WISCONSIN DELLS (WKOW) – The Wisconsin Dells area’s tourism guides are faced with the challenge of finding enough workforces for the summer as an international student work program is still pending.
Wisconsin leads the nation by bringing college students to the state to work and learn about US culture.
“I love this place,” said Diego Rojas, an Ecuadorian student who is working at the Wilderness Resort this season.
Rojas says he’s learned a lot in the last two spring seasons he’s spent in the wild.
According to State Department statistics, 6,439 summer work trip participants came to Wisconsin, nearly 400 more than the previous year.
But the pandemic halted the program in 2020 when the Trump administration did temporarily frozen visas for foreign employees. Only 697 SWT workers came to Wisconsin that year, ahead of any other state.
Rojas and others ended up stuck in the Dells After they finished their work, they stayed a little longer due to travel restrictions.
“I don’t know what to do. I’m alone in another country,” he said, he thought at first.
But these grounded workers were needed because the freezing created bottlenecks at many tourist attractions in the Dells that rely heavily on these student workers to keep up with visitors.
“It was difficult. I mean, there were definitely staffing challenges in general,” said John Chastan, general manager of the Kalahari Resort. “So we’re getting by just by prioritizing and making sure we’re out there recruiting and trying to fill the vacancies.”
On April 1, this president’s proclamation was overturned, but some embassies, like the one in Turkey, have stated that they cannot process visas in time for the summer season.
Turkey and Ecuador send the most students to the US so this is expected to be a challenge.
“We’re really insecure. We hope to have around 500 J-1 workers from around 20 different countries that we work with on the property this summer. But because we don’t know if foreign embassies will be open to issue the visa. ” There is currently great uncertainty from day to day whether we will get these workers or not, “said Heidi Fendos, spokeswoman for the Wilderness Resort.
Both resorts state that each summer they require more than 1,000 employees to occupy the facilities. They are working on ways to recruit local workers through job fairs and advertisements, and they are switching employees to make sure they are covered.
The tourism guides hope they can find enough help from other countries for embassies to compete.
“The good thing is, we don’t rely on a country,” said Chastan. “Hopefully it works. Well, I’m sure there will be some issues like when certain countries will be able to get through the process and arrive, but we hope it all works out.” come together by summer. “
A State Department official shared 27 messages that it was not clear how many workers will be admitted for the coming season.
“US embassies and consulates are working to resume routine visa services from location to location as quickly and safely as possible after a suspension due to COVID-19. However, the pandemic continues to severely affect the number of visas Our embassies and consulates overseas are able to process. We are making significant efforts with limited resources to safely return to pre-pandemic workloads, but cannot provide an exact date for the specific location, “the spokesman said in a statement to 27 messages.
Diego Rojas is grateful that he was able to return for a second season. His girlfriend, who introduced him to the Dells, couldn’t get her visa to return. But he expects it to be his last because he’s graduating next year.
Rojas is studying engineering and computer science and hopes his experience at the Dells will help him get internships in the future.
“For me these two years have been really good,” he said.
