Home | Contact | Donate | Español |

Country Data

• Global Statistics
• USA
• Canada
• Mexico
• Guatemala

"Workers deserve justice no matter which country they hail from or work. Advocates in both nations need to be better supported to more effectively respond to this new reality."
  - Jorge Madrazo
Former Mexico Attorney General

More H-2 Information

The Process of Requesting H2 Workers

The process of obtaining H2 workers involves several steps and three separate government agencies. Because of this, each department issues differing statistics and information on the number of H2 workers. For more statistics from each department, see the Department of Labor, Department of State, and Department of Homeland Security section. To see the steps an employer, and eventually employee, must take to bring a foreign worker into the United States under an H-2 visa see below.

Department of Labor - Employment and Training Administration
1. The Employer completes an Application for Temporary Employment Certification, ETA 9142 for H-2B, or ETA 9142 and an Agricultural and Food Processing Clearance Order ETA 790 for H-2A, and returns it to the United States Department of Labor (USDOL) or the State Workforce Agency (SWA).
2. USDOL issues a temporary Certificate of Temporary Employment to the Employer.

Department of Homeland Security - USCIS
3. The Employer completes a Petition for a Non-Immigrant Workers, I-129 for the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).
4. USCIS issues an I-797, a Notice of Action, to the Employer.

Department of State
5. The Employer sends the I-129 and I-797 to the appropriate Consulate.
6. The Employee submits a Visa Application to the US Consulate.
7. Consular officials interview applicants and issue the H-2 visas.

Note: DHS has the discretion to deny H-2 workers entry at the border.

Rights for H2 Workers

Regardless of visa status, all workers are entitled to many of the same protections as U.S. workers.

For more detailed information on these protections, see the brochure, contributed to by Global Workers' Mexico Director Griselda Vega, which is distributed by the State Department to all work visa applicants.

For the Spanish version, click here.

Department of Labor

The United States Department of Labor records the number of workers requested and certified. However, the number of visas requested does not always reflect the number of guest workers that actually receive visas.

In July 8, 2011, U.S. Department of Labor launched an online registry that allows the public to retrieve information about temporary agricultural jobs that fall under the H-2A program. Click here to access the H-2A job registry

Number of H2 Workers Certified by the Department of Labor
Workers Requested/Workers Certified

H2A statistics for FY are not currently available.

The statistics from FY 2000-2005 for H2B visas can be accessed from the The Foreign Labor Certification Data Center, US Department of Labor, Office of Foreign Labor Certification.16

H-2A Seasonal Agricultural Workers17

H-2B Seasonal Non-Agricultural Workers18

Department of State

The Department of State maintains statistics on the number of visas it issues through U.S. consulates around the world.

H-2A Seasonal Agricultural Workers

In fiscal year 2010, the U.S. Department of State issued a total of 55,921 H-2A visas19

*Does not include totals for all other countries, which together account for the remaining H-2A visas issued in FY 2010

H-2A Visa Issuance Patterns by Age and Gender

The statistical data maintained by the U.S. Department of State shows alarming disparities in the issuance of H-2A visas according to age and gender. The information below substantiates the existing belief that employers and recruiters prefer young, male migrant workers, where the highest number of workers are between the ages of 18 and 30, and the average age of workers is 32 yrs. 20

NOTE: The age/gender data below, provided to Global Workers upon request by the Department of State, reports a different total of H-2A visas issued in FY 2010, than the NonImmigrant Visa Statistics available publicly through their website. 21

H-2A Age Disparity

Click here for 2009 chart

Click here for raw 2010 data

H-2A Gender Disparity

This data illustrates a staggering disparity between the number of male H-2A visa holders, and female H-2A visa holders, where males account for 53,836 of the visas issued while females account for a mere 2,074 (or 3.7% of all H-2A visas issued in FY 2010). 22

Click here for 2009 chart

Click here for raw 2010 data

H-2B Seasonal Non-Agricultural Workers

In FY 2010, the U.S. Department of State issued a total of 47,403 H-2B visas.23

*Does not include totals for all other countries, which together account for the remaining H-2B visas issued in FY 2010

H-2B Visa Issuance Patterns by Age and Gender

The statistical data maintained by the U.S. Department of State shows similar disparities in the issuance of H-2B visas according to age and gender. Likewise, this data illustrates that employers and recruiters prefer young, male migrant workers, where the highest number of workers are between the ages of 19 and 28, and the age of the average worker is 32 yrs. 24

NOTE: The age/gender data below, provided to Global Workers upon request by the Department of State, reports a different total of H-2A visas issued in FY 2010, than the NonImmigrant Visa Statistics available publicly through their website. 25

H-2B Age Disparity

Click here for 2009 chart

Click here for raw 2010 data

H-2B Gender Disparity

This data illustrates a pattern of gender preference in the distribution of H-2B visas, where males account for 40,982 of the visas issued while females account for only 6,536 (or 13.8% of all H-2B visas issued in FY 2010) . 26

Click here for 2009 chart

Click here for raw 2010 data

Department of Homeland Security

The data recorded represents entrances of visa holders and not issuances of visas, therefore one visa can be counted multiple times as a result of more than one entry.

H-2B Seasonal Non-Agricultural Workers

In 2010, DHS recorded 69,499 H-2B & H-2R* entrances.

*While the H-2R program was not renewed, there were unexplained H-2R entrances recorded in 2008. Global Workers projects that these were entrances of visa holders who were issued the visas in fiscal year 2007, but did not enter the United States until fiscal year 2008, which begins October 1, 2007.

For a record of H2 Visas from fiscal year 1978 to fiscal year 2006 see Global Workers' Historical H2 Chart.

For fiscal years 2002-2006 organized by country of origin, see Global Workers' 2002-2006 chart.

H-2A Seasonal Agricultural Workers

In 2010, DHS recorded 139,406 H-2A entrances.

Note: For H2 visa statistics from previous years, please refer to the Department of Homeland Security Office of Immigration Statistics, Yearbook of Immigration Statistics for 2005 and 2006, 2007, 2008, and 2009.

 

Global Workers Justice Alliance 789 Washington Ave., Brooklyn, New York 11238

  Banner photos courtesy of David Bacon