Now, the hospitality industry is a very unique industry because the skilled workers that
are needed in the United States are often not here. Many of the hotels, restaurants
that we work with find great workers coming from Europe, Asia, Africa. They all need to
come here and they all have special ways to get over here and we're going to go over those
options in just a second. The first thing that the hotel manager or hiring manager or
restaurant manager that is dealing with me has to do is to ask me that question, "How
do I bring that manager, the housekeeper, the chef, the waiter to work in my hotel?"
The first thing that I do is I say, "Tell me about this worker. Tell me about his qualifications
and tell me about the position that you guys have for him." There are several options and
several visas that are available specifically for hospitality workers and we're going to
go over with them. First visa that's available for hospitality workers is the J-1 visa. The
J-1 visa is a unique visa because it's based on cultural exchange between the US and countries
that are coming here, bringing workers. Two types of J-1 visas. The first one is J visas
that are coming to work here as trainees. A trainee is defined as a person that has
either five years experience or a bachelor’s degree would at least one year experience
after graduation. Those workers that come on a J-1 as trainees can come in and spend
18 months with a hotel or restaurant that will offer them training in management or
other kinds of marketing or business. Allow them to develop their skills and go back to
their home countries. The other category is an intern. An intern is a person that either
is in school right now in the home country or just recently graduated and has less than
one year of experience. These guys can come for one year to train in a hotel or restaurant
in the same field. Another J-1 that is also available for hospitality workers is the Work
and Travel. These employees come for four months during the summertime to work and train
in the United States. The nice thing about the J-1, it's quick to get and it's easy for
the employers to obtain those visas because they are all handled through the state department
and a typical employee can get to the US in less than six weeks. The second visa that
we're going to cover right now is the H-3 training, just like the J-1, the H-3 is also
a trainee visa available for up to two years and is a very good option for hotels and restaurants
who hire J-1s to get an extension on the J by getting an H-3 program introduced. The
H-3 program is unique and different than the J-1 because, with the H-3, we have to prove
that the training is not available in the home country of their trainees. The way we
do it is we focus on elements of training that are typically unique to the United States.
Our office typically will work with the employer, hotel, the restaurant, the resort to develop
the H-3 program specifically to allow the hotels benefit from those trainees to be able
to come in and work in the US. Again, a great option for trainees that are not in a position
of education. You don't need a college degree for that. You need some experience but not
that much and it's a perfect opportunity for employers to get trainees to work in the United
States in the hospitality industry. The third option is a visa called Q, Q1. The Q-1 visa.
It's a new category and it's also based on cultural exchange, cultural component of a
program. So basically, if we have chefs or servers that are from the country like for
example, Jamaica or China that are going to be involved in cultural exchange involving
the public, the guests of the restaurant of the hotel in their activities, Q1 cultural
exchange program can be set up and is a nice way to get trainees and workers to come and
work in that particular category. The next visa option we're going to talk about is the
H1B visa. The H1B visa is an interesting visa because it requires the worker to have a college
degree. It's a visa that requires a college degree and for the position, also to requires
somebody with a college degree. We call this a specialty occupation. So, for the hospitality
industry, we are looking for people with bachelor degree in hospitality management, in business,
in culinary arts, all these are professions that require a bachelor degree and positions
like phone desk managers, lodging managers, marketing and public relations positions in
the hotel that will justify the need for a college degree. The H1B visa is an interesting
visa because it's a three-year visa and you can get an extension for another three years.
Unlike the J-1, the person can only come for 18 months or the H-3 which is limited to two
years, the H1B is a total of six years and if the person is good enough and the hotel
or restaurant likes to keep him, permanent residency is also an option. So, the person
can get a green card after the duration of that visa. Great option and very nice for
a management type positions in hotels. The next option is TN visa. Hotels and restaurants
that employ Canadians and Mexicans can benefit from this visa. The TN visa is a NAFTA based
visa. And the only people eligible for it, If they are from Mexico or from Canada. You
need to have a college degree as well or five years’ experience if you come into management
position. Great option for hotel managers, restaurant managers. Again, limited in nature
for TN workers. Our next option is available for hospitality workers who are interested
in getting into the position of being self-employed. E2 visa is a great option for those people.
If they want to set up a restaurant, if they want to set up a coffee shop, if they want
to become partners in hotel, they can get an E2 visa if they invest in their own enterprise.
Another option is the L visa. Many of our hotels are chains like the Marriott, the Sheraton,
Starwoods, these are properties that have locations in different parts of the world.
If they transfer a manager from China to the United States or from Europe or the United
States, these people are eligible for L-1A or L-1B visas to allow them to transfer workers
from one location to the other. Again, the L-1 is a great option and then many times
for larger hotels that are moving workers or for smaller kinds of independent hotels
who are interested in setting up branch offices in the United States. So, the L visa is a
great option. As you can see, there are many options for hospitality workers to come and
work in the US one visa that I have to mention is the H2B visa. The H2B visa is a seasonal
visa. Unlike all the other visa we mentioned so far, this visa is based on a season, so
if a hotel needs workers for six months a year, or four months a year, 10 months a year,
as long as they can establish that it's a seasonal pattern. The new workers, they can
apply for an H2B visa for mass amount of workers. 10, 20, 30 workers at a time, get them over
here in groups and place them in different locations in their hotel or restaurant. So,
the H2B is based on duration. We can only do it twice a year, April and October, where
the cap for the visa starts. There is limited number of visas, just like the H1B 66,000
visas per year, twice a year we can apply for this visa, but it's a good option for
hotels or resorts. They need to bring workers in a large number of employees at a time for
the season. So as you can see, the hospitality field is a very interesting field, very exciting
field and allows employers to bring workers as they need depending on their qualifications,
depending their need, depending on their ability to work, and also depending on the need of
the employer, if it's a seasonal need or if it's a permanent need, they can't find the
workers to work for them. And like I said, this particular field requires workers to
come from overseas to fill the gap that the US hospitality employers are facing. If you
need help with any of those visas, feel free to call me or email us or visit our website,
www.h1b.biz. Thank you and I look forward to speaking with you soon.