H.R. 5494 — Essential Workers for Economic Advancement Act

This section establishes an H-2C nonimmigrant classification within INA §101(a)(15)(H)(ii) for aliens coming temporarily to the United States to perform services or labor for a registered non-agricultural employer in a registered position (as those terms are defined in section 219A(a)) in accordance with section 219A requirements. (H-2B visas currently authorize temporary non-agricultural workers when U.S. workers are unavailable.)

This section adds new section 219A to chapter 2 of title II of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1181 et seq.), establishing the H-2C nonimmigrant classification—defined as a nonimmigrant admitted pursuant to INA §101(a)(15)(H)(ii)(c)—and defining 21 related terms. Those terms include (1) full employment area (i.e., any county or metropolitan statistical area with an unemployment rate of 7.9% or less during the fiscal quarter of an employer's application); (2) enduring job opening (i.e., a job opening unfilled on the first day of the month for 3 consecutive months or unfilled for more than 60 days in any 90-consecutive-day period); (3) registered employer (i.e., an operational business unit of a nonagricultural employer operating independently in a full employment area and designated as such by the Secretary of Homeland Security); (4) registered position; (5) scarcity recruitment fee (i.e., 5% of an H-2C worker's estimated annual compensation, which a registered employer remits with an application for a registered position); (6) zone 1, 2, and 3 occupations (i.e., occupations classified on the O*NET database by required preparation level as little or none, some, or medium, respectively); (7) industries with comparatively low sales per employee (i.e., those ranking in the lowest 10 by sales divided by employee count in the ECNBASIC Dataset using 3-digit NAICS codes); and (8) other terms such as initial H-2C nonimmigrant, lay off, small business (i.e., employer with fewer than 36 full-time employees or 51 full-time equivalent employees), and United States worker.