Form ETA-790: H-2A Job Order Contents, Filing, and Obligations

Form ETA-790, together with its companion Form ETA-790A, is the job order an agricultural employer files with the U.S. Department of Labor before bringing in temporary H-2A workers. It is both an application document and an enforceable job offer: the Department uses it to advertise the position to U.S. workers, and no foreign labor certification issues until that domestic recruitment has run its course. Everything the employer promises on the form, from wages and housing to transportation and daily tasks, becomes a legal obligation to every worker hired under it.

The form is filed electronically through the Foreign Labor Application Gateway, better known as FLAG, and it must be submitted no more than 75 and no fewer than 60 calendar days before the first date of need.¹

What Belongs on the Job Order

Federal regulations require enough detail that any U.S. worker reading the posting could tell exactly what the job pays, where they would live, how they would get to the worksite, and what the work involves day to day.

Wages

The offered wage must be at least the highest of the Adverse Effect Wage Rate for the state where the work will be performed, any applicable prevailing wage, the federal or state minimum wage, or the applicable collective bargaining rate.² For standard field work, the AEWR is almost always the binding floor. Current AEWRs range from roughly $14.83 to $20.08 per hour depending on the state, with a separate monthly rate of $2,132.41 for range occupations such as herding and livestock production on the range.³ The rates update annually based on USDA Farm Labor Survey data, so verify the current figure before filing.

Work Details and Qualifications

The job order must describe the crops or livestock involved, the specific tasks workers will perform, the expected work schedule, and any physical demands. Job qualifications must be genuine and consistent with what non-H-2A employers in the same crop and region normally require. The Department or the State Workforce Agency can demand documentation supporting any listed qualification, and padding requirements to discourage U.S. applicants is a quick path to a deficiency notice.⁴

Housing

Housing must be provided at no cost to H-2A workers and to any U.S. workers in corresponding employment who cannot reasonably commute home the same day. The job order lists the physical address, maximum occupancy, and type of housing. Employer-owned housing must meet OSHA temporary labor camp standards at 29 CFR 1910.142 or the Employment and Training Administration standards at 20 CFR 654.404 through 654.417. Rental or public accommodations must meet local codes, with federal standards filling any gaps.⁵ The State Workforce Agency inspects housing before workers arrive, and a failed inspection can derail the entire application.

Meals, Transportation, Tools, and Insurance

Outside range occupations, employers must either provide three meals a day or furnish free and convenient cooking facilities. When meals are provided, the job order states the daily charge. For 2026, the maximum allowable meal charge is $16.78 per day unless the certifying officer approves more.⁶

Transportation terms belong on the form as well. The employer covers inbound transportation and daily subsistence once the worker completes at least 50 percent of the contract period, and return transportation upon completion of the contract or termination without cause.⁶ Vehicles used to move workers between housing and the worksite must meet applicable safety and insurance requirements.

Every tool, supply, and piece of equipment the job requires must be provided at no cost to the worker.⁵ Workers’ compensation coverage is mandatory, and before certification issues the employer must submit proof to the certifying officer showing the carrier name, policy number, and confirmation that coverage spans the full employment period. If the work is exempt from the state’s workers’ compensation law, the employer must provide equivalent coverage at no charge to the worker.

The Recruiter Fee Prohibition

Employers who use foreign labor recruiters must include a written contractual prohibition against charging workers any recruitment, placement, processing, or application fees. Copies of all recruiter contracts go to the Department of Labor, and each contract must contain specific language barring the recruiter and its agents from seeking or receiving payments from prospective workers at any time.⁷ This is one of the areas the Wage and Hour Division investigates most aggressively, and violations here can lead to debarment.

The Three Addenda on Form ETA-790A

Form ETA-790A carries three addenda, and confusing them is a common filing mistake.

Addendum A is for additional wage information covering specific crops, agricultural activities, or distinct work tasks that do not fit on the main form. Different piece rates for different crops go here.⁸
Addendum B is required when workers will work at additional worksites beyond the one listed on the main form, or when the employer needs to list extra housing units or housing at other locations.
Addendum C is a catch-all for material terms and conditions that do not fit elsewhere, such as detailed equipment operation requirements or unusual scheduling arrangements.

Every addendum must be internally consistent with the main form. A wage figure on Addendum A that does not match the primary form will trigger a deficiency notice.

When and How to File

Employers submit the completed job order through FLAG, and the filing goes directly to the National Processing Center rather than to the State Workforce Agency.⁹ The NPC handles the initial review and then routes the job order to the appropriate SWA for recruitment.¹

The 60-to-75-day filing window is strict. Missing the 60-day deadline means the NPC will return the filing without review. The submission must include the employer’s Federal Employer Identification Number, a valid U.S. business address, and an original or verifiable electronic signature. Agricultural associations filing on behalf of multiple employer-members can submit a single job order covering all named employers.

What Happens After You File

The certifying officer has seven calendar days from receipt to issue either a Notice of Acceptance or a Notice of Deficiency. A deficiency notice spells out the specific problems, and the employer has five business days to submit corrections. Missing that response window effectively kills the application for that filing cycle.¹⁰

After acceptance, the NPC transmits the job order to the SWA serving the area of intended employment. The SWA posts the job, begins recruitment, and schedules housing inspections. The job order also appears on the national SeasonalJobs.dol.gov portal. Active recruitment continues until 50 percent of the contract period has elapsed.

Obligations the Job Order Locks You Into

Filing the form is not a formality. Everything on it becomes an enforceable commitment for the life of the contract.

The 50 Percent Rule

From the time foreign workers depart for the employer’s place of employment, the employer must hire any qualified U.S. worker who applies until half of the contract period has passed. The clock runs from the first date of need on the application.⁷ Turning away a qualified domestic applicant during this window carries penalties of up to $21,649 per worker.¹¹ A narrow exemption exists for very small operations that used no more than 500 man-days of agricultural labor in any calendar quarter of the preceding year and are not associated with other petitioning employers, but most H-2A filers do not qualify.

Corresponding Employment

Every wage rate, benefit, and working condition on the job order applies to U.S. workers performing the same agricultural tasks during the same period. Those U.S. workers are in “corresponding employment,” and the employer must pay them at least the wage stated on the job order, with productivity standards applied equally to both groups. Offering H-2A workers the AEWR while paying existing domestic workers less for the same crop work is a clear violation.

The Three-Fourths Guarantee

The employer commits to offering work for at least three-fourths of the total workdays in the contract period, measured in hours rather than days. For a 12-week season, that means at least nine weeks of work at the daily hours stated in the job order.⁵ When the employer cannot provide enough work, the difference must still be paid at the offered wage rate. For piece-rate workers, the calculation uses whichever is higher: the worker’s average hourly piece-rate earnings or the required hourly wage.

Hours a worker voluntarily declined when offered count toward the employer’s side of the calculation. If the contract ends early because of weather, fire, or another unforeseeable event, the guarantee still applies to the period between the start of work and the date of termination.

The Recruitment Report and Recordkeeping

After the recruitment period closes, the employer prepares a signed, dated recruitment report documenting every effort made to find U.S. workers. It must list each recruitment source and the dates ads ran; the name, contact information, and application outcome for every U.S. worker who applied or was referred; confirmation that each former U.S. worker was contacted, including the date and method; and a specific, lawful, job-related reason for any rejection. The report covers everyone, including walk-up applicants at the worksite and people who applied after work began but before the 50 percent point of the contract.¹² Thin recruitment reports are among the most common triggers for Wage and Hour Division investigations.

All records related to the application, job order, recruitment, payroll, and working conditions must be kept for three years from the date of certification. If the application was denied or withdrawn, the three-year clock starts from that determination.¹³ The inability to produce requested documents during an audit is treated as its own violation.

Penalties for Getting It Wrong

The Wage and Hour Division enforces H-2A requirements through civil money penalties that scale with the severity of the violation:

Up to $2,166 per violation for breaching the work contract or any H-2A program requirement.
Up to $7,289 per violation for willful violations or discrimination.
Up to $72,164 per worker for a housing or transportation safety violation causing death or serious injury.
Up to $144,329 per worker for a repeat or willful safety violation causing death or serious injury.
Up to $21,649 per worker for displacing a U.S. worker within 60 days before the date of need or during the job order’s validity period without a lawful reason.
Up to $21,649 per worker for improperly rejecting a U.S. applicant.
Up to $7,289 for failure to cooperate with an investigation.¹¹

Beyond fines, the WHD Administrator can debar an employer from the H-2A program for up to three years for substantially violating a material term of the labor certification. Debarment grounds include failing to pay required wages, refusing to hire qualified U.S. workers, employing H-2A workers outside the approved area or activity, obstructing an investigation, and what the regulations describe as a “single heinous act” showing such disregard for the law that future compliance cannot be expected.¹⁴ The debarment notice must issue within two years of the violation.

Extra Steps for H-2A Labor Contractors

An H-2A Labor Contractor files everything a farm employer files, plus more. With the application, an H-2ALC must submit the name and location of each farm where workers will be placed along with expected dates, crops, and tasks; a copy of the Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act Farm Labor Contractor Certificate of Registration showing authorized activities; an original surety bond payable to the Wage and Hour Division Administrator; fully executed work contracts with every fixed-site farm identified in the application; and documentation that housing and transportation at each site meet applicable standards.¹⁵

Bond amounts scale with workforce size. The base amounts range from $5,000 for fewer than 25 workers up to $75,000 for 100 or more, but each base is multiplied by the average AEWR and divided by $9.25, so the actual bond runs considerably higher than the base figure. For operations requesting 150 or more workers, additional adjustments apply for every increment of 50 above 100.

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eCFR. 20 CFR 655.121 – Job Order Filing Requirements
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eCFR. 20 CFR 655.120 – Offered Wage Rate
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Foreign Labor Application Gateway. H-2A Adverse Effect Wage Rates
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eCFR. 20 CFR Part 655 Subpart B – Labor Certification Process for Temporary Agricultural Employment
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eCFR. 20 CFR 655.122 – Contents of Job Offers
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Federal Register. Labor Certification Process – Annual Update to Allowable Monetary Charges for Agricultural Workers Meals and Travel Subsistence Reimbursement
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eCFR. 20 CFR 655.135 – Assurances and Obligations of H-2A Employers
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U.S. Department of Labor. Form ETA-790A General Instructions
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Foreign Labor Application Gateway. H-2A Temporary Certification for Agriculture Workers
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U.S. Department of Labor. H-2A Application Process Flowchart for Employers
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U.S. Department of Labor. Civil Money Penalty Inflation Adjustments
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U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 26A – Recruitment Requirements Under the H-2A Visa Program
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eCFR. 20 CFR 655.167 – Document Retention Requirements of H-2A Employers
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eCFR. 29 CFR 501.20 – Debarment and Revocation
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eCFR. 20 CFR 655.132 – H-2A Labor Contractor Filing Requirements