Foreign worker shortage straps Maine tourism employers expecting busier season

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • April 27, 2022

Visas granted to overseas students working in Maine for about four months are a key part of the workforce at Maine campgrounds, hotels, restaurants, amusement parks and national parks throughout the tourism season, which is expected to be even better this year after a strong recovery in 2021. Experts expect a shortfall in those J-1 visas to affect most of them. J-1 workers, along with the longer term H-2B visa holders, normally make up about 10 percent of the hospitality summer workforce. Travel restrictions that caused a precipitous drop in the number of visa workers in 2020 have largely ended, but slow processing at embassies and the war in Ukraine are dampening the number of J-1 visa holders, leaving many Maine businesses to cobble together strategies such as higher pay and housing offers to attract domestic workers.