Stone Quarries & Aggregates
Immigration solutions for stone quarries
Experienced crews that return every season, compliance that holds up, and a path to keep your best operators for good.
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Serving quarry and aggregate operators nationwide
The labor reality quarries face — solved
Production schedules drive revenue. When experienced operators show up, you meet deadlines. We coordinate every visa type so the right people are there, season after season.
Workforce continuity
Experienced operators return every season — crushers, loaders, screening plants — across H-2B, H-2A, and TN.
Audit-ready compliance
SOC codes, I-9 files, and prevailing wage documented to hold up under DOL, USCIS, or ICE review.
Long-term stability
Green card pathways that keep your best operators past the three-year H-2B limit.
How we help
How we build your quarry workforce
• October cap-exempt programs that secure crews before the spring lottery
• Multi-entity coordination across multiple quarry sites
• TN visas for Canadian engineers and technical staff
• EB-3 green cards filed in Year 2 to keep your best operators
• SOC code justifications that prevent prevailing-wage overcharges
• I-9 files organized and accessible in minutes
Download the Quarry Playbook
Quarry operation
Client result · Texas Quarry
From 40 to 400 worker positions
Coordinated 250 spring H-2B, 120 winter H-2B, 15 TN professionals, and 60 green card applications across 14 business entities — with minimal compliance penalties while peers paid $800K+.
Stone quarry immigration FAQ
The details, for operators who want them.
General
How many H-2B visas are available each year?
The base H-2B cap is 66,000 visas per year, split into 33,000 for each half of the fiscal year. Recent supplemental increases have raised the practical total to roughly 130,000 in some years. Even so, demand far outruns supply, and the cap is reached through a lottery.
Which quarry worker positions qualify for H-2B?
Most seasonal quarry roles qualify, including general laborers and material workers, saw and cutting operators, screen and crusher operators, heavy-equipment operators, and yard, stockpile, and sorting labor.
What is the October cap-exempt strategy?
Worker positions that begin on an October 1 program are counted against the October half of the federal cap. When spring quarry season arrives, those same positions are cap-exempt and do not compete in the spring lottery, so crews can be secured before the spring result is known.
Do TN visas have an annual cap or lottery?
No. TN visas, available to professionals from Canada and Mexico, have no annual cap and no lottery. They process in weeks and can be renewed without a fixed limit, which makes them well suited to long-term technical roles.
Can quarry workers get green cards?
Yes. EB-3 covers skilled operators with two or more years of experience and entry-level workers, and EB-2 covers degreed roles such as engineers, geologists, and safety managers.
When should a green card be filed for an H-2B worker?
Typically in Year 2 of the worker's H-2B time. EB-3 can take two to three years, and the worker reaches the three-year H-2B limit otherwise. Green cards are processed in parallel with H-2B status, so the worker keeps working throughout.
What triggers a DOL audit at a quarry?
Common triggers include prevailing-wage disputes and SOC misclassification of equipment operators, which is the most common violation in this industry. DOL audits quarries more often than many industries, partly because of the sector's safety profile.
Already filing H-2B
We already file H-2B every year. Is the filing itself enough?
The petition gets crews on site when the lottery cooperates, but the filing on its own leaves three things unmanaged: what happens in a weak lottery year, whether the paperwork would hold up under a DOL review, and how to retain experienced workers once they reach the three-year H-2B limit. Each one is worth addressing separately.
How do you protect a season against a poor lottery result?
By not leaving critical roles to the spring draw. Returning-worker and other cap-exempt routes can carry key positions outside the lottery, and choosing start dates strategically can lock in crews before the spring numbers are even released.
Where do experienced filers most often run into trouble on compliance?
With SOC codes. Equipment operators are the role classified incorrectly most often, and because the code fixes the wage that has to be paid, sorting it out before workers arrive is far simpler than defending it in the middle of an audit.
Can we keep our most experienced seasonal people for good?
Yes. A seasonal hire does not have to stay seasonal. Operators with a couple of years behind them can move toward an EB-3 green card and degreed specialists toward EB-2. Beginning the case in the second H-2B year lets it run alongside their existing status, so they keep working straight through, including past the three-year limit.
New to H-2B
What is H-2B, and why does it fit quarries?
H-2B is built for temporary and seasonal need, which describes most quarry labor. Production peaks with the construction and infrastructure calendar, local and off-the-books labor is unstable, and the work is physically demanding and historically hard to staff locally.
I have never filed. Am I behind?
No. Operators who have never filed often have the most to gain, because they are still carrying the full cost of an unstable workforce. There is a legal, repeatable way to staff the season.
How competitive is the program for a newcomer?
Far more positions are requested than the regular cap allows. In the second half of FY2025, roughly 149,953 positions were sought against about 33,000 regular-cap slots, so the outcome comes down to a lottery. For a first-time filer, that makes preparation and timing the deciding factor, not chance.
How far ahead does a first-time filer need to plan?
Earlier than most expect. Filing windows are tied to the date you need workers to start, so the best results come from mapping the season and preparing months in advance rather than scrambling as it approaches. The start date you choose also shapes how much lottery exposure you take on.
Ready to build a stable quarry workforce?
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