As the ski industry’s historical pool of snow bums has been shrinking, areas have turned to a new source of staff eager and passionate about the sport and delighted to work any seasonal job: international students.

The U.S. State Department makes it pretty easy to do this—call it a rare case of governmental efficiency. Under the J1 visa, a college student from abroad can spend four months working a U.S. job, polishing his or her English and learning about American culture. The idea is that these kids become informal but influential ambassadors for America.

In addition, the H2B visa program allows for more extended stays for more professionally-oriented work. The typical H2B visitor is a university graduate working at an executive level.

About half a dozen companies (see box) specialize in placing ski resort employees, usually for the December-through-March period, the summer academic break for Southern Hemisphere universities. The four-month limit is a J1 legal requirement: the student needs to leave the U.S. when the visa expires.


International Considerations
Hiring international students has its own set of issues. The biggest challenge is to find a good fit between resort and employee. Resorts have to present themselves favorably, without creating a false impression that could lead to an unhappy employee down the road. The students are looking to experience America, not just find work, and that consideration is part of any job offer. Still, you need to guarantee enough work, at a wage scale sufficient to cover housing and living costs.

Pay particular attention to any training period or arrival orientation—it may need to be compressed into a few days before the Christmas rush. Insiders advise that employers start the training process before the student leaves home. Put together a packet describing the job precisely, along with orientation material about the resort, the housing and transportation situations, and your local culture.

Language facility is clearly a concern. Universal Student Exchange (USE), based in Lima, Peru, says its students are screened for fluency in English, and employers who hire a minimum number of students are flown, free, to hiring fairs in the Latin American capitals to interview students up front. For on-snow employees, such as ski and snowboard instructors, a job fair is held at La Parva, Chile. USE placed about 50 instructors this winter.

Having a large and varied pool to draw from is a good idea, says Larry Rothchild at InterExchange in New York City. It means you don’t have all your eggs in one basket if a country experiences visa delays. “Besides, do you want 100 Armenians?” Rothchild says. “You’re better off bringing in a mix from different countries.”

Rothchild warns that housing costs are a serious issue. If you can’t offer free employee housing, he suggests that a practical limit for rent is $400 a month—and it ought to be lower. One solution may be to pre-package four months of rent with the bulk-rate air tickets the sponsor company offers.

But there are benefits, too. The companies who sponsor J1 visas (see box) make their money by charging a set of fees to the student workers. The fees, typically totaling about $800 to $1200, cover the administrative costs of screening (mostly for English language skills, but sometimes including a background check), visa application, and job matching—and built into almost all programs is health and accident insurance coverage. That alone is a huge money-saver for the employer, who doesn’t have to fit the foreign worker into our own Byzantine health care scene. While employees arrange for their own transportation, they may need help getting from customs and immigration to the resort.


The Companies
Several companies recruit, and sponsor, foreign students. USE, founded in 1999, placed about 2,800 Latin American students in U.S. ski area jobs this past winter, plus another 900 in non-ski luxury hotels. American employers include Vail Resorts, Intrawest, ASC, Telluride and Crested Butte.

CCUSA, based in Sausalito, Calif., began life in 1985 and has grown to import about 10,000 seasonal workers this winter under J1 visas. Employees come from Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, Colombia and Costa Rica—plus Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.

CIEE has existed since 1947. It sponsors 36,000 Work & Travel USA students in jobs throughout the U.S.; ski resorts are one of the most popular employers. CIEE currently works with 12 resorts and a total of 30 ski-resort-based employers.

If you’re looking to supplement your workforce, these companies and CCI are a good place to start your search.


International Agents

1. CCI: 1-866-684-9675; cci-exchange.com
2. CCUSA: 1-888-449-3872; ccusa.com
3. CIEE: (617) 646-7380; workexchanges.net
4. Interexchange: (917) 305-5430; interexchange.org
5. Universal Student Exchange: (786) 226-8255; use.com.pe