Program offers opportunities for farmers to fill worker needs

MALTA, Ill. — The H-2A program is one way farmers can solve the need of qualified employees for their operations.

“According to a survey conducted in 2023, the difficulty in finding U.S. workers is an eight out of 10, with 10 being impossible,” said Teri Theodore, worker placement coordinator assistant supervisor for USA Farm Labor Inc.

“I work with about 30 farmers in Illinois and it continues to grow,” said Theodore during a presentation at the Illinois Soybean Growers’ Farm Business Summit. “We’re up to about 1,300 employers we work with because they cannot find and maintain domestic workers.”

USA Farm Labor has been in business for over 20 years.

“Our owners are South Africans and they had a vision that they wanted to bridge the gap between South Africa and the U.S. to service both countries,” Theodore said.

“We’re a little bit different in terms of our customer service. I talk to employers and workers,” she said. “We do a lot of conflict resolution for our customers and we handle the paperwork.”

The workers enter their information in the company’s database and U.S. farmers complete an application that includes information about the type of work the employees will be doing.

“Our recruiters see what you’re looking for, what the workers have put in and then they try to marry those together,” Theodore said. “We try to match what you need with the workers’ ability.”

The first step for the H-2A program is to submit documents and the Department of Labor will issue a labor certification.

“The second step is to apply to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to get an approval notice,” Theodore said.

“The time frame to submit paperwork to the state workforce agency is at most 75 days before the start date and at least 60 days before the start date,” she said. “Once you pick a date, you really want to stick with it because the program is seasonal and temporary.”

If a farmer starts moving the dates around a lot, Theodore said, the Department of Labor may start questioning if there is a year-round need.

“Once they determine it’s a year-round need, they won’t issue a labor certification,” she said. “To qualify for the H-2A program, you have to stay within the 10-month window.”

Employers must provide a recruitment report to the Department of Labor that includes information about domestic applicants.

“They want to prove there are no Americans willing, able and qualified to do these jobs,” Theodore said. “Of the seven years I’ve been doing this, there’s probably a handful of farmers that had qualified and able-bodied domestic applicants.”

The period of need for the workers must be 10 months or less and the worker’s visa is valid for the duration of the job.

“The workers can stay up to three years, but you need valid permits,” Theodore said. “So, if you have a winter need, you can apply again and keep the same guy, but once they have hit the three-year limit, they have to leave the U.S. for at least three months.”

Benefits of using the H-2A program for U.S. farmers are they don’t have to pay Social Security or retirement for the workers.

“The workers are responsible for paying federal tax, so that is the only thing you deduct from their paycheck,” Theodore said. “You do have to provide them a W-2.”

U.S. employers must provide workers’ compensation.

“When we do the paperwork, we have to spell out how many hours the guys will work at minimum and you guarantee three-quarters of that,” Theodore said. “So, if you say they’ll have 100 days of work, 75 of those days have to be guaranteed, but I’ve never had an employer worry about that three-quarter limit.”

The workweek cannot be less than 35 hours.

“The workers are supposed to have one day off per week, but the majority of the guys coming over want to work,” Theodore said. “If they ask for a Sunday or holiday off, they have to be granted that, but they can work seven days per week.”

The cost for the H-2A program from the Department of Labor is $100 plus $10 for every worker.

“The USCIS fee varies from $760 to almost $1,700 depending on whether you ask for workers outside of the country or in the country,” Theodore said.

Employers reimburse the workers for their airline ticket, which averages around $1,800 from South Africa.

“For Illinois, Indiana and Ohio, the wages for the workers jumped from $18.18 to $19.57 for 2025,” Theodore said.

“To use our program, the administration fee is $695 plus $100 for new clients,” she said. “We have a variable fee to pay the recruiters and there is a monthly fee of $40 to $85 per person.”

Housing is also a requirement for all workers.

“The house has to be inspected to make sure it meets all OSHA regulations,” Theodore said. “Once the workers get here, if something has been damaged in the house, you are held responsible, so there is a lot of responsibility for the employer to provide for the workers — this is not a cheap or easy program.”

USA Farm Labor has a handbook about the H-2A program.

“Once you sign up for the program, we send the handbook to you and it has a wealth of information,” Theodore said. “There’s a lot of questions, so we walk you through the process and assist you in any way we can.”

The best practices for being a great employer, the placement coordinator said, are to have some guidelines set up and communicate with the workers.

“We try to encourage you to lead by example,” she said. “Treat them like you would want to be treated and we are there for conflict resolution.”