International Organization for Migration (IOM)

Improving Access to Labour market Information for migrants and employers
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are allowed to hold temporary full-time employment under the Optional Practical
Training Program (OPT) for up to 12 months. For students in STEM fields, the
OPT programme is for a maximum of 29 months (Wasem 2012). Over the past
three decades, the number of persons on student visas has also increased manifold.
During the period 2000–2011, each year between 300,000 and 500,000 visas were
issued to students (USDHS, 2012).
Figure 12.2: Non-immigrant admissions
2,500,000
2,000,000
1,500,000
1,000,000
500,000
0
1981 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2009 2010 2011
Temporary workers and trainees* Intracompany transferees Academic students (F1) Exchange visitors
Source: Yearbooks of Immigration Statistics, 1997 and 2011.
Note:* Temporary workers and trainees exclude intra-company transfers, treaty traders and investors
and representative of foreign information media.
Admissions data do not adjust for multiple entries into the US.
The US immigration policy has paid much less attention towards creating legal
channels for less-skilled workers, even though immigrants have a critical presence
in many low-skilled occupations and even though a majority of all foreign-born
persons in the country have less than a high-school education. There are two primary
categories under which visas are issued to less-skilled workers: H2A, for seasonal
agriculture workers and H2B, for seasonal non-agriculture workers. In addition, it
appears that in recent years the J-1 category has been applied to provide temporary
visas to low-skilled workers (such as babysitters or domestic workers under the Au
Pair programme) for short periods.
Three fourths of all agriculture workers in the country are foreign born, and a
majority is without legal documents. In 1986, in response to the growing need for
farm workers and a rising presence of the undocumented among farm workers, the
US government created the H-2A temporary agriculture worker programme. This
is the only immigration channel in the country to employ foreign-born agriculture
workers and there is no limit on the number of persons who can receive the H-2A
visa in a year. Yet until recently growers were reluctant to use this programme to hire
foreign workers. Employers complain that H-2A procedures are too cumbersome
to meet the demand for seasonal agriculture workers (Wainer, 2011). Foreign-born