Visa Lawyer Blog
This week USCIS and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced the addition of sixteen new countries that will be eligible to participate in the H-2A and H-2B visa programs next year. Nationals from the following countries: Andorra, Belgium, Brunei, Colombia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Lichtenstein, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, San Marino, Singapore, Taiwan, and Timor-Leste will join sixty-eight other countries already participating in the H-2A and H-2B programs. Foreign nationals from these countries can apply for the H-2A and H-2B programs beginning January 18, 2016. If a country fails to meet the requirements for continued designation of these benefits, DHS reserves the right to remove any country from the list of eligibility, as it did recently with the country of Moldova and the H-2B program. Moldova may still continue to participate in the H-2A program since it has proven compliant with the necessary standards regulating the H-2A program. USCIS may consider other foreign nationals for the H-2A and H-2B programs even if their countries do not participate in these programs on a case by case basis.
For information about the H-2A program click here.
For information about the H-2B program click here.
Effective Jan. 18, 2016, nationals of the following countries are eligible to participate in the H2A and H2B Visa programs
| Andorra | Ethiopia | Luxembourg | San Marino |
| Argentina | Fiji | Macedonia | Serbia |
| Australia | Finland | Madagascar | Singapore |
| Austria | France | Malta | Slovakia |
| Barbados | Germany | Moldova H-2A only* | Slovenia |
| Belgium | Greece | Mexico | Solomon Islands |
| Belize | Grenada | Monaco | South Africa |
| Brazil | Guatemala | Montenegro | South Korea |
| Brunei | Haiti | Nauru | Spain |
| Bulgaria | Honduras | The Netherlands | Sweden |
| Canada | Hungary | Nicaragua | Switzerland |
| Chile | Iceland | New Zealand | Taiwan |
| Colombia | Ireland | Norway | Thailand |
| Costa Rica | Israel | Panama | Timor-Leste |
| Croatia | Italy | Papua New Guinea | Tonga |
| Czech Republic | Jamaica | Peru | Turkey |
| Denmark | Japan | The Philippines | Tuvalu |
| Dominican Republic | Kiribati | Poland | Ukraine |
| Ecuador | Latvia | Portugal | United Kingdom |
| El Salvador | Lichtenstein | Romania | Uruguay |
| Estonia | Lithuania | Samoa | Vanatu |
Please contact us for a free legal consultation if you would like to know if you are eligible for these programs.