These are visas issued to non-immigrant aliens allowing them to be employed in the United States for a period of up to 10 months. The H-2A visa is issued to temporary agricultural and horticultural workers. The H-2B visa is issued to temporary non-agricultural workers such as housekeepers, landscapers and kitchen helpers. Multiple openings of the same job and rate of pay may be on the same application which is filed with the U.S. Department of Labor, National Processing Center (NPC). The certification is issued to the employer, not the worker, and is not transferable from one employer to another or from one worker to another. The H-2A and H-2B workers may be re-employed each year as long as they return to their home country at the end of each year’s seasonal employment.
There are a limited number of H-2B visas available each fiscal year (October 1 – September 30) with a cap of 66,000. Additional H-2B workers may be brought in under a special visa category entitled H-2R once the cap is reached if the worker has held an H-2B visa in one of the last three (3) fiscal years. This category requires Congressional legislation.
There is no limit on the number of H-2A visas available each fiscal year.
Step 1: An Employer Application for Prevailing Wage Determination is filed with the U.S. Department of Labor.
Step 2: A job posting is submitted to the local State Workforce Agency and advertisements are placed in the local newspaper.
Step 3: An Application for Temporary Employment Certification is filed along with a recruitment report summarizing recruitment efforts.
Step 4: U.S. Department of Labor will grant certification that qualified persons in the U.S. are not available and that the terms of the employment will not adversely affect the wages and working conditions of workers in the U.S. similarly employed.
Step 5: The labor certification and Form I-129 are submitted to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
Step 6: The Petition approval is sent to the U.S. Consulate where the visas will be issued.