GENERAL INFORMATION · TEMPORARY WORKERS

H-2A processing involves four federal agency roles

H-2A is a temporary agricultural worker classification. Labor certification, petition approval, visa issuance, and admission are separate federal functions.

Farmworkers picking strawberries in rows at a Georgia farm

Official USDA photograph by Lance Cheung, taken May 7, 2019 and uploaded May 16, 2019; public domain. It shows farmworkers picking strawberries at Lewis Taylor Farms in Fort Valley, Georgia. It is illustrative: USDA’s caption does not identify the workers’ immigration status, and the photograph does not document an H-2A case, visa interview, or port-of-entry decision. Original USDA media record ↗

By U.S. Immigration Brief Editorial DeskPublished August 31, 2026Last verified August 31, 2026

Labor Department: temporary labor certification

The Labor Department’s Employment and Training Administration administers the temporary labor-certification stage. Its program overview describes certification as the employer-facing process used to establish a temporary agricultural need and address the availability and working conditions of U.S. workers. Wage and Hour Division separately enforces labor protections within its authority.

USCIS: the employer’s immigration petition

USCIS says a U.S. employer or agent generally files Form I-129 for prospective H-2A workers after obtaining the required labor certification. USCIS decides the petition. A Labor Department certification and a USCIS petition approval are related records, but they are not the same agency decision.

State Department: visa adjudication abroad

For a worker who requires a visa, a State Department consular officer adjudicates the H-2A visa application at a U.S. embassy or consulate. An approved petition allows the person to apply; it does not itself issue a visa. State’s temporary-worker information classifies H-2A as temporary or seasonal agricultural work.

CBP: inspection and admission

A visa permits travel to a U.S. port of entry and a request for admission. CBP officers inspect arriving travelers and make the admission decision. Visa issuance by State and admission by CBP are therefore separate events.

Why the agency boundaries matter

One agency’s approval does not replace another agency’s function. It is inaccurate to describe a labor certification as a visa, a USCIS petition approval as admission, or a CBP port inspection as an ICE interior arrest. This overview describes institutions only and does not forecast the result of any case.

Primary federal sources

Corrections: No corrections have been made. Material federal process changes will be labeled and verified against current agency records.