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64,000 Additional H-2 Visas Awarded and What This Means for the Industry11-22-24 | Legislation

64,000 Additional H-2 Visas Awarded and What This Means for the Landscape Industry

Seasonal Workplace Advancement

H-2 visas were released for the 2025 fiscal year.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced an additional 64,716 H-2B temporary non-agricultural worker visas for the 2025 fiscal year in addition to the 66,000 mandated by Congress.

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Amidst the election of Donald J. Trump many associations including the National Association of Landscape Professionals (NALP) and the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) have been following the upcoming changes and concerns that many professionals have.

According to NALP's Senior Vice President, Andrew Bray in a video interview, immigration is a concern as Trump ran on a platform of deportation of illegal immigrants, however, Bray expressed that because H-2B is a legal path we shouldn't be concerned. Further, during Trump's first administration he released around 30,000 additional visas as opposed to Biden's 60,000 additional visas.

NAHB explained that "H-2B visas allow employers to hire foreign workers who come temporarily to the United States and perform temporary non-agricultural services or labor - including construction work - on a one-time, seasonal, peak-load or intermittent basis."

With that, 20,000 of the visas allotted are for workers from Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Haiti, Colombia, Ecuador or Costa Rica. Lastly, the 44,716 other visas are for returning workers during the last three fiscal years. The program helps with the peak summer season demand.

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