it has issued only 40,640 H-2B visas for year 2009 against an annual cap of 66,000.

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