Me & my mentor Laura Guilmette, Unique Environmental Landscapes

Lessons in H2B

Surviving and thriving

by Laura Guilmette, Unique Environmental Landscapes

Our final two H2B workers arrived the

last weekend of April, which marked the end

of another chapter in the process.

Long, strange trip

As previously mentioned, we initially had all applicants scheduled at the U.S. Consulate in their home country near the end of March/ beginning of April. It turned out there were 11 scheduled in Monterrey the day before six were scheduled in Guatamala City.

Just to provide further insight to the process, it goes something like this: the day before the 8:00 A.M. interview with the local agent from the agency in Texas, I started checking with our manager in regards to the applicant’s travels to the Consulate. For some of these guys it was up to a ten-hour ride. I needed to be assured they had reliable transportation and they would be in place at 8:00 a.m. for the appointment.

Across the board, this went fairly smoothly except for one 9:30 p.m. phone call I received stating an applicant cancelled out as they were about to board the bus in their Mexican hometown bound for their 8:00 a.m. interview the next morning. Meanwhile, we had six applicants heading to Guatamala City who were eventually ALL denied at the U.S. Consulate. This completely caught us off guard. Not only was this a very costly day for Unique, it was back to the recruiting process AGAIN!

No room at the inn

Then another situation surfaced: housing! The second wave of recruiting seemed to come to a halt and I found myself almost begging for potential workers from within our pool of employees as well as other landscape company friends.

What was the problem? Through the process I realized there were many people who wanted to come to the U.S. and work, so why had it become so difficult? Well, I started getting feedback: there were “NO VACANCY” signs popping up at our employee’s houses. They were bursting at the seams.

This sent me on a frenzy to figure out the housing situation so we could set up more interviews FAST. The time clock was ticking and not getting all of our visas filled in a timely manner could potentially create negative consequences for next season.

The H2B workers are not in a position to rent an apartment of any type as they have no credit history in the U.S. Plus, they can’t commit to a one-year lease as they are here less than a year. We considered the possibility of purchasing a house, which could be used as rental for the workers. However, after learning of the

Laura Guilmette graduated from the University of Louisville with a B.A. in communications. She worked in advertising until she was recruited to work with the family-owned landscape business, Unique Environmental about 17 years ago. Like most business owners, she wears many hats including HR, marketing, sales, administrative and field work. Even though the H2B program has presented numerous challenges, she has enjoyed learning about it as well as overcoming these challenges.

extensive rules and regulations regarding H2B rentals we realized it wasn’t an option to be considered. Not this year anyway!

In the end, the workers worked it out amongst themselves, which is the way our agency suggested was the best way to handle the housing situation anyway.

Beware potential scams

The applicants spent about four days, or more if their appointment fell close to the weekend, in Monterrey or whatever their designated city. They had to find lodging, food, and navigate their way around. If the U.S. agency is hired to assist them, they have a representative for help. However, we were forewarned there is continued potential for scams, which called for caution.

I was only aware of one encounter within our group. It was a driver who offered to bring our 11 workers to Atlanta at a cost of a few hundred dollars over that of the major bus line. He stated it would be less hassle and a more direct trip. Sounds appealing – but NO! Was this one of those scams we heard about? We considered all the potential problems of this and said absolutely NOT. We stuck with our original transportation plan.

American soil at last

Our 20 workers arrived at five different times over the month of April. It seemed like every couple of days we were checking on one group at one "leg" of the trip or another, but they eventually all made it here with a total of seven denials altogether. Not so bad I guess, but costly.

Worth the effort

Looking back at various stages of the process over the last month, there have been several gratifying moments.

One of those gratifying moments was the day after our first group arrived. One of our long-time employees came into the office and thanked me for bringing family members to Georgia. It had been over 15 years since the family had been together.

This seems to hold true for many of our H2B workers and we found this to be an unexpected fringe benefit. After that employee walked out of the office that day, the staff and I looked at each other and said, “That makes it worth all the headaches!”

Taking care of details

The next round of fun was a field trip to the social security office. Our workers needed to get social security numbers since they were now going to be tax payers.

Three drivers including myself drove the first 13 H2B workers to the social security office. I’m pretty certain we looked like the circus as we herded our group from one end of the large waiting room to the other as instructed by the government agents. Maybe they were just not sure what to do with us: 13 Spanish-speaking H2Bs, one bilingual manager, the tall American lady (me) who "appeared" to know what she was doing and her sister! Perhaps we served as a distraction for others during their three-hour wait!

Words of advice

In summary, if you are considering applying for the H2B program in the future, be sure to do your research ahead of time and have one person dedicated to the process. This person should have a thorough understanding of the rules and regulations.

We originally thought we would apply for just 10 visas our first year and see how it went, but we were advised to request the actual number needed in future years as making changes next year could delay our application.

Applying for 20 was an undertaking for us, logistically and cost-wise, but now we are banging our head against the wall and wondering why we didn’t go for 30! Oh, and did I ever mention I work best under pressure and yes, even chaotic situations?!