In Effort To Protect Alaska Tourism, Education & Commerce, State Senate Asks Feds To Preserve Visa Programs

Visa Programs That Help Schools, Tourist Businesses Under Attack By Federal Government

Summer Season And Education At Risk, 
 Almost All Alaska State Senators Fear  

Young J1-Visa students in Anchorage, preparing to go back to school overseas after working in Denali Park during the 2016 summer tourist season. (Photo by Country Journal. Archives) 

 

FROM THE COUNTRY JOURNAL: 

U.S. visa programs, which allow foreign nationals to come temporarily to the United States to work in vital understaffed positions, are under attack. In Alaska, one of the more significant summer work programs, the J1-Visa program, is a huge component of Alaska tourism. Much of the staffing of the major facilities on the Parks Highway Corridor, including many of the stores, restaurants, camper parks, and hotels in Denali National Park, are staffed in the summer by J1-Visa workers. In the past, young college students were hired through the program from China, Moldova, Czechoslovakia and elsewhere. Currently, a majority seem to come from Bulgaria. 

J1-Visa workers are also hired to work in the summer in other parts of the state: Cooper Landing, Talkeetna, Fairbanks, and even the Copper River Valley, among other places.  In general, these workers, though seemingly overqualified -- when you talk with them, you find they are often studying for multiple and complex college degrees – are hard-working and willing, and provide much of the vital manpower the Denali Park Corridor and other tourist destinations in Alaska need.  

Currently, around half a million people or more visit Denali Park every summer, and the number of rooms in hotels, and added services is growing. There's an obvious and urgent need for manpower. So, why aren't local people in the Park area, including teenagers and young people, doing this work? Mainly, because the burgeoning tourism industry – coupled with small roadside populations and the 'aging of Alaska' – leaves rural towns across the state with very few workers to choose from. 

In the 1990s, when the Country Journal first began working with people in the Denali Park area, there were fewer attractions, and no large hotels at Denali. Staff at that time was mainly made up of business owners, their extended families, and neighbors they could get to work for them. Aside from a relatively small pool of possible workers, summer tourism and business growth was hindered by the fact that Alaska's schools start up in the fall much earlier than schools in the rest of the United States. In some parts of Alaska, the tourism season, because of that reason, was effectively over by around August 15th. 

Then, as the sheer numbers of businesses grew, college students from across the United States were enlisted to come up to Denali for the summer. It was not unusual to walk into the gas station at Denali during that era and see a young woman behind the counter with a plastic pin on her shirt saying: 'Julie. Kansas.' One problem with the college students from Outside, though – as with the homegrown staff that preceded them – was that young people have to go back to school. Their colleges started up later than Alaskan high schools, but they were still relatively early. And this effectively shut down the season. 

When tourism became even more robust -- in Denali, Fairbanks, and elsewhere -- the J1-Visa's positive effects began to be obvious. In the past decade, young workers from other parts of the world, in a tightly-controlled summer program, have basically held much of Alaska's tourism industry together. These students have come in sizable numbers, and their fall school year starts later than the U.S. year, allowing Alaskan businesses to further extend their season, and their bottom line. 

The following story, from the Alaska Beacon, talks of concerns about the J1-Visa program's future in Alaska:

Alaska Senate advances resolution asking federal policymakers to protect visa programs

From the Alaska Beacon.  BY: HALEY LEHMAN-APRIL 21, 2026 5:30 AM

 Sen. Loki Tobin, D-Anchorage, speaks in the Alaska Senate on Monday, April 28, 2025. (Photo by James Brooks/Alaska Beacon)

The Alaska Senate advanced a resolution Monday to preserve three work visas to support Alaska’s economic security.

Alaska relies on J-1 visas to fill teacher positions, H-1B visas for highly skilled workers and the H-2B program for temporary nonagricultural workers in tourism, health care and seafood processing industries and for teachers.

Sen. Löki Tobin, D-Anchorage, said that Senate Joint Resolution 28, “puts Alaska on the record in support of these programs to fill jobs here in our state.”

The Trump administration raised the fee for highly skilled worker visas from $5,000 to $100,000 in September 2025.

Tobin said Monday that school districts in Alaska cannot absorb those costs and utilize the H-1B visa program to hire international teachers.

The Alaska House of Representatives passed a resolution in March urging the Trump administration to waive the $100,000 visa fee for international teachers. It was sponsored by Rep. Alyse Galvin, I-Anchorage.

According to Jennifer Schmitz, director of the Alaska Educator Retention and Recruitment Center, 20 school districts in Alaska employed 232 educators with J-1 visas and 341 educators with H-1B visas in 2025.

Alaska’s senior U.S. Senator, Republican Lisa Murkowski, introduced legislation in March that would exempt teachers from non-processing related fees for H-1B visas. U.S. Republican U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan is a cosponsor. 

The visa programs support other jobs, too. Marilyn Usibelli, owner of Black Diamond Resort Co. in Healy, wrote to legislators in March that J-1 visa holders play an essential role in staffing seasonal jobs in Alaska with lawful, reliable temporary workers.

“Despite extensive local recruitment, the small year-round population in the Denali Borough simply cannot meet the seasonal demand. J-1 participants fill critical roles that allow us to maintain safe, high-quality operations, support other local businesses, and contribute to the broader Denali-area economy,” Usibelli wrote.

The resolution passed the Senate with 19 yes votes with Sen. Donny Olson, D-Golovin, absent.