DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY

8 CFR Parts 214, 215 and 274a

[CIS No. 2428–07; Docket No. USCIS–2007– 0055]

RIN 1615–AB65

Changes to Requirements Affecting H– 2A Nonimmigrants AGENCY: U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, DHS.

ACTION: Notice of proposed rulemaking.

SUMMARY: The Department of Homeland Security is proposing amendments to its regulations affecting temporary and seasonal agricultural workers within the H–2A nonimmigrant classification and their U.S. employers. This rule proposes to relax the current limitations on the ability of U.S. employers to petition unnamed agricultural workers to come to the United States and include multiple beneficiaries who are outside the United States on one petition. The rule proposes to revise the current limitations on agricultural workers’ length of stay including: lengthening the amount of time an agricultural worker may remain in the United States after his or her employment has ended and shortening the time period that an agricultural worker whose H–2A nonimmigrant status has expired must wait before he or she is eligible to obtain H–2A nonimmigrant status again. This rule also proposes to provide for temporary employment authorization to agricultural workers seeking an extension of their H–2A nonimmigrant status through a different U.S. employer, provided that the employer is a registered user of the E–Verify employment eligibility verification program.

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