A year-long engagement effort to make Saint Lucia an eligible country for visas to fill temporary jobs in the agricultural and nonagricultural sector in the United States has been successful.
āOur colleagues in our Consulate in Miami had been focused on identifying employment opportunities for our nationals in Florida but had highlighted the lack of direct access to H-2 visas as an impedimentā, explained Ambassador Anton Edmunds, noting that the effort to identify opportunities for the employment of Saint Lucian nationals was a direct response to conversations between the Consulate and Senior Minister, the Honourable Stephenson King, whose portfolio in 2019 included labour.
In as much as H-2 visas had never been issued to Saint Lucians, the Embassy in 2020 embarked upon an engagement strategy with relevant authorities to secure placement of Saint Lucia on the list of eligible nations.Ā Embassy efforts included highlighting the fact that Saint Lucians were active participants in worker programmes in other countries and noting that the country met certain key metrics.
When assessing whether to add a country to the H-2 visa list, the Department of Homeland Security by regulation, considers a variety of issues including overstay rates of nationals and the transparency of the repatriation processes.Ā The Secretary of Homeland Security, with the concurrence of the Secretary of State, designates by notice published in the Federal Register eligible countries.