H-2B visa worker
An H-2B visa worker is a foreign national admitted to the United States to fill a temporary nonagricultural job.
You need a Form I-129 petition and, outside Guam (which runs its own certification), a Department of Labor temporary labor certification. Your need must be temporary (a one-time occurrence, seasonal, peak load, or intermittent), with an exemption for certain Guam and Northern Mariana Islands petitioners. The Department of Labor certification commits you to federal wage, deduction, and travel-cost rules. H-2B wages are generally subject to Social Security and Medicare tax. H-2A agricultural wages are exempt, as are H-2 wages a Philippines resident earns in Guam.
What does payroll owe an H-2B employee?
For the whole certified period you pay at least the offered wage, never below the prevailing wagePrevailing wage. Prevailing wage is the minimum hourly rate and fringe benefits a government agency sets for each job classification on covered public contracts.Click to open the term or federal, state, or local minimum wageMinimum wage. Minimum wage is the lowest hourly rate you may legally pay a covered employee, set by federal, state, and sometimes local law.Click to open the term. Paydays come at least every two weeks, or more often where that is the area’s prevailing practice. The job order must list every deduction the law does not require; those are limited to board, lodging, and facilities at reasonable cost or fair value, and third-party payments for the employee’s benefit that the employee or a collective bargaining agreement authorizes. Pay statementsPay statement (pay stub). A pay statement, also called a pay stub, is the per-payroll record showing how one payment was calculated, from gross pay to net pay.Click to open the term show hours offered and worked.
| COST | WHAT YOU OWE |
|---|---|
| Visa, visa processing, border crossing, and related fees | Payment or reimbursement in the first workweek |
| Inbound travel and daily subsistence | Owed once the employee completes half the job order period, not counting extensions; the Fair Labor Standards Act can require some or all of it in the first workweek |
| Return or onward travel and daily subsistence | Owed at departure if the employee completes the job order period, not counting extensions, or you dismiss them early, unless the next H-2B employer agreed in its job order to pay |
| Tools, supplies, and equipment for the job | Provided free, with no deposit |
| Passport fees | Not owed |
- 20 CFR 655.20, Assurances and obligations of H-2B employers
- Aliens employed in the U.S.: Social Security taxes
General information, not legal or tax advice. Apply current federal and state rules with qualified guidance.