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As a result of disruptions and uncertainty to the U.S. food agriculture sector during the upcoming summer agricultural season caused by the global novel Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) public health emergency, on April 20, 2020, the Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, temporarily amended the regulations regarding temporary and seasonal agricultural workers, and their U.S. employers, within the H-2A nonimmigrant classification. The Department temporarily removed certain limitations on agricultural employers and workers in order to provide agricultural employers with an orderly and timely flow of legal foreign workers, thereby protecting the integrity of the nation's food supply chain and decreasing possible reliance on unauthorized aliens, while encouraging agricultural employers' use of the H-2A program, which protects the rights of U.S. and foreign workers.

Namely, the Department allowed H-2A employers whose extension of stay H-2A petitions were supported by valid temporary labor certifications issued by the Department of Labor to begin work immediately after the extension of stay petition is received by USCIS. The Department also temporarily amended its regulations to allow H-2A workers to stay in the United States beyond the 3 years maximum allowable period of stay. DHS applied that temporary final rule to H- 2A petitions requesting an extension of stay, and, if applicable, any associated applications for an extension of stay filed by or on behalf of an H-2A worker, if they were (a) received on or after March 1, 2020, and remained pending as of the effective date of this rule, and (b) received on or after the April 20, 2020 through August 18, 2020, the last day the April 20, 2020, temporary final rule (TFR) was in effect. In light of the continued public health emergency, DHS is partially extending some of the provisions in the April 20, 2020 TFR through the August 19, 2020, TFR. While the provisions allowing immediate employment following receipt of a new H-2A petition are included in the new August 19, 2020, TFR, the TFR will no longer allow, as in the previous TFR, H-2A workers to stay in the United States beyond their 3 year maximum allowable period of stay.