Program offers model for employment of guest workers.

PERSONNEL managers facing the possibility of a national guest-worker program could look at the H2-B program, an option already available to employers, officials say.

In its scope and complexity of application, the program offers a working model as Congress tries to forge a consensus on any future federal guest worker program.

H2-B covers unskilled non-agricultural employees needed on "a one-time occurrence, seasonal need, peak-load need, or intermittent need," according to U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services. That differentiates it from the controversial H2-A program, designed to bring in unskilled agricultural workers, and the H1-B program, which gives visas to skilled workers, especially in high-tech industries.

Barbara Alvarez, former president of the California Landscape Contractors Association and chief executive of Alvarez Landscaping in La Puente, said she knows a landscaper in San Diego who has used the program, but the good weather in Southern California makes H2-B impractical for many local contractors that need a year-round work force.

"H2-B has always been for seasonal workers, so our industry has never qualified," Alvarez said. "We support the program and it's something we can work toward in the future if comprehensive immigration reform goes through."

In fact, at the same time Congress struggles to devise a major immigration bill, one Senator is fighting to keep H2-B, which currently has a national ceiling of 66,000 work visas per year. Last year, Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Maryland) sponsored a law that exempted returning workers from the cap, thus expanding the number of workers under the program. The extension will expire on September 30 unless Congress approves Mikulski's proposed three-year extension.

While the Senator acknowledges reforms to U.S. immigration law currently under debate could augment or even replace the H2B program, a new federal program usually takes years to implement. Small seafood producers in her state can't afford to wait for even one season.

"The H2-B program has kept small and seasonal businesses afloat when they face seasonal worker shortages that many coastal and resort states have been dealing with over the past few years," said Sen. Mikulski. "Every member of the Senate who has heard from their constituents--whether they are seafood processors, landscapers, resorts, timber companies, fisheries, pool companies or carnivals--knows the need for this H2-B program."

Every state has H2-B workers. In California, ski resorts in the Lake Tahoe area and logging companies in the Sierras have utilized H2-B for seasonal staff. Closer to home, the equestrian industry has used the program. The California Professional Horsemen's Association (CPHA), based in Toluca Lake, provides for members to participate in "the H2-B Visa program, which enables grooms and stable hands from foreign countries to work legally in the United States," according to the organization's Web site.

DiAnn Langer, a CPHA board member and chief executive of Langtree Stables in Burbank, said she has used the program but referred questions to the organization's law firm, MJA Attorneys at Law in Solana Beach. An attorney with the firm did not respond to questions by deadline.

For employers, H2-B offers a way to hire foreign workers legally, but the program has its complexities. First, the company must advertise a job to U.S. workers before recruiting under the H2-B program. Second, the workers must return to their home country after 11 months with no guarantee they can or will return.

In the short term, the cap of 66,000 visas presents a larger challenge. By April 4, employers from around the nation had already reached the limit for the 2006 hiring season.