Agricultural Labor: The TN Visa Program

The TN visa program’s lack of clarity on U.S. farm and ranch work is failing livestock farmers and other producers in need of skilled non-seasonal foreign farm labor. Agricultural labor shortages span the entire agricultural production system: from fieldworkers to veterinarians, equipment operators to animal breeders. TN visas provide a valuable pathway to bring specialized professionals from Mexico and Canada across many fields, including agriculture, to the United States.

The TN Visa Program’s NAFTA Roots

The TN visa program, also known as NAFTA Professional Workers, is a temporary worker program created in 1994 under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) that was grandfathered into the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA). Canadian and Mexican citizens with professional qualifications – such as a college degree – in certain specified fields are eligible for these visas if they have guaranteed job offers from American employers. Numerous agricultural professions are designated as TN employment sectors, yet there’s been a jump in denials for recent applicants.

TN Visa Use

Several factors make TN visas an attractive employment pathway for agricultural employers and employees alike. Like H-2A visas, there is no cap on the number of TN visas that can be issued. TN visa holders are also not able to apply for permanent legal residency while residing in the United States under the nonimmigrant visa.

Unlike H-2A visas, TN visas are not constrained by seasonal limitations; these employees may work and reside in the U.S. year-round. While they are employed, their spouses and children can also reside in the U.S. under an adjacent trade dependent (TD) visa. This is a major benefit for workers employed under a TN visa compared to other temporary worker visas.

The process for attaining a TN visa differs for Mexican and Canadian citizens. A Canadian citizen need only show proof of a job offer in an eligible profession upon entry to the United States to be granted a TN visa. Mexican citizens, on the other hand, must apply at a US embassy or consulate. In 2022, the U.S. State Department consolidated their in-person TN visa processing to only three locations in Mexico, making it more difficult for Mexican citizens to obtain a TN visa. Despite this, TN visa applications continue to rise. Nearly 33,000 TN visa applications were submitted in Mexico across all eligible industries in 2023, three times as many as a decade ago.

Since Canadian citizens do not have to apply for a TN visa, we must rely on admissions data to evaluate overall usage of the program. Over 1.2 million admittances occurred in 2023, more than twice as many as 2022. One visa holder can be admitted to the U.S. multiple times, so this does not mean 1.2 million people received visas. A TN visa holder may work and reside in the U.S. for up to three years and then can renew indefinitely, so there is a carryover from year to year of admittances that are not new issues. Admittance increases were mostly driven by Canadian admittances; Canadian citizens were admitted 846,250 times in 2023, 143% more than 2022, compared to 358,660 Mexican admittances, a 78% increase from 2022.

Speed Bumps for Workers

Applications for TN visas are considered one of the simplest and most often accepted. Yet within the last year, denials have skyrocketed. Eighteen percent of all TN visa applications were denied in 2023, the highest denial rate in over 10 years. Increased denial rates caused the number of visas issued to decrease in 2023, despite a continued increase in the number of applications.

Industry-level data is not available for TN visa usage and denial. In agriculture, TN visas are often used by industries like dairy or pork that do not have access to designated agricultural labor due to H-2A restrictions on non-seasonal work. These industries have been noted as having larger variations in the approval rates for TN visas.

TN visas are primarily denied because an employer-provided job description does not meet the adjudicating officer’s standard of “professional” employment, but there is typically no further guidance or explanation.

So, what constitutes a professional, particularly in agriculture?

Inconsistent Expectations

The U.S. State Department’s interpretation of what is professional employment seems to reflect the expectations of people unfamiliar with agriculture. Appendix 2 of Annex 16-A of USCMA, Chapter 16 lists the entirety of professions eligible for TN visas. Those that are solely focused on agriculture include forester, range manager/conservationist, veterinarian, agriculturist (including agronomist), animal breeder, animal scientist, apiculturist, dairy scientist, plant breeder, poultry scientist and soil scientist. Other than veterinarians – of whom the United States faces a severe rural and food animal shortage – these professions’ only USMCA requirements are a baccalaureate or licenciatura degree (the Mexican equivalent of a bachelor’s degree).

Unlike other agricultural visa programs, TN visa program administration receives no input from USDA, despite including agricultural professions. Instead, U.S. State Department guidance relies on the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Occupational Outlook Handbook to determine professional-level employment in these industries.

Of the 11 agricultural professions deemed eligible for TN visas, only veterinarians have a dedicated occupation description in this document. Four professions – animal and plant breeders, animal scientists and apiculturists – are not in the handbook, while the remaining professions are grouped with numerous others in generic “conservation scientists and foresters” or “agricultural and food scientists” categories. The second of these very broad areas is very narrowly defined around scientific research. BLS considers all other farm work, including farm management, to be unskilled work that requires a high school diploma or less. In modern agriculture, many agricultural production jobs – such as herd manager, animal nutritionist and farm manager – require specialized skills and are commonly filled by college graduates due to the increasing technicality of farm production. The BLS definitions no longer reflect modern agriculture, if they ever did.

Some of these professions have more specific BLS descriptions in the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) occupation profiles, but OEWS does not survey agricultural industries and is not a reliable expert on agricultural employment.

Beyond missing, inconsistent and outdated definitions across U.S. agency programs, these profession expectations can also vary across USMCA countries. For example, take an animal breeder, and more specifically a swine breeder. Across the three countries, swine breeder definitions and job functions include:

Agricultural professionals are being denied standard industry jobs because their expectations for use of their college degree do not align with the State Department adjudicators’ expectations of a professional worker. College graduates seeking work in animal breeding face drastically different opportunities, based on uninformed administrative definitions. Without a concrete definition of professional agricultural job descriptions accepted by all three countries, one would hope industry norms would be a proper North Star. Agricultural jobs – especially these hands-on professions included in Appendix 2 of USMCA Chapter 16 – often differ greatly from traditional office jobs, requiring at times what would normally be considered manual labor. This is the norm for college-trained professionals in agriculture. By considering industry norms for the status and scope of agricultural professionals in the administration of the TN visa program, North American agricultural professionals would have greater employment opportunities and U.S. farmers could have better access to the help they need.

Conclusion

A rising number of Mexican TN visa applicants have been rejected, based in part on a lack of experience with agriculture among U.S. Department of State officials and Department of Labor classifiers. This visa program receives no input from the agriculture sector on its own job duty expectations and is reliant on data that notably excludes agriculture. In livestock industries that already suffer from inequal access to H-2A labor programs, TN visas should provide at least some relief in specialized professional job roles. Instead, the recent jump in application denials has created another hurdle for farmers and ranchers to clear as they try to adequately staff their operations.