Federal officials say they’ve streamlined the process that farmers use to bring migrant workers into the United States under the H2A program. An earlier backlog caused problems for many in the sheep industry. American Sheep Industry Association Executive Director Peter Orwick says that streamlining was needed already then.

He says the processing backlog has hit everyone in the ag industry that uses immigrant workers.

Orwick says more than an H2A immigrant worker program is needed and two years ago they attempted to get Congress to address that issue.

Both the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services and the State Department launched an on line platform this week aimed at expediting the H2A visa process.