Each year, with the concurrence of the State Department, the Department of Homeland Security determines which countries may participate in the H-2A and H-2B nonimmigrant worker programs. On January 18, 2018, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) published a list of countries whose nationals may begin their participation in the programs.
These are programs that allow foreign nationals to work in the United States in temporary or seasonal jobs. The H-2A program is for agricultural positions, while the H-2B is for non-agricultural ones.
The H-2B program has been a particularly popular program among employers, so popular that the Office of Foreign Labor Certification (OFLC) recently noted that on the earliest date an employer seeking an employment start date of April 1 may file an H-2B application requesting temporary labor certification, OFLC received about 4,500 applications that covered in total more than 80,000 worker positions. This is notable because, except in cases where an exemption applies, DHS may not issue more than 33,000 H-2B visas for employers seeking to hire H-2B workers during the second half of FY 2018 (April 1 to September 30).
Now, back to a discussion of the list of countries. A few countries previously on the list are no longer on it. Most notably, Haiti is no longer on the list. This is notable because of President Trump’s tough talk about Haiti, because of the termination (with a delayed effective date) of the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) designation for Haiti, and because of what both Trump’s tough talk and the TPS termination suggest about Haiti’s diplomatic pull in Washington.
Another country previously on the list but no longer so is Belize. Belize’s exclusion from the list is, according to DHS, due to its noncompliance with anti-trafficking laws.
Samoa is also no longer on the list. Its exclusion is, according to DHS, due to its failure to accept individuals whom the US intended to physically remove from the US. This may be as portent, a bad sign of things to come for other nations that do not readily accept or provide the necessary documents to effectuate deportations.
The full list of countries whose nationals may begin new participation in the H-2A or H-2B visa programs is as follows:
- Andorra
- Argentina
- Australia
- Austria
- Barbados
- Belgium
- Brazil
- Brunei
- Bulgaria
- Canada
- Chile
- Colombia
- Costa Rica
- Croatia
- Czech Republic
- Denmark
- Dominican Republic
- Ecuador
- El Salvador
- Ethiopia
- Estonia
- Fiji
- Finland
- France
- Germany
- Greece
- Grenada
- Guatemala
- Honduras
- Hungary
- Iceland
- Ireland
- Israel
- Italy
- Jamaica
- Japan
- Kiribati
- Latvia
- Liechtenstein
- Lithuania
- Luxembourg
- Macedonia
- Madagascar
- Malta
- Mexico
- Moldova (NOTE: that Moldovan nationals are not eligible to begin participation in a H-2B program; however, they may participate in an H-2A program)
- Monaco
- Mongolia
- Montenegro
- Nauru
- The Netherlands
- Nicaragua
- New Zealand
- Norway
- Panama
- Papua New Guinea
- Peru
- The Philippines
- Poland
- Portugal
- Romania
- San Marino
- Serbia
- Singapore
- Slovakia
- Slovenia
- Solomon Islands
- South Africa
- South Korea
- Spain
- St. Vincent and the Grenadines
- Sweden
- Switzerland
- Taiwan
- Thailand
- Timor-Leste
- Tonga
- Turkey
- Tuvalu
- Ukraine
- United Kingdom
- Uruguay
- Vanuatu.