New Law Should Eliminate Visa Issues
A bill headed to President Bush's desk is expected to make life easier for foreign minor leaguers and will allow major league organizations to bring more players into the United States.
The bill, which is expected to be signed into law before the end of the year, will shift minor league baseball players from the H-2B visa to the P-1 classification, which is set aside for internationally recognized athletes and entertainers. In the past, minor leaguers were not considered "internationally recognized," which forced them to get H-2B season workers visas. That became a problem in 2005 as demand for seasonal farm and resort workers began to outstrip the limit of 65,000 visas set aside for that category.
If I remember it right, it was a visa problem like this that kept Canadian Sebastien Boucher from signing with the Mariners when he was originally drafted by Seattle.
Read the whole thing for a bit more on the issue.
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