The government of U.S announced on Thursday 20,000 additional visas for temporary non-agricultural workers to alleviate the labor shortage in the country, part of which will go to citizens of Haiti, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras.
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The visas, available from this Friday, January 28, aim to support US employers facing “irreparable damage” due to lack of workers and seeking to hire staff until March 31 of this year, according to a statement from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS ).
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“DHS is taking steps to address the needs of our economy by making available to workers 20,000 additional H-2B visas“, said the head of the department, Alejandro Mayorkas.
“We are providing employers with the necessary resources and support to maintain their businesses while expanding legal pathways into the United States,” he added.
ENORMOUS! For the first time, DHS is making additional H-2B visas available in the first half of the fiscal year thanks to record job growth in the United States
The United States currently issues a maximum of 66,000 H-2B visas per fiscal year, which runs from October 1 of one calendar year to September 30 of the next. This is the first time it has made additional H-2B visas available in the first half of the fiscal year.
DHS said that of the total supplemental visas, 13,500 will be available to workers who already received an H-2B visa during one of the last three fiscal years.
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The remaining 6,500 visas, which will be exempt from the returning worker requirement, are reserved for Haitian, Salvadoran, Guatemalan and Honduran citizens.
The head of the United States Agency for International Development Assistance (USAID), Samantha Power, celebrated the news upon arriving in Honduras as part of the US delegation attending the presidential inauguration of Xiomara Castro.
“HUGE! For the first time, DHS is making additional H-2B visas available in the first half of the fiscal year thanks to record job growth in the United States,” he tweeted.
The H-2B temporary non-agricultural worker program was created by the US Congress to allow US employers to bring in non-US citizens to fill temporary positions.
AFP
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