USDA launches Farmers.gov features to help farmers hire workers

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue announced new features on the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Farmers.gov website designed to help facilitate the employment of H-2A workers.

“My mission from the beginning of my time as Secretary was to make USDA the most effective, most efficient, most customer-focused department in the entire federal government—these changes to Farmers.gov are doing just that. USDA’s goal is to help farmers navigate the complex H-2A program that is administered by Department of Labor, Department of Homeland Security, and the State Department so hiring a farm worker is an easier process,” said Secretary Perdue. “President Trump knows how essential these workers are to our farmers and America’s food supply chain. We will continue working to streamline these and other processes to better serve our customers across the country.”

The primary new H-2A features on Farmers.gov include:

• A real-time dashboard that enables farmers to track the status of their eligible employer application and visa applications for temporary nonimmigrant workers;

• Streamlined login information so if a farmer has an existing login.gov account they can save multiple applications tracking numbers for quick look-up at any time;

• Easy access to the Department of Labor’s Foreign Labor Application Gateway;

• Allows farmers to track time-sensitive actions taken in the course of Office of Foreign Labor Certification’s adjudication of temporary labor certification applications; and

• Allows for farmers to access all application forms online.

All information can be found at www.farmers.gov/manage/h2a.