Labor Dept.'s iCert portal crashes under 'unprecedented' demand for temporary foreign workers

The Department of Labor's employer certification system for temporary foreign labor — known as iCert — crashed under pressure after receiving an "unprecedented" number of applications around midnight on New Year's Eve, according to the agency's website.

Within five minutes of launching the portal for H-2B (seasonal, non-farm) visas, nearly 100,000 worker requests were submitted — more than 30 times the demand the site experienced on Jan. 1 of last year.

What are the details?

U.S. employers are competing for the 33,000 H-2B visas available on a semi-annual basis, trying to secure guest workers for when business picks up in the spring and summer. But in this tight labor market, landscapers, resorts, crab purveyors and the like are scrambling to fill positions.

Hence, employers and immigration lawyers stayed up to ring in 2019 by filing applications as soon as the iCert portal opened in hopes of beating the crowd before the cap was reached. The system remains down, and the Labor Department said it will give 24-hours' notice before bringing it back online.

In an update Thursday, the agency announced the employers impacted by the site's failure may submit applications to the Chicago National Processing Center by mail. But with applications processed on a first-come, first-served basis, this further complicates the process as employers are discouraged from filing duplicate applications (both online and hard copy).

The crash has left thousands of firms in limbo, according to The Wall Street Journal.

"For a lot of these companies, they cannot bid contracts without knowing that they have a stable work force," immigration lawyer Sarah Molina told the Journal. "This is destroying their new year."

A Labor Department spokeswoman said no applications had yet been processed as of Wednesday. The current annual statutory cap on temporary worker visas is 66,000, divided equally between the spring and winter seasons. Bloomberg reports that the employers locked out of the system were likely applying for H-2B visas with start dates of April 1.

Anything else?

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services website lists more than 80 countries from which foreign nationals may participate in the H-2B visa program. Once granted, H-2B visas may be extended in one-year increments, up to a maximum of three years.