American Recovery and Reinvestment Act Places Certain Prohibitions Regarding the Hiring of H-1B Workers

25 Feb 2009

Early last week, President Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act into law. The act, a massive spending bill that allocates nearly $800 billion in federal funds and tax cuts to aid the country in recovering from the current economic slump. As part of the act, limitations have been placed on recipients of funds from the Troubled Assets Relief Program or certain other federal funds from; these recipients will be severely restricted in their ability to hire new H-1B temporary workers.

According to the act, recipients of these funds must be considered “H-1B Dependent” employers. Under current H-1B dependent regulations, employers are prohibited from displacing U.S. workers during the 90-day period before and after filing H-1B petitions. In addition, they are prohibited from placing an H-1B worker with another employer that has displaced a U.S. worker within a 90 day period before and after that job placement.

Finally, the employer is required by law to take what is called “Good Faith Steps” to recruit U.S. workers for jobs they propose to fill with an H-1B worker; any U.S. worker who applies for and is at least equally qualified for the position must be hired over the proposed H-1B worker.