Uzbekistan and the United States Prepare Pilot Programs
Uzbekistan is continuing to diversify its organized labor migration destinations. In mid-July, Migration Agency Director Behzod Musayev met U.S. Ambassador to Uzbekistan Jonathan Henick.
The parties discussed pilot projects for employing Uzbek citizens in the American agricultural sector, the preparation of documents and the practical launch of an organized recruitment mechanism.
Following the meeting, the Migration Agency and the consular section of the U.S. Embassy agreed to establish direct cooperation. This is expected to cover information exchange, preliminary coordination of interviews with employers and centralized preparation of candidates’ applications.
The U.S. side also stressed that workers should receive complete information in advance about employment and living conditions, expected expenses, available support and the timetable for returning to Uzbekistan.
U.S. Program Is Limited to Seasonal Employment
The talks with the embassy build on an agreement reached in March 2026 between Uzbekistan’s Migration Agency and the U.S.-based company USA Farm Labor.
The organization has spent more than 20 years recruiting foreign workers for seasonal agricultural employment and cooperates with farms and ranches across North America.
The proposed conditions for Uzbek participants include:
- an employment period of 9–10 months;
- an average monthly salary of approximately $3,500;
- employer-funded accommodation;
- priority for qualified specialists.
Recruitment will be based on the needs of specific American employers. The initial program therefore does not amount to a broad opening of the U.S. labor market to all Uzbek applicants. It is a targeted selection mechanism for temporary agricultural vacancies.
Program Does Not Provide Permanent Residence
The proposed arrangement is based on the H-2A program, which allows U.S. agricultural employers to recruit foreign workers for temporary or seasonal jobs.
Employment authorization is tied to an approved employer, position and period of immigration status. Workers are expected to leave the country after completing their contracts unless they obtain a lawful extension or another legal status.
It would be inaccurate to claim that every person remaining after a contract expires is automatically and immediately deported. The consequences depend on the individual case and decisions taken by immigration authorities.
However, overstaying may result in the loss of lawful status, removal proceedings and restrictions on future U.S. visa applications. The seasonal employment program should therefore not be presented as a guaranteed route to permanent residence.
Russia Retains Its Dominant Role
Despite new agreements with the United States and partners in Europe and Asia, the Russian labor market remains far more important to Uzbekistan’s economy.
According to the Central Bank of Uzbekistan, cross-border remittances reached $3.8 billion in the first quarter of 2026, increasing by 13% from the same period a year earlier.
Russia accounted for 72.4% of the total, equivalent to approximately $2.75 billion. Its share stood at 77.6% a year earlier.
The decline indicates gradual geographical diversification, but it has not fundamentally changed the structure of inflows. Almost three-quarters of remittances still originate in Russia.
Around 1.34 million Uzbek citizens were also working in Russia on the basis of labor patents during the first quarter of 2026. The scale of the U.S. pilot initiative remains incomparable with the number of Uzbek workers employed in Russia.
Other Countries Are Gradually Increasing Their Shares
The structure of remittances is becoming more diverse.
Kazakhstan’s share increased to 4.1% in the first quarter of 2026. South Korea also accounted for 4.1%, while European countries provided 3.3%. All other countries together represented 16.2%.
The number of Uzbek citizens holding official residence permits in Türkiye approached 70,000. Approximately 99,600 Uzbek nationals were living in South Korea.
These figures show that Uzbekistan’s efforts to develop alternative labor destinations are producing results. However, diversification is currently supplementing the Russian market rather than replacing it.
Uzbekistan Remains an EAEU Observer
Uzbekistan received observer-state status at the Eurasian Economic Union in December 2020.
The format allows authorized Uzbek representatives to attend certain EAEU meetings and receive non-confidential documents. It does not provide voting rights or automatically extend the rights enjoyed by citizens of the Union’s member states.
Uzbek citizens working in Russia therefore remain subject to national immigration requirements, including the obligation to obtain a labor patent where required by law.
Observer status does not provide unrestricted access to the EAEU’s common labor market or exemption from employment authorization procedures.
Full Membership Would Simplify Employment
A common labor market operates between Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Russia.
Citizens of these countries do not need a separate work permit or labor patent when taking employment in another EAEU member state. Employment can be based on a labor contract or a civil-law services agreement.
Were Uzbekistan to become a full member, a similar regime could potentially be extended to its citizens. This would reduce spending on authorization documents, simplify legal employment and remove some administrative risks for workers and employers.
However, joining the EAEU would involve much more than labor migration. Membership requires broader commitments covering customs policy, technical regulation, trade, competition and coordination of certain areas of economic policy.
Uzbekistan has not announced a formal decision to move from observer status to full membership.
The United States and the EAEU Are Not Equivalent Alternatives
The U.S. recruitment arrangement and potential EAEU membership represent fundamentally different models.
The American program provides temporary organized recruitment for a limited number of workers selected to meet the needs of specific agricultural employers. It does not create a common labor market or offer Uzbek citizens unrestricted access to American vacancies.
The EAEU is a regional economic integration organization with common labor-mobility rules for citizens of its member states. Membership would, however, require Tashkent to coordinate a wider range of economic regulations.
Uzbekistan’s current policy is therefore better understood not as a final choice between Russia and the United States, but as an effort to preserve access to established markets while developing additional destinations.
Tashkent Is Pursuing a Multi-Vector Model
Uzbekistan has an interest in reducing excessive dependence on a single external labor market. New programs involving the United States, South Korea, European countries, Türkiye and other partners expand opportunities for citizens and reduce exposure to legal or economic changes in one destination.
At the same time, remittance statistics indicate that Russia will retain its central importance for the foreseeable future. Geographic proximity, established transport links, widespread Russian-language skills, long-standing business connections and the size of the Russian labor market all support this position.
The U.S. agricultural program could become a useful additional channel for selected qualified workers, but it is not currently capable of replacing the Russian market.
Uzbekistan is therefore not simply standing at a crossroads between two incompatible blocs. It is developing a multi-vector labor migration strategy whose success will depend on the scale of new programs, the protection of workers’ rights and the government’s ability to move overseas employment into legal and organized channels.
