The United States is one of the most desirable countries to work in the world. The possibility of growing economically and the wide range of job opportunities make thousands of people annually bet on the so-called “American dream“. For those interested in working, there are several visa options to apply for.
What are H-2A, H-2B and H1B visas
As explained by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service portal, H-2A and H-2B visas allow US employers to bring foreigners to fill temporary agricultural and non-agricultural jobs.
Thus, to obtain it, it is important to have a commitment to work with a company in the United States.
The H-2A visa applies to “fill temporary employment positions in agriculture”, while the H-2B visa allows “temporary filling of non-agricultural employment” such as waitresses, cooks, construction workers, gardeners, laborers, among other professions.
For this type of visa, employers need to demonstrate that “there are not enough capable, willing, qualified and available US workers to perform temporary work.”
They must also show that the work will actually be temporary and that the hiring of foreigners will not affect the wages and working conditions of US employees.
On the other hand, the H1-B visa is a category of nonimmigrant visa that applies to people who want to provide services in a specialized field, services of great merit and distinguished aptitudes for cooperative research or development projects with the Department of Defense. (DOD) or as a high fashion or advertising model with great merit or distinguished ability.
The ones that most apply to H-2A visas
According to data from the 2021 report from the Office of Labor Certification for Foreigners, the 10 professions that most apply to H-2A nonimmigrant visas, which have a maximum period of three years in the US, are the following :
- Farmers and harvesters (86.6% of applicants)
- Agricultural equipment and machinery operator (6.4% of applicants)
- Farmers (4.2% of applicants)
- Ranch construction jobs (1.1% of applicants)
- Other jobs (0.4% of applicants)
- Tractor and heavy machinery drivers (0.3% of applicants)
- Agricultural Product Classifiers (0.3% of applicants)
- Agricultural labor supervisors (0.2% of applicants)
- Farm labor contractors (0.2% of applicants)
- Packers (0.1% of applicants)
The ones that most apply to H-2B visas
According to data from the 2021 report from the Office of Labor Certification for Foreigners, the 10 professions that most apply to H-2B nonimmigrant visas, which have a maximum period of three years of permanence in the US, are the following :
- Landscaping, maintenance workers and gardeners (37.6% of applicants)
- Meat, fish and poultry cutters and processors (9.8% of applicants)
- Forest conservation workers (7.9% of applicants)
- Housemaids and cleaning service (6.6% of applicants)
- Workers in recreation centers (6.4% of applicants)
- Workers, loaders and movers (2.6% of applicants)
- Restaurant cooks (2.6% of applicants)
- Waiters (2.6% of applicants)
- Construction workers (1.9% of applicants)
- Animal keepers, non-ranchers (1.2% of applicants)
The ones that most apply to H-1B visas
According to data from the 2021 report from the Office of Labor Certification for Foreigners, the 10 professions that most apply to H-1B nonimmigrant visas, which have a maximum period of three years in the US, are the following :
- Application developers (31.5% of applicants)
- Software system developers (10.2% of applicants)
- Computing-related professions (6.7% of applicants)
- Computer Systems Analyst (5.5% of applicants)
- Electronics engineers (4.7% of applicants)
- Computer manager and information services (3.1% of applicants)
- Operations Research Analyst (2.9% of applicants)
- Business analyst (2.6% of applicants)
- Computer systems architects (2.2% of applicants)
- Statisticians (2% of applicants)
