DENVER — Ski areas are cheering a decision by a federal judge in California that suspends the Trump administration’s ban on workers using temporary immigrant visas.

The National Ski Areas Association is telling its more than 300 ski resort members to immediately begin taking applications from J-1 and H-2B visa workers and submitting paperwork with the federal government to get those workers in open jobs by year’s end. 

“Time is of the essence here,” said the association’s head of regulatory affairs Dave Byrd, noting that it can take eight weeks to get visa applications approved by consulates in the Southern Hemisphere. 

U.S. District Court Judge Jeffery S. White earlier this month suspended the Trump visa ban, arguing that “the public interest is served by cessation of a radical change in policy that negatively affects plaintiffs whose members comprise hundreds of thousands of American businesses of all sizes and economic sectors.”

But the suspension may have come too late for ski areas that, by this time of year, typically have hired workers — mostly students from Southern Hemisphere countries like Argentina, Brazil, Australia and New Zealand who use J-1 exchange visas to work at ski areas during their summer season. 

Read more from The Colorado Sun.