Hiring Foreign Landscaping Workers to Address Labor Shortage: H2B and EB3 Visas

The extreme labor shortage in the landscaping and lawn care industries in the U.S. is expected to continue into 2023. To make matters worse, the shortage is only expected to grow in the future. Our clients in the landscaping and lawn care industries have addressed this shortage through hiring foreign workers that are ready, willing and able to fill their landscaping and lawn care positions in the U.S.

Specifically, there are two immigration routes that our clients utilize to hire foreign landscaping and lawn care workers (1) H-2B Visa (Temporary Worker) and (2) EB-3 (Green Card). The H-2B visa process, a temporary visa type, can allow an employer to bring workers within two to three months. Whereas the EB-3 process, a permanent solution, can take anywhere from 12 to 24 months. A brief overview of these visa types that we use for our clients is described below.

H-2B Visa

One of the quickest routes to bringing landscaping and lawn care employees to the U.S. is through the H-2b visa. The H-2B program can be used by employers that demonstrate temporary, seasonal, or peak-load shortage of staff and need of additional workers- this is often the case for our clients in the landscaping and lawn care industries that operate during certain seasons. The H-2B program process typically takes 5 to 8 months to complete. Through this visa type, the foreign workers can come to the U.S. and work for up to 9 months in a one-year period with the initial approval. Thereafter, the employee must leave for a period of three months and can come on an H-2B visa again for another 9 months.

Employers of the H-2B workers are obligated to pay for the visa application, flight tickets and accommodation of the workers, as well as to pay them the wage determined by the Department of Labor to protect them from exploitation. Typically, these costs are well worth it for our landscaping and lawn care industry clients that need workers now.

Additionally, the employee’s family (spouse and children under 21) can also accompany the employee under the dependent H-4 visa.

EB-3 (Green Card)

The EB-3 visa is a more permanent solution to bringing lawn care and landscaping employees to the U.S. Under the EB-3 category, an employer can sponsor the foreign employee to come to the U.S. to work in a permanent position (green card). Generally, this process can be completed within 12 to 24 months. Under this category, an employer can petition for a foreign worker to come to the U.S. to fill an employment position if the employer was not able to find a suitable employee from the American workforce- something that can very easily be shown for most landscaping and lawn care companies.

Additionally, the employee’s family (spouse and children under 21) can also immigrate with the employee.