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Jamaica among five Caribbean countries eligible for US visa programmes

Published:Sunday | February 23, 2020 | 12:00 AMCMC

(CMC)- Jamaica is among five Caribbean countries the Trump administration in the United States has named eligible for visa programmes that allow US employers to bring foreign nationals to the US to fill temporary agricultural and non-agricultural jobs.

The visa programmes are called the H-2A and H-2B programmes respectively.    

US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), in consultation with the Department of State (DOS), said the five Caribbean countries are eligible to participate in the programmes in 2020. 

The other Caribbean countries are: Barbados, Dominican Republic, Grenada and St. Vincent and the Grenadines. They are among 84 countries listed worldwide for the programme.

USCIS said although the Dominican Republic is eligible to participate in the H-2A programme, it is not eligible to participate in the H-2B programme.

For 2020, USCIS said the acting DHS has determined, in agreement with the Office of the Secretary of State, that the countries designated as eligible in 2019 will remain unchanged.

It said examples of factors that could result in the exclusion of a country or the removal of a country from the list include: fraud, abuse, denial rates, overstay rates, human trafficking concerns, and other forms of non compliance with the terms and conditions of the H-2 visa programmes by nationals of the countries.

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