For decades now, regular vacationers at Steamboat Springs Ski Resort have loved coming back for their yearly lesson with their favorite foreign ski instructors. There was something romantic about an instructor with a thick accent.

Those days are over.

With the full implementation of visa rule changes, including the end of the simplicity of getting H-2B visas by which most seasonal ski resort employees gained their season passage here, resorts are left scrambling for ways to not only fill overall resort positions, but to adapt to the notion that a rich part of the fabric that made their resort unique may be gone for good.

“This group of staff has built up quite a clientele,” says Trish Sullivan, VP of human resources for Steamboat. “We have guests who come back year after year and ask for them. It’s going to be a loss.”

A loss that most resorts are realizing, as far as H-2Bs go, is inevitable. In the past, the cost of these visas could be passed off to the incoming workers. In addition, returning H-2B holders were not counted into the total allowed annually. Now, with new rules setting the cost squarely on the resort for the H-2B program, and the absolute cap at 33,000 including returning holders (as many as 70,000 returnees were not counted toward the cap in past years), resorts are, in many cases, bidding goodbye to H-2Bs.

At Steamboat—and everywhere in America—many resorts are trying to figure out just how to work in the post H-2B world. At the forefront is the challenge of filling the spots in total. The lift ops, valets, cafeteria help, and the many other hands it takes to make a resort run smoothly are often filled with adventurous foreigners who are willing to take on the seasonal work as a way to experience our nation. Deeper still, these workers often lent a cultural flair to resorts. Meeting these challenges will most likely mean a combination of reaching back into the local job pool, learning how to best use the more limited J1 student visa and tapping into the lesser known Q visa category.


Going Local
The first challenge may be the least stressful, thanks to the troubled economy. With more and more locals needing work and willing to look in places they may have never considered before, resorts are hoping to see a surge of local applications.

Sullivan has found already that the grim American economy has helped the situation. Not only were domestic applications up this past season—they had few, if any, openings to fill mid season—but the application pile was rich with good choices.

At Northstar-at-Tahoe in California, the resort has reached out to the local community, offering new-instructor training through a proprietary system called the Northstar Training System (www.northstarattahoe.com/info/ski/
employment/ski_instructor.asp).


Considering J1
Not all resorts are giving up on international workers, and that’s where the J1 visa, once seldom used at resorts because of its time constraints (a J1 is for a student and therefore can only be valid while the student is on break and available, usually four months at the most), is now becoming more popular.

Mia Fagersten, winter program director of CCUSA Work Experience, a company that helps find and place quality J1s, sees this year as one that resorts will look more closely at the J1 program and ways it can benefit them. She says the possible increase of J1s will depend much on the economy and the job market here in the U.S. Because, as she says, while it seems sensible that higher unemployment would lead to a more robust domestic employee pool, “I don’t see families of four or more moving up to Aspen because they lost a job in Denver.”

Where locals do not fill gaps, though, she sees the J1 as a viable solution, since it brings in screened, quality people who are motivated to experience the U.S.

“They come with an incredible vigor,” she says of the J1s. “They want to have a good time, and they want to do well. They are smart, educated young adults from good families, with manners and a good way with the public.”

She believes, too, that J1s (and formerly H-2Bs) “definitely add an international flair. Because the J1 program is a cultural exchange, each J1 brings with them some kind of international touch that resorts tap into. In fact, since the J1s and their employers report to the Department of State, many times that department wants to be sure it was a true cultural exchange, which means resorts pay more attention to using the J1 workers in unique and interesting ways for guests.”


Are H-2Bs Really Dead?
Some, however, feel that H-2Bs might not be dead to resorts. Daniel Reisner, program manager of the H-2B program at Interexchange Inc, a New York City company that specializes in placing H-2Bs, J1s and other foreign workers, believes that as the months go by, some resorts—particularly those far from urban areas—will realize they still need a healthy mix of H-2Bs, J1s and locals.

“There will most certainly be a decrease [in H-2Bs] but I don’t think it will be abandoned,” he says. Reisner points to the fact that many H-2B employees are trained, professional and long-standing workers at American resorts, and that kind of help cannot be replaced by temporary students. “Resorts are still going to need mature, long-term employees for many positions,” he says, “and the H-2B is the way to get that.”

Booth Creek’s Julie Maurer echoes that sentiment, pointing out that Northstar-at-Tahoe has 75 H-2Bs in its ski and snowboard school this winter. “Quite a few of them are returning from countries like Canada and Australia with quite a book of clientele,” she says. “One employee was almost completely booked with private lessons right from the start.”

Phil Simon, VP of employee relations at CIEE, a company that helps place J1s and other temporary workers at American resorts, believes that even as the H-2B changes are tweaked, “we do not believe they are suitable for resorts” anymore. His company is working to help resorts find J1s that not only fill the spots, but add value to guest experiences.

“Many resorts are international in their own right,” says Simon. “These workers bring language skills, cultural understanding and yes, a special excitement and energy to the resorts.”


The Q-1 Option
Another option for tapping into that international appeal is the Q-1 visa. According to www.immigration.com, “Q-1 visas are issued for international cultural exchange visitors. It is issued to foreign nationals who are coming to the U.S. to participate in an international cultural exchange program. Under the Q-1 visa, the foreign national can engage in practical training and employment so long as they are also sharing the history, culture and traditions of their home country.” The Q-1 visa is good for 15 months.

Sullivan says Steamboat has had some luck with the Q-1 visa program. Through it, her resort has implemented children’s programs, coloring books, special international celebrations and more that has added to the flavor of the resort in ways the area had never considered.

“You know,” she says, “had we not had to deal with the change in the H-2Bs, we may never have considered using the Q-1’s more. And using the Q-1’s has really added to our guest experience.”

SAMMY Guest Editor
As a first-time H-2B employee in 1992, I was a 23-year-old “professional liftie” traveling from Australia to the U.S. and feeling like an international jet-setting star. All I had to do for this glamorous lifestyle was come to work on time, shovel snow and say “G’day” to every one who came within earshot.

Using J1 visas to maintain that international flavor is a sound strategy with the recent decline in H2Bs, but J1s can only take you so far. They are only an asset during the peak season (December through February), and then they leave en masse.

We must look to domestic sources for more professional seasonal employees in all areas.

—James Grant