Updated farmers.gov site adds tools to help with hiring
WASHINGTON, D.C. -U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue on Monday announced new features on the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Farmers.gov website designed to help facilitate the employment of H-2A workers.
The primary new H-2A features on Farmers.gov include:
1. a real-time dashboard that enables farmers to track the status of their eligible employer application and visa applications for temporary non-immigrant workers;
2. a streamlined login process so that if a farmer has an existing login.gov account they can save multiple applications tracking numbers for quick look-up at any time;
3. easy access to the Department of Labor’s Foreign Labor Application Gateway;
4. ability to track time-sensitive actions taken in the course of Office of Foreign Labor Certification’s adjudication of temporary labor certification applications;
5. access to all application forms online.
All information can be found at www.farmers.gov/ manage/h2a.
“My mission from the beginning of my time as secretary was to make USDA the most effective, most efficient, most customer-focused department in the entire federal government – these changes to Farmers. gov are doing just that,” Perdue said. “USDA’s goal is to help farmers navigate the complex H-2A program that is administered by Department of Labor, Department of Homeland Security, and the State Department so hiring a farm worker is an easier process. President Trump knows how essential these workers are to our farmers and America’s food supply chain. We will continue working to streamline these and other processes to better serve our customers across the country.”
USDA unveiled farmers. gov in 2018. It is intended to be a dynamic, mobile-friendly public website combined with an authenticated portal where customers can apply for programs, process transactions and manage accounts.
“With feedback from customers and field employees who serve those customers, Farmers.gov delivers farmer-focused features through an agile, iterative process to deliver the greatest immediate value to America’s agricultural producers – helping farmers and ranchers do right, and feed everyone,” USDA said.