An H-2A visa allows a foreign national worker into the United States for temporary agricultural work. The H-2A temporary agricultural program establishes a means for agricultural employers who anticipate a shortage of domestic workers to bring non-immigrant foreign workers to the U.S. to perform agricultural labor or services of a temporary or seasonal nature.
In 2025 there were approximately 400,000 total temporary agricultural workers admitted to the U.S. under H-2A visas. H-2A workers are only legally authorized to work for one employer and may not remain in the U.S. after their visa expires. The terms of employment for H-2A workers - including wages, housing, job duties, and hours of work - must be approved in advance by the U.S. Department of Labor. Unlike other guest worker programs, there is no cap on the number of H-2A visas allocated each year.
Employing H-2A workers Wages The wage or rate of pay must be the same for U.S. workers and H-2A workers. The hourly rate must be at least as high as the applicable Adverse Effect Wage Rate (AEWR), federal or state minimum wage, or the applicable prevailing hourly wage rate, whichever is higher. The AEWR is established every year by the Department of Labor for every state except Alaska.
If a worker will be paid on a piece rate basis, the worker must be paid the prevailing piece rate as determined by the State Workers Agency (SWA). If the piece rate does not result in average hourly piece rate earnings during the pay period at least equal to the amount the worker would have earned had the worker been paid at the hourly rate, then the worker's pay must be supplemented to the equivalent hourly level. The piece rate offered must be no less than what is prevailing in the area for the same crop and/or activity.Employment & Training Administration: H-2A Certification for Temporary or Seasonal Agricultural Work. 28 November 2007. U.S. Department of Labor, Washington, D.C. 2 December 2007
Hiring Hiring means an active effort, including newspaper and radio advertising in areas of expected labor supply. Such recruitment must be at least equivalent to that conducted by non-H-2A agricultural employers in the same or similar crops and area to secure U.S. workers. This must be an effort independent of and in addition to the efforts of the SWA for at least 15 days. In establishing worker qualifications and/or job specifications, the employer must designate only those qualifications and specifications which are essential to carrying out the job and which are normally required by other employers who do not hire foreign workers.
Livelihood of workers Housing and meals The employer must provide free housing to all workers who are not reasonably able to return to their homes or residences the same day. Such housing must be inspected and approved according to appropriate standards. The housing provided by the employer must meet all of the Department of Labor Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) standards that were set forth at CFR 1910.142 or the full set of standards at 654.404-645.417.
An alternative form of housing is rental housing, which has to meet local or state health and safety standards. In North Carolina, the current state standards include no provision for doors and windows, 75 ft3 per person or 27 people per refrigerator, one wash tub per 30 people with hot and cold water, facilities for drying clothes; there are no sanitary requirements for mattresses provided, 1 toilet/15 people or 1 urinal/25 men, and 1 shower per 10 people with no privacy stalls.Farmworker Housing in North Carolina. Lori F. Khamala & Melinda Wiggins. September 2004. Farmworker Advocacy Network, North Carolina. 4 December 2007
The employer must either provide three meals a day to each of the workers or furnish free and convenient cooking and kitchen for workers to prepare and cook their own meals. If the employer provides the meals, then the employer has the right to charge each worker a certain amount per day for the three meals.
Transportation and tools
There are several provisions on the transportation of workers. The amount of transportation payment shall be no less (and shall not be required to be more) than the most economical and reasonably similar to the transportation charges for the distances involved. The employer is responsible for several forms of transportation depending on the situation. After the worker completes at least half of the work contract period, the employer must reimburse the worker for the costs of transportation and subsistence from the place of recruitment to the place of work if these expenses were charged to the worker. The employer must provide free transportation to the worker between the employer's housing and the area of work. And upon completion of the work contract, the employer must pay the costs of a worker's subsistence and transportation back to the place of recruitment. Some special conditions apply when the worker does not return to the area of recruitment because they are moving to another job. If the employer compensates foreign workers for transportation costs then they must do so for U.S. workers as well. If the employer provides transportation for foreign workers, they must provide transportation to US workers as well.
The employer must cover the cost of tools and supplies necessary to carry out the work at no cost to the worker, unless this is uncommon and the occupation calls for the worker to provide certain items.
California California's labor-intensive, multi-crop agriculture historically limited use of the H-2A program, but a 2019 analysis reported that H-2A employment in the state grew during the 2010s, including through farm labor contractors, partly because high housing costs in major agricultural regions increased the value of employer-provided housing.
Application process The process in order for a worker to be able to start in H-2A status involves a job order from a State Workforce Agency, a Temporary Labor Certification from the U.S. Department of Labor Employment & Training Administration's Office of Foreign Labor Certification, a Form I-129 approval from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (a branch of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security), a visa from a consular officer representing the U.S. Department of State, and a Form I-94 issued by U.S. Customs and Border Protection at a port of entry.
Job order (ETA Form 790) A job offer (ETA Form 790) must be filed with the State Workforce Agency (SWA) in the area of intended employment between 60 and 75 days before the date of need for workers. Each State Workforce Agency has a mailing address and some have websites, contact email addresses, and phone numbers. The State Workforce Agency is also responsible for handling job orders for the H-2B visa, but the specific contact person or mailing address may differ. The job orders are publicly listed by the State Workforce Agency (including on their website). Additionally, the employer must advertise for the position in local newspapers. Any United States citizen who applies for the job must be given one.
H-2A Temporary Labor Certification from the U.S. Department of Labor The employer needs to obtain a Temporary Labor Certification (TLC) from the United States Department of Labor Employment & Training Administration's Office of Foreign Labor Certification. Note that this labor certification should not be confused with PERM labor certification for employment-based permanent immigration, or with the Labor Condition Application for H-1B and similar statuses. It is also separate from a similar process for H-2B temporary labor certification.
The application package must include ETA Form 9142A and an accepted Job Order (ETA Form 790) from the State Workforce Agency. It must be filed with the Chicago National Processing Center or online through the iCert portal, no less than 45 days prior to the employer's date of need.
In order to approve the certification, the Department must verify that:
there are not sufficient able, willing, and qualified U.S. workers available to perform the temporary and seasonal agricultural employment for which nonimmigrant foreign workers are being requested; and employment of H-2A workers will not adversely affect the wages and working conditions of similarly employed U.S. workers. The statute and Departmental regulations provide numerous worker protections and employer requirements with respect to wages and working conditions. The Department's Wage and Hour Division (WHD) has responsibility for enforcing provisions of worker contracts.
Form I-129 petition submitted to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services
The employer must submit a Form I-129 (Petition for a Nonimmigrant Worker) on behalf of the prospective worker (beneficiary) with the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, with the job order (ETA Form 790) and the approved H-2A Temporary Labor Certification as initial evidence. Note that Form I-129 is used for a large number of nonimmigrant worker statuses, not just the H-2A. Those using it for the H-2A status need to fill the main form followed by the H classification supplement, Pages 13–17.
The H-2A status is one of the statuses where it is possible for a single Form I-129 to be used for multiple beneficiaries. Additional beneficiaries may be listed on Attachment 1 (Pages 35–36) of Form I-129. However, all beneficiaries listed in a single petition must have the same requested start and end date, and they are all approved together. In case different start dates are needed for different beneficiaries, or one of them has a more complicated situation (so that beneficiary's petition may be delayed) employers are advised to file separate I-129s for such employees.
The filing fee for Form I-129 is $460. Forms are automatically expedited given the seasonal and time-sensitive nature of agricultural work, but it is also possible to request Premium Processing Service for $1225 to get an initial response within 15 calendar days.
In general, Form I-129 petitions can be submitted six months in advance of the job start date. However, since the petition's initial evidence includes a job order, that must be filed between 60 and 75 days before the start date, the application can effectively be submitted at most 75 days prior to the start date.
Eligible Countries List United States Citizenship and Immigration Services is given an Eligible Countries List for H-2 visas (with slight differences between the H-2A and H-2B) and generally approves petitions only if the beneficiary is from a country on the list. Updates to the Eligible Countries List are published in the Federal Register. Effective January 18, 2016 the Eligible Countries List contains 84 countries, and the full list can be found on the USCIS website. The list has expanded since it originally started: 16 new countries having been added as recently as November 2015.
According to official regulations, a national from a country not on the list may only be the beneficiary of an approved H-2A petition if the Secretary of Homeland Security determines that it is in the U.S. interest for him or her to be the beneficiary of such a petition.
A country may be added to the list based on a recommendation from the U.S. Department of State, the country's government, an employer that would like to hire nationals of the country in H-2A status, or any other interested party or parties. When designating countries to include on the list, the Secretary of Homeland Security, with the concurrence of the Secretary of State, will take into account factors including, but not limited to:
The country's cooperation with issuing travel documents for citizens, subjects, nationals and residents of that country who are subject to a final order of removal;