The Independent Restaurant Coalition is advocating for immigration policy that provides independent restaurants with a lawful and predictable means of hiring and retaining their workforce.
More than one in five restaurant workers were born outside the United States, and in many kitchens, the proportion is considerably higher. These are not transitional positions. Cooks, specialty cooks, and kitchen managers develop their skills over years of experience, train the employees who follow them, and hold the operational knowledge that allows a restaurant to maintain consistency over time. Replacing this experience is difficult, costly, and frequently not possible on a timeline that allows a restaurant to continue operating.
Current conditions have made this a period of significant disruption for independent restaurants. Operators report that longtime employees, including employees with legal authorization to work, have ceased reporting for shifts out of concern for their safety in transit. Several years of shifting programs and enforcement priorities have compounded the difficulty of planning and maintaining a stable workforce.
The underlying problem is that the federal immigration system offers no workable channel through which most independent restaurants can lawfully hire and retain the employees their businesses require. Existing programs were not designed for small businesses:
- Work authorization can require more than a year for approval, generating turnover that undermines workforce stability.
- The H-1B visa requires a bachelor's degree, which excludes substantially all restaurant positions.
- The H-2B visa is capped and restricted to temporary and seasonal employment, leaving year-round restaurants without a viable option.
- Permanent sponsorship can exceed $10,000 per employee, a cost that large chains absorb and independent restaurants cannot.
The IRC is advocating for the following reforms:
- Recognize culinary work as skilled labor. Federal classifications continue to treat cooking as unskilled labor because the associated training occurs in kitchens rather than in formal schools. This distinction reflects where the training takes place rather than the level of skill the work requiresAn experienced line cook holding a culinary certification is a skilled worker. The Department of Labor and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) can implement this reclassification administratively, without new legislation, which makes it the IRC's most immediate priority. Reclassification would open visa categories currently unavailable to restaurants.
- Create legal hiring channels accessible to small businesses. Current visa programs are structured for employers with dedicated immigration counsel. The IRC supports H-2B relief that includes a small business carve-out, a dedicated hospitality visa modeled on prior sector-specific visa programs, and authorization for trade associations to sponsor on behalf of member businesses, so that an individual restaurant is not required to navigate the process alone.
- Enforce the law consistently. Operators require confidence that the rules governing their businesses will be applied consistently over time. Predictability allows a small business to plan, and its absence imposes a cost that falls most heavily on the businesses making the greatest effort to comply.
Independent restaurants anchor local economies and operate on margins between 3% and 7.5%. Workforce disruption is not absorbed at those margins. It appears as reduced hours, narrowed menus, increased prices, and business closures. A lawful and predictable immigration system serves the interests of restaurant owners, their employees, and the communities they operate in.