Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Vermont labor official outlines H‑2A application steps, wage rules and housing checks amid federal rule change
Summary
Vermont Department of Labor assistant director Cindy Robillard told the Agriculture, Food Resiliency, & Forestry committee that Vermont processed roughly 500–600 H‑2A applications in 2025, outlined employer obligations for housing, transport and a three‑quarter wage guarantee, and described how a recent interim federal rule created two AWER skill tiers and a $1.61/hour housing deduction.
Cindy Robillard, assistant director of the Workforce Development Division at the Vermont Department of Labor, briefed the Agriculture, Food Resiliency, & Forestry committee on the H‑2A agricultural guest‑worker program, the state’s role in processing applications and a recent federal interim rule that altered wage calculations.
Robillard said the H‑2A program — created under the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 — allows U.S. farm owners to bring foreign nationals for seasonal agricultural work. She told lawmakers Vermont received “somewhere between 5 and 600 applications” for H‑2A in 2025 and estimated about 400 workers actually arrive in the state each year, while noting those arrival counts are imperfectly tracked.
The briefing explained Vermont’s processing steps: employers file a job order in the Foreign Labor Application Gateway (FLAG) 60–75 days before the need; the Department posts the opening to Vermont Job Link to document domestic recruitment; the Agency of Agriculture conducts pre‑occupancy housing inspections under a recent MOU; and certifying officers at the U.S. Department of…
Already have an account? Log in
Subscribe to keep reading
Unlock the rest of this article — and every article on Citizen Portal.
- Unlimited articles
- AI-powered breakdowns of topics, speakers, decisions, and budgets
- Instant alerts when your location has a new meeting
- Follow topics and more locations
- 1,000 AI Insights / month, plus AI Chat
