It's kind of like Groundhog Day: We do the same thing over again every year. We provide the same justifications of our need to use the same people to fill the same jobs. Every year, we face the same reluctance and the same barriers. It's unbelievable: we have to redo everything we took care of the previous year.
Sometimes you have new people processing applications, but sometimes it's the same people who approved them the year before. They tell us they have to follow the rules and procedures for the current year. Obviously, we would welcome a solution like the one you are proposing.
That said, some workers have been with us for 30 years. Although they come back every year, we wouldn't expect to get a 30-year permit.
But surely the process can be streamlined when the same person from the same place will be in the same position in the same company, the same plant. It makes no sense to start the process over as if it had never been done before.