USA: countries eligible for H-2A and H-2B temporary visa programs (agricultural and non-agricultural)

The United States has just announced the list of countries eligible for temporary visa programs. H-2A (Seasonal Agricultural Workers) and Visa H-2B (for Temporary workers non-agricultural).

The H-2A and H-2B programs allow U.S. employers or employment agents who meet specific regulatory requirements to bring foreign nationals to the U.S. for temporary or seasonal employment.

Read also: Immigration Portugal : Visa D7, Job search visa - Immigration Canada - How to get a job in Canada.

For 2021the Secretary of Homeland Security and the Secretary of State agreed to :

• Add the Philippines to the list of countries eligible to participate in the H-2B program.
• No longer designate the Independent State of Samoa and Tonga as eligible countries because they no longer meet the regulatory standards of the H-2A and H-2B visa programs.
• Do not designate Mongolia as an eligible country for the H-2A visa program, as it no longer meets the regulatory standards for this program.

The new list of countries is :

Andorra, Fiji, Madagascar, Philippines, Argentina, Finland, Malta, San Marino, Australia, France, Mexico, Serbia, Austria, Germany, Moldavia, Singapore, Barbados, Greece, Monaco, Slovakia, Belgium, Grenada, Mongolia, Slovenia, Brazil, Guatemala, Montenegro, Solomon Islands, Brunei, Honduras, Mozambique, South Africa, Bulgaria, Hungary, Nauru, South Korea, Canada, Iceland, Netherlands, Spain, Chile, Ireland, New Zealand, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Colombia, Israel, Nicaragua, Sweden Costa Rica, Italy, Northern Macedonia, Switzerland Croatia, Jamaica, Norway, Taiwan, Czech Republic, Japan, Panama, Thailand Denmark, Kiribati, Papua New Guinea, Timor-Leste, Dominican Republic, Latvia, Paraguay , Ecuador, Liechtenstein, Peru, Tuvalu, El Salvador, Lithuania, Poland, Ukraine, Estonia, Luxembourg, Portugal, United Kingdom, Romania, Uruguay, Vanuatu.

Note that the DHS (United States Department of Homeland Security - U.S. Department of Homeland Security) retains the authority to add countries to the list of eligible countries at any time, and to remove any country the DHS and DOS (Department of State - The U.S. Department of State (in French) determine that a country does not meet the requirements for continued designation. Examples of factors that may lead to a country's exclusion or removal from the list include fraud, abuse, refusal rates, overstay rates, human trafficking issues and other forms of non-compliance with the terms and conditions of the H-2 visa programs by nationals of this country that are contrary to American interests.

Read also: Immigration Portugal : Visa D7, Job search visa - Immigration Canada - How to get a job in Canada.