Whether you’re the owner of a mid-size hog farm or larger swine operation looking to hire non-immigrant visa workers for the first time, the process is more complex but less difficult than you may envision it to be.
If you follow the visa processes set out by the U.S. State Department, while there are a number of requirements to meet, doing so properly means the other steps you need to do to hire good employees isn’t really different or more difficult than the process of hiring U.S. citizens. My experience is based on over 20 years of doing this with the last six years for Carthage System Professional Swine Management (PSM) farms and on behalf of some client producers who don’t employ their own human-resource staff.
Narrowing Down the Candidates
To keep track of how many temporary visa workers we need at any given time and how to allocate them, I monitor each farm’s staffing and pull the right candidate from one of my staffing streams. PSM manages 40 sites, and it limits the number of new employees at a time so the manager and farm leadership have time to integrate them.
Whether it’s someone who lives a few miles down the road or in another country, candidates go through a pre-screening, then if we are interested the person will have a full interview with someone in Carthage HR. If it’s a farm job, a manager from PSM production will also sit in to help assess their qualifications and answer questions about the daily work. Integration starts at the interview, people connect with those they interview with, so we make a point to pull in folks who are closely linked to the job.
This is particularly important for potential guest workers from Mexico, because even if they already have hog farm experience, it might be for an operation of 200-300 animals at most; here, they might be working at a 5,000-head facility. In addition, if the candidate speaks little or no English, one of our bilingual HR employees is on hand to translate.
One of these Spanish speakers is Nancy Perez Arroyo, our International Programs manager for the past six years and an expert who has also been through the guest worker process with a family member. As her title indicates, much of her work is liaising with attorneys and government officials to make sure paperwork for each guest worker is in order, as well as staying in touch with those workers to help them prepare for consulate interviews and, when approved, travel to the U.S. for training and work.
I say “when approved” because PSM has a very high visa approval rate — but occasionally there is a denial. When that happens, Nancy checks if we can update and resubmit any paperwork to gain an approval (which often happens). We also debrief every candidate after their consulate interview, successful or not, to learn if any questions have changed and to continue assisting future candidates in their interview preparations.
Nancy is terrific with her mock interviews, not only prepping each visa applicant for the actual questions, but putting them more at ease with the process. Put yourself in their shoes: You want to work in the U.S. to learn, to earn and to better your and often your families’ lives — and perhaps the only thing standing between you and that opportunity is someone behind a desk who has the power to approve or deny your visa. It can be quite stressful.
Know Your Visas
The four most common visa types we work with are H-2A, TN, J-1 and H-1B. H-2A is for seasonal agricultural work and each petition is limited to the number of foreign workers entry into the U.S. that is requested on the petition. Although the initial work period is limited to less than a year, a person could be renewed for a maximum stay of up to three years if the petition is renewed each year.
H-2A visas are regulated by multiple federal agencies as well as each state, which sets the required hourly wage for these workers within its borders. The farmer or company hiring the worker also must provide housing and transportation for H-2A visa holders.
TN and H-1B visas are similar to one another except that TN is only for workers from Canada and Mexico (mostly Mexican nationals, according to National Pork Producers Council data), whereas H-1B is for specialized labor from other countries. We hire far more TN visa holders than H-1B. This visa permits skilled workers to enter the U.S. for up to three years.
To qualify for a TN, the applicant must have a bachelor’s or equivalent degree in a field related to the work. There are more than 60 ag and non-ag occupations that fall under a TN visa; those of interest to Carthage are animal scientist, veterinarian, breeder or the like. The TN program had a few rough years after COVID-19 hit in 2020, but this year, thankfully approvals are back to pre-pandemic levels.
J-1 visa holders are trainees or interns who come to the U.S. to learn about a specific business — these cannot be unskilled or casual labor positions. Trainees must meet certain education and work experience requirements, while intern visas are intended for foreign college or university students or recent graduates; Carthage partners with Ohio State University for these internships. In some countries, it can take up to a year before the candidate receives approval.
Onboarding and Training
Getting a new farm hire approved for their visa is just part of the onboarding process. We try to help them acclimate as much as possible, as many speak little or no English and may or may not know any other workers here. For example, Nancy participates in the interviews, then once they arrive they can meet her during orientation and their 10-day initial training at our headquarters.
Think back to any job interviews you’ve had. Whether you’re conscious of it or not, you do become sort of attached to whomever interviews you for a successful hire, and if that person was also around when you started the job it probably made you feel more confident and comfortable.
PSM holds a one-day orientation and 10 days of basic training for new workers, with a graduation at completion, always on a Friday. This is when each person finds out where the farm they will be assigned to for work the following Monday is located and meets their new farm manager. I try to be sure each worker knows at least three other things at this point: where they will now be housed (they stay in a dorm at our headquarters during the two-week training), how to reach their manager and how they will get to their new job on Monday.
Once they begin their new job, we have a checklist of about 100 standard operating procedures. Each new worker is given a structured plan with specific learning milestones for their first year of employment. Their production and farm managers must sign off on these milestones to ensure they have successfully mastered each process. This embodies our “tell, show, do” on-the-job training model to help them learn and also give us insight on specialized skills they may have that a manager can develop.
Again, this is all part of the process of making them feel welcome. Most arrive with not much more than a backpack — and we at Carthage view their time here as a mutually beneficial exchange of labor and knowledge we want to always encourage.
Your Next Read: AgvoKate Warns Producers About Shortcomings of AI Language Learning Tools in Agriculture
