The U.S. Department of Labor scheduled its Internet system for accepting applications for foreign guest workers to be back up and running at noon on January 7, after high demand for H-2B visas caused it to crash on January 1.
The system is called iCERT and it was developed about a decade ago. One of iCERT’s uses is for submitting applications for H-2B seasonal foreign guest workers, like a cook at a resort.
Lawmakers capped the annual number of H-2B visas at 66,000 and only half that many are available for the rest of fiscal year 2019.
Labor Department officials say U.S. employers sought nearly three times that many H-2B workers on New Year’s Day and the flood of applications crashed the iCERT system.
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