H-2B Visa Program Limitations Pose Serious Challenges to Local Lawn Care Business

    DALLAS, TX, March 23, 2016 /24-7PressRelease/ -- As spring arrives and dormant lawns turn to green, Emerald Lawn Care should already be setting plans in motion for their busiest time of the year--but this year, for now, their hands are tied by limitations to the H-2B Visa program.

Emerald Lawn Care built a successful business providing professional lawn care to busy residential clients. Their strong focus on integrity and quality gained them a long list of more than 2,000 loyal clients who employ their services year after year. In an industry plagued with the stigma of rampant under-the-table wage practices and undocumented workers, Emerald Lawn Care has always been proud to advertise as a company that employs only legal, high quality workers. Their clients--and the American public in general--may not realize just how difficult this is be-coming for lawn care businesses, as labor shortages become an industry-wide problem.

According to State of the Industry data from Lawn & Landscape Market Leadership, two-thirds of all landscapers polled say that a lack of quality employees hinders their location's growth. More than a third have at least 1-3 positions open in their company, and a shortage of workers is the top obstacle cited to landscapers' business success--a threat ranked even ahead of low-ball competitors. This shortage has led to the need for many in the industry to hire H-2B workers, or temporary non-immigrant seasonal workers who meet government criteria and spend only 9 months out of the year working in the country. Though the workers come highly qualified and vetted by government agencies, and though landscape businesses like Emerald Lawn Care find it worthwhile to jump through all the necessary hoops to get on the list for H-2B workers, the program's deliberate limitations make the process unpredictable.

H-2B permits for temporary seasonal workers are issued in biannual cycles and worker caps are limited. Businesses can apply for as many workers as they require, but only a certain number of H-2B workers can currently be approved per permit cycle. Unfortunately for businesses like Emerald Lawn Care, even getting permit approval has not always guaranteed that workers will be allowed to work: in 2015, the Department of Labor approved permits for all of Emerald's re-quested workers in both permit cycles, but because the overall cap was reached early in the second cycle, only half of those worker permits were ultimately issued, in spite of a demonstrated need. Despite increased efforts to recruit American workers through multiple venues, Emerald Lawn Care was unable to compensate for the loss with new hires. The company does em-ploy 15 American workers year-round, and continues to recruit.

Recently, an omnibus bill updating the H-2B visa program was passed that specified that H-2B workers who've been in the program in the past 3 years could be approved regardless of the cap. Because Emerald Lawn Care prefers to invite back workers they've already had a good working relationship with, it appeared this adjustment would prevent the company from being denied necessary H-2B workers for the 2016 spring season. Unfortunately, delays from the Department of Labor have left this as yet unclear. Despite clear language in the bill that workers who've been approved in the last 3 years would not be limited by or counted towards the worker cap, the Department of Labor has independently interpreted this to mean that the rule only applies to applications received after December 18, 2015, the day the bill was passed. Subsequently, approval of a significant number of applications has been delayed, and the Department of Labor is not doing an effective job of communicating whether businesses can count on the H-2B workers that should have been automatically approved under the new bill.

With the April 1 deadline for the upcoming busy season looming and preparations underway, the verdict on whether Emerald Lawn Care's returning worker permits and/or new H-2B permits will be approved before the worker cap is reached--or even whether the cap has yet been reached at all--is still up in the air, with little clarity on the issue from the Department of Labor. With such short notice, a loss of the needed H-2B workers could be devastating for business and for the dedicated legal workers willing to meet that demand. The business is now looking ahead in attempt to prepare for either outcome, contemplating creative solutions in case no permits are approved. These limitations are affecting businesses across the entire industry.

The H-2B visa program was designed to protect American labor and create a temporary pathway for legal, safe, legitimate non-American workers, but it seems that worker caps are only hurting businesses and workers with integrity--while under-the-table contractors and corruption-as-usual in the industry still thrives unregulated.

Emerald Lawn Care provides lawn care services such as lawn mowing, fertilization, and weed control for customers in North Texas. Each outdoor space is unique, and that's why Emerald creates a custom approach to give each customer the best lawn possible. With Emerald Lawn Care, lawn health comes first.

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