After a system crash forced H-2B applicants to wait a week to start their process, users experienced a high level of site crashes and glitches when the system finally reopened on January 7, 2019.
The Department of Labor’s (DOL) website, which handles thousands of applications each year, is the first step in the complicated H-2B approval process, which requires the approval of three separate government agencies. If applicants do not obtain approval from the DOL in a timely manner, they may not make it to the next step of the process.
Last year, in response to a high demand for visas, there were some slight changes in how the applications were processed. DOL approval is always first come first served, but this year applications were stamped by the millisecond received, not just the day as it had been in the past. This now means that applications must be submitted as soon as possible when the clock strikes January 1. This resulted in every user of the program needing workers April 1st logging on at midnight New Year’s Eve and is ultimately is what led to the crash.
To prevent future crashes the DOL said that it would be taking steps to improve the process, by increasing the number of servers in use (up to eight times), setting up a backup system in case of another crash, and instituting security features to ensure applications were being filed by people and not automated programs.
In an article published by the Wall Street Journal about this day, the president of Phoenix Labor was interviewed. Below is an excerpt:
Amanda Wright, president of Phoenix Labor Consultants LLC in Amherst, Va., which helps businesses with visa applications, brought in temporary help to handle the high-pressure process. She also allowed clients to come to her office to submit their applications through a better internet connection.
Some clients who submitted applications from outside the Amherst office received error messages, she said. “It definitely was not a level playing field,” said Ms. Wright, who worries that some clients may get shut out of the program because of the delays they encountered, even though they began the process when the system reopened.
After hitting the 66,000 visa limit for the last few years, businesses have lobbied to have the limit increased. In 2018, Congress decided to grant an additional number of visas. There is currently no word on if these additional visas will be available in 2019.