More than 254,000 H-2A positions were certified in the first half of fiscal year 2026, putting the program on pace to surpass last year's record total. Certifications have grown steadily from 317,619 in fiscal year 2021, reflecting the agriculture industry's deepening reliance on the visa program to fill seasonal labor gaps.
The H-2A program is the primary legal pathway for temporary agricultural workers in the U.S. and directly supports harvest and packing operations across produce's most important growing regions. Its continued growth underscores both how critical foreign labor is to the supply chain and how unresolved domestic farm labor policy continues to be.
With ongoing legislative proposals to reform H-2A and increased scrutiny of labor costs, the program's trajectory matters to anyone managing grower relationships or forecasting input costs for the coming seasons.