October 7, 2021
An employment agency is NOT the same as a company authorized to hire H-2 visa workers in the United States.
Throughout the recruitment process of migrant workers, the words “employer, company, recruiting agency, employment agency, or recruiter, can be very common”; however, they do not have the same role as in the process of recruiting and hiring workers with an H-2 visa.
Every day it has become much more common for job seekers to contact a recruitment agency when searching for a job opportunity with a temporary work visa for the United States. Many of these individuals are convinced that these organizations are who give them employment, but it is far from that.
Let’s clarify, a recruitment agency or employment agency are entities that offer services to place people in jobs offered by employers in the United States. In order to do this work, the agencies receive a salary from the employer in the United States- a payment for their search and placement services for workers in other countries. But be careful! These agencias may offer employment opportunities that do not exist and charge large amounts of money. This is called: fraud.
On the other hand, the company or employer are the ones who have a presence in the United States and need foreign labor for a variety of reasons. The company or employer is who you will be working for and who will be paying the salary for your work for the specified time in your contract or visa. Their name will be written on your visa, as well as on your pay stubs.
We must remember that the employers are the ones who initiate the process of hiring migrant workers. They are the ones who need to request a permit from the United States government so that you may enter with a temporary work visa; we call this permit a certification. Without certification or authorized permission, an employer cannot hire migrant workers. In that case, an agency also cannot place a person if there is no certified employer that requires its search and placement services.
Therefore, to verify a job offer it is necessary to have the name of the employer, who has the certification to hire. If employment agencies do NOT have certification in their name, then their job is based on searching for individuals interested in working and to place them with an employer who requires foreign labor and who already has certification.
If you are being hired by an agency or a recruiter, apart from having the name of the employer, you need to ask what state you will be working in, what type of work, and what type of visa. Call us with this information on hand so we can help you make sure that the employer is certified; otherwise it could be fraud.
To learn more about this issue, or your labor rights, follow us on our social networks: Facebook, Instagram, or contact us at Centro de los Derechos del Migrante, Inc. (CDM), calls from Mexico: 800-590-1773 or calls from the United States: 1-855-234-9699. To speak to someone in Mixteco you can call us at 953-554-0517. Our services are completely free and confidential.
Imágen: Flickr/Ernestina.Saltos 2011/Vía Flickr.com