woman at laptop with data sheets spread out on table

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services launched a H-2A employer data hub Friday to provide information on American employers or agents petitioning for H-2A workers. H-2A visas allow for the lawful admission of temporary, nonimmigrant workers to perform certain temporary or seasonal jobs. USCIS processes, on average, eight million applications, petitions and requests each year.

According to USCIS, the data hub is part of the agency’s “continued effort to increase transparency in employment-based visa programs.” It follows the launch of the H-1B Data Hub in 2019 and the H-2B Data Hub in 2021. The data hub allows the public to search for H-2A petitioners by fiscal year, employer (petitioner) name, city, state, ZIP code, worksite state, North American Industry Classification System, or NAICS, code and Standard Occupational Classification, or SOC, code. 

The information in the H-2A employer data hub is drawn from fields on an employer’s Form I-129, from USCIS’ adjudicative decisions, from the Department of Labor’s H-2A Application for Temporary Employment Certification and the Department of Labor’s H-2A Agricultural Clearance Order (Form ETA-790A). The approval and denial data in the data hub reflect USCIS’ first adjudicative decision, but not later decisions, such as a decision on an appeal or revocation of an approved petition. The data hub does not include petitions that are pending adjudication when USCIS generates the data.

Immigration is a hot topic among long-term care industry advocates in light of workforce challenges. As the McKnight’s Business Daily reported in late 2021, a coalition of long-term care industry associations called on the State Department to take “specific actions” related to immigration policies, such as prioritizing immigration visas for nurses, waiving immigration visa interviews and expanding in-person interviews to allow for virtual interviews. That group included the American Health Care Association / National Center for Assisted Living, the American Seniors Housing Association, Argentum, the Association of Jewish Aging Services and LeadingAge.