30 per cent of the beneficiaries received the temporary employment visa in 2024.
More than 700 U.S. companies have employed just over 13,000 Salvadorans since October 2021, Jason Mcnabb, deputy director of the Office of Economic Growth of the U.S. Embassy in El Salvador, said Tuesday.
The labour migration program began at the end of 2019, but due to the pandemic it paused and its full implementation began in 2021. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) are currently in charge of the project.
Macnabb said this program allows families to improve their quality of life, as well as that of their communities.
The Deputy Minister of Diaspora and Human Mobility, Cindy Portal, said Tuesday that in 2023 alone, $2.4 million was received in remittances from 432 temporary workers.
The official said that this money was mostly spent on the purchase of homes and in enterprises.
More than 5,000 workers
The Digital Observatory on Human Mobility, run by the Chancellery, confirms that, between 2021 and so far in 2024, at least 13,994 people have travelled to the United States on temporary work visas.
The government notes that, of this portion, 5,261 benefited between January and August 2024, 37.5 percent of the total.
The program serves as a connection between labor-seeking American companies, with Salvadorans who want a job opportunity.
Visas are delivered in two areas: the H-2A, destined for the agricultural sector, and the H-2B, focused on the various service sector.
On the latter type of visa, the Chancellery signed a understanding agreement with the American company United Work and Travel to strengthen the labor mobility program.
Portal said that the firm will benefit more people with job opportunities outside the country.
The official said that, to date, more than 900 people have been placed, hand in hand with the company, in the fishing sector in Alaska, United States.
“Start a new chapter for my company and our shared commitment to create sustainable job opportunities for Salvadorans and is through legal opportunities in the United States,” said United Work and Travel’s Director of Legislative Affairs Brian Gannon.
This article has been translated after first appearing in Diario El Mundo