International Information

• Ski Pass Program

• Housing Available

• Employee Discount

• Must Complete Training Program

VISA OPTIONS

There are two types of work authorization that you can consider in order to work as a seasonal employee with Colorado Mountain Express:

1. J-1 Work and Travel Visa (student)
2. H-2B Visa sponsored by Colorado Mountain Express.

J-1 VISA

The J-1 Visa can be obtained if you are a student looking for four months of work experience. Colorado Mountain Express does not sponsor the J-1 Visa - this must be attained through a work and travel program. These programs can be found on the internet under work experience in the US. You must be able to work from November 1, 2007 through April 1, 2008

H2B VISA

At this time, we are accepting applications for new H2B participants for select winter positions.

Employees on an H-2B visa are eligible to work over the winter season, which is November 1, 2007 through April 15th 2008. The Employment Office at Colorado Mountain Express will secure the H-2B visa for the employee. Jobs are offered by Colorado Mountain Express but are pending Colorado Department of Labor and INS approval. We offer 7 and 10 month Visas.

Visa information for international applicants

The following table outlines some of the differences between the two types of visas that Colorado Mountain Express uses for employment of our international staff. You must contact the Recruiting office directly to inquire about the H2B Visa Process, instead of simply submitting an on-line application.

Important Considerations for H2B Visas:

• Embassy and Consulate procedures and policies: The policies for issuance of visas for foreign work and travel vary widely from country to country and from embassy/consulate to embassy/consulate. These procedures may also change from day-to-day. Some consulates in some nations will require you to pay a service fee to receive your visa. It is your responsibility to pay this fee. You should check with your consulate or embassy on a regular basis to be well informed of their particular procedures.
• You may only pick up your visa from the U.S. Consulate or Embassy outside of the United States that you nominate in your application. You may not change your U.S. Consulate or Embassy once we submit the information to the government so please be very sure of your Consulate choice. US visa approval is conditional and does not guarantee that your local consulate or embassy will issue a visa.
• Employee Housing: In order to submit a housing application, you will be required to pay a $300 partial first month rent payment and $300 for a housing deposit. Both payments will be collected online and does require a credit card or debit card. Please go to the housing page for more information.
• Timing of Visa approval and issuance: The timing for Visa approvals and issuance is beyond the control of Colorado Mountain Express. We will make all reasonable efforts to help expedite the process, but we make no guarantees. You should carefully weigh the financial consequences to you that may result from visa delays and plan accordingly. In the past visas have been available for pick up as early as late October, and as late as early January. If you are unable to work for Colorado Mountain Express, your deposit(s) will be refunded.
• Travel arrangements: When making travel arrangements, you should consider the possibility that visa issuance may be delayed. We strongly recommend that you not make any airline reservations that are non-refundable. You may want to consider some form of travel insurance.
• Working in a foreign country: While in the U.S., you must be prepared to be self-sufficient. If you have substantial personal, family, or financial commitments that cannot tolerate uncertainty, seasonal work may not be appropriate for your circumstances. Again, please keep in mind that there can be delays in this process and we will do everything that we can to expedite your visa. If all goes well, you should be able to pick up your visa in early November, although we are unable to guarantee this time frame. The government may deny these visas at any point in the process, but we have been very successful in the past and expect to be in the future.
• Social Security Tax: Please note that you will be taxed 7.65% for Social Security that will not be refunded to you at the end of the tax year.

To read about a firsthand experience of the H2B visa process from one of our participants, he is what he had to say.

I received the invitation to return on August 27th and was immediately very interested.  I filled out the application for CME online and also sent a letter off to the NZ authorities requesting a copy of my driving record for the past 3 years.  This arrived in the mail less than one week later.

The DS 156 & 157 forms were easily obtained off the New Zealand US Consulate website which also contained some good general info about the application process.  All other forms were sent as attachments to emails sent by Jeff K and these were simple to download and printout.

Once I had filled the forms out it was easy to fax them back to CME.  One uncertainty was whether or not they actually reached Jeff's desk and I ended up faxing some documents twice.

One major issue was the length of time the process took (about 3 months) but I had confidence that things would proceed well within the bureaucratic system and I just had to wait until the all clear came thru.

Finally in late November when the word came thru that all was approved it took me 3 hours to pay the US$100 Visa Fee, obtain Passport Photos and a Courier Bag for the Consulate to return my Passport by post.  I was then able to make an appointment for an "interview" at the US Consulate in Auckland for the following week.  This entailed taking a day off work to fly up to Auckland (an 80 min flight each way) plus ground transport that cost me over NZ$200.

I was in the Consulate Office for less than 30 minutes and half of that time was just sitting around waiting!!  After handing over the paperwork and advising them of the Petition number they asked me 3 questions and they then said "it is all approved and you will have the Passport in the post tomorrow" which is exactly what happened.  I was a bit annoyed that it cost me so much for just a small amount of time but I suppose that is bureaucracy for you.

So from my point of view everything went quite smoothly.  There was not too much paperwork to complete and the forms were easily accessible.  The hardest thing was waiting for each step of the process in the USA to be approved until I could do my part at the US Consulate in Auckland.  This also influenced when I could make my travel arrangements to get to the USA but all seemed to work out fine for me.