H-2A vs. H-2B: Agricultural Employment vs Seasonal Non-Agricultural Employment

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Last reviewed September 2026

Overview: H-2A covers temporary agricultural employment and has no annual numerical cap at all. H-2B covers temporary non-agricultural employment, such as hospitality, landscaping, or seafood processing, and is limited by a statutory cap of 66,000 visas a year, split evenly between the two halves of the fiscal year. Both require a Department of Labor certification process first, but the details, timing, and risk of running out of numbers differ substantially.

What qualifies as agricultural labor

H-2A covers agricultural employment such as planting, cultivating, and harvesting crops, and certain livestock operations. Because there is no cap, an employer who can demonstrate a genuine temporary or seasonal need and clears the labor certification process can generally bring in as many H-2A workers as the certified need supports.

What qualifies as seasonal non-agricultural employment

H-2B covers temporary non-agricultural labor falling into one of four recognized need categories: seasonal, peak-load, intermittent, or one-time occurrence. Common industries include hospitality, landscaping, construction, and seafood processing. Unlike H-2A, H-2B is capped by statute at 66,000 visas per fiscal year, 33,000 for start dates in the first half of the fiscal year and 33,000 for the second half, and demand has exceeded that cap in most recent years.

Labor certification for each

Both programs require the employer to first obtain a Temporary Labor Certification from the Department of Labor, generally showing that U.S. workers are not available and that hiring foreign workers will not adversely affect wages and working conditions for similarly employed U.S. workers. The specific certification process, recruitment steps, and timing differ between the two programs and are administered under separate regulations.

The H-2B cap and supplemental visas

Because H-2B demand routinely outpaces the statutory 66,000 cap, Congress has in most years since 2017 given DHS, in consultation with DOL, time-limited authority to release a supplemental allocation of additional visas beyond the cap. This supplemental authority is not automatic or guaranteed for any given fiscal year; it depends on Congress renewing the authority and DHS choosing to exercise it, and the size of any supplemental allocation has varied from year to year. Employers planning around H-2B should check current USCIS cap-count and supplemental-visa announcements rather than assuming a repeat of a prior year's numbers.

Employer obligations: housing, transportation, wages

H-2A carries more extensive employer obligations than H-2B in some respects, including a general requirement to provide free housing to workers who cannot reasonably return home daily, and reimbursement of certain inbound and outbound transportation costs. Both programs require paying at least the applicable required wage rate for the occupation and area of employment, and prohibit charging workers recruitment or placement fees.

Choosing the right category and timing

The threshold question is almost always factual: is the employment agricultural or not. Once that is settled, H-2A employers can plan primarily around the labor certification timeline, since there is no numerical cap to race against. H-2B employers have to plan around both the certification timeline and the statutory cap, filing early in each half-year cycle and having a contingency plan if the cap closes before their petition is filed, since supplemental relief is uncertain from one year to the next.

Official sources

TR Immigration is an independent immigration information platform. It is not a law firm. Nothing here is legal advice, an eligibility determination, or a prediction about your case. Rules and fees change often, so confirm anything you rely on against the official page it links to.

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