The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced on Monday that measures are being taken to tackle the shortage of labor force in the United States,by issuing up to 15000 visas for temporary non-agricultural workers in this budget year.

John Kelly, secretary of the DHS stated, “Congress gave me the discretionary authority to provide temporary relief to American businesses at risk of significant harm due to a lack of available seasonal workers.” According to Kelly’s announcement after consulting with the labor department, there are very few U.S. workerswho are qualified and are willing to perform work of this nature.

Employers at the U.S. will require to attest under the penalty of perjury that “their businessis likely to suffer irreparable harm” without employing the nonimmigrant workers. Without this attested statement the H-2B visas will not be qualified, which will invariably affect the U.S. businesses.

The H-2B program allows workers from over 80 countries to be employed at a government-set wage for seasonal, non-agricultural U.S. businesses. Some industries certainly benefit from cheap workforce acquired through the H-2B pipeline, such as; resorts, landscaping, forestry, seafood harvesting and processing, and a few others.

Backed by Congress, Kelly offers more than an annual limit of 66,000 H-2B visas this fiscal year 2017.

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