A U.S. representative has introduced a bill to reform the U.S. H-2A visa process to ensure aquaculture businesses and seafood processors can bring in temporary workers under the visas.
On 30 June, U.S. Representative Glenn Thompson (R-Pennsylvania) introduced the Securing Agriculture’s Workforce Act of 2026, legislation that would make several changes to the H-2A visa process.
“It’s time to bring the H-2A program into the 21st century,” Rep. Thompson said. “Producers have been sounding the alarm for years that congress needs to address the workforce crisis we have on our hands in farm country. The H-2A visa program is woefully outdated, and it no longer meets the needs of American agricultural production.”
The seafood sector primarily relies on the H-2B visa program to bring in temporary foreign workers for seasonal positions; however, the program is capped. The government is authorized to roughly double the 66,000 annual visas that are available through the program, but even then, demand vastly outstrips the number of visas available. Visas are allotted via a lottery, with seafood companies competing against other sectors of the economy to secure some of the limited visas made available.
The H-2A program, on the other hand, is uncapped.
Thompson’s bill would make several adjustments to the H-2A program, and would include “aquaculture activities, including the primary processing of seafood,” as activities that would be eligible for H-2A visas.
This isn’t the first time lawmakers have attempted to secure more foreign worker visas for the seafood and aquaculture sectors.
A bill introduced by U.S. Senator Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) in 2024 specified that jobs related to fish cutting and trimming, aquaculture, and the processing of wild seafood would be eligible for H-2A visas, although the legislation was never taken up for consideration by lawmakers.
Before that, U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) introduced a bill exempting laborers in the fish-processing sector from counting against the H-2B cap. A similar exemption exists for fish roe processors. The legislation was also not taken up for consideration.
