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With unprecedented low unemployment rates
across the ski industry, many ski areas are re-eval-
uating whether to consider anew the use of H-2B
immigrant work visas to better satisfy hard-to-
fill staffing demands. Given how difficult it is to
find good employees (or any employees), ski areas
both in the West and East are increasingly turn-
ing to foreign guest workers now more than ever
before. In fact, with fresh strategies to minimize
costs, foreign visa workers are not just for larger
ski areas anymore.

While foreign nationals may solve a number of a ski area’s
staffing challenges, it is important to be aware of the issues
and considerations encountered by employers who hire for-
eign guest workers under the H-2B visa program.
There are key differences between the various foreign
guest worker visa programs. The H-2B visa is a temporary
work visa that ski areas can use to fill just about any seasonal
job at the mountain. The most common H-2B visa positions
generally fall into a broad range of departments, including
food and beverage, housekeeping, lift operations, ski school,
and even snowmaking. The J-1 student visa, on the other
hand, is a shorter-term cultural exchange visa that many
more ski areas use to staff similar positions, but also more
guest-facing positions.
One key difference between the two visas is that H-2B
visas allow for longer seasons and for employees to return
year after year. J-1 visas are limited to four months, are only
available for college students (over their summer break), and
are obtained through for-profit third-party recruiting agen-
cies. While H-2B visas are for true foreign guest workers
Fresh Strategies overseen by the US Department of Labor (DOL), J-1 visas

are designed as part of a student educational and cultural
Breathe New Life exchange diplomacy program (regulated by the US State
Department) that secondarily involves a guest worker com-
Into Foreign Worker ponent to the program.

Visa Program POSSIBLE CHANGES TO THE J-1 VISA PROGRAM
Under the Trump administration, there are likely going to
be some changes to the J-1 visa program announced later
in 2018 that may impact how ski areas utilize foreign guest
worker programs.
By Keith Pabian, Pabian Law, LLC, During his presidential campaign, Donald Trump
& Dave Byrd, NSAA Director was critical of all guest worker programs in general (“Hire

Of Risk & Regulatory Affairs Americans First!” was his mantra). He campaigned on
eliminating or changing the J-1 visa program, replacing it
with inner city students—an idea that was unworkable on
a number of levels. In April 2017, President Trump issued
an executive order titled “Buy American, Hire American,”