Visa Difficulties for H-2B Horse Trainers

Like many other industries, the horse racing industry relies heavily on foreign workers.  An article on thoroughbred trainers highlights the difficulties that their employers now face in procuring H-2B visas due to a shift in interpretive policy at the USCIS. Increased scrutiny has caused hardship not only for the affected H-2B trainers but also their employers.

The U.S. government used to say the workers met the standards of “seasonal” and “temporary” because the same trainer needed them in different locations at distinct times of the year.

Now, the government is ruling that they are year-round employees. Trainers must file separate visa applications for each worker at each meet.

This is one example of many whereby USCIS has made the process of procuring a visa more difficult, even in cases where existing regulations and statutes have not changed.