For many years hospitals and other health care organizations have been pushing the federal government to help them deal with nursing shortages by allowing more foreign nurses to come to the US. Help has not arrived, but at least the Citizenship and Immigration Service (CIS) Ombudsman has been listening to the complaints. On December 5, 2008 in a letter of recommendation to the CIS Director, the CIS Ombudsman noted the critical shortage of nurses facing our nation and attempted to lay out some pathways for the government to help ease the pain. The Ombudsman pointed out that it is extremely difficult for a nurse to get a non-immigrant visa, or an immigrant visas because of the backlog that keeps them waiting outside the US for 3, 5 and up to 8 years. The Ombudsman recommendation? Expedite the processing for Schedule A nurses. But that processing is for immigrant visas, which on an average takes the foreign nurse approximately one year to arrive in the US with her green card once the employer has made the job offer. Much longer if there is a visa backlog like now. To clarify: Schedule A nurses refers to those nurses who will go through the green card process. EVERYONE who is immigrating to the USA must either apply through the Labor Department and be issued a Labor Certification (a lengthy process), or be EXEMPT from the Labor Certification requirement. Certain family members of US Citizens or Green Card holders are exempt from the Labor Certification requirement. Generally everyone immigrating through a job in the US must apply for and have this Labor Certification, or be exempt. Only two professions are exempt from this requirement, Registered Nurses and Physical Therapists. Both are Schedule A workers. Similarly, everyone immigrating to the US must have an “Immigrant Visa” available to them (quota) or be exempt from this requirement. Spouses, unmarried children under 21 and parents of US Citizens over 21 years of age are exempt from these quotas. Everyone else is subject to these quotas that are subject to numerical limitations. Registered Nurses are exempt from the Labor Certification but subject to the immigrant visa quota. Persons applying through a job to immigrate either have this Labor Certification or are exempt from it. When more persons with this labor certification, or exempt from having it, apply to immigrate than there are immigrant visas issued for the preference (3rd preference in our case) the preference is said to be backlogged, and the intending immigrant waits for an immigrant visa to become “immediately available”. If the person is outside the USA they must wait outside for an immigrant visa to become immediately available BEFORE they start processing for a green card which usually takes 12 months once the visa becomes immediately available. If the person is legally in the USA under some other non-immigrant visa, e.g. H1-B, H4, (or the proposed “W” visa) etc. they can concurrently file to Adjust Their Status (I-485) when the Employer’s files the I-140 petition. But the I- 485 can only be filed when the Employer files the I-140 job offer when there is an immigrant visa immediately available, e.g. when immigrant visas are “current”. Immigrant visas are not immediately available (current) when the preference is backlogged. Filing the I-140 petition starts the immigration process. If immigrant visas are current for the preference when the Employer files the I-140 job offer, and the worker is legally in the US, he or she can file the I-485 and work while their visa is processing. Work authorization is referred to as “Employment Authorization Document” (EAD). We have been waiting for a change in the US immigration laws as they apply to Schedule A nurses. Specifically, to make immigrant visas immediately available to Schedule A nurses and expedite the processing of their visas. NON-IMMIGRANT VISAS FOR NURSES: There existed a non-immigrant visa for nurses that was known as the HI-A nurse visa. This visa expired in 1995. Other non-immigrant visas, e.g. the H2-B visa (requires 4 year bachelor degree) or the H1-C nurse visa (maximum 500 annually) are wholly inadequate to meet our nursing needs. The Nursing Relief Act of 2007 (HR 1358) was not passed in 2007 or 2008. The Nursing Relief Act 2009 (HR 1001) was re-introduced House Feb 11, .2009. Non-immigrant visa designation “W”. This will be a re-introduction of the non-immigrant H1A visa for nurses that was allowed to expire in 1995. FINDING
PURPOSE
“W” NON-IIMIGRANT VISA
In 2007 the US Congress did not pass Comprehensive Immigration Reform (CIR). Part of that legislation known as the STRIVE Act, included TITLE V that provided opportunities for high skilled workers to come to, and remain in, the U.S. It addresses employment needs in shortage occupations (Schedule A workers) such as nurses. It specifically addresses the nurse question, providing an exemption for Schedule A shortage occupations from the employment based green card caps until September 2017. It would also provide for direct consular filing of I-140 petitions for Schedule A. But CIR contained other provisions that did create competition for US jobs. CIR died in June 2007 and with the 2009 economic and unemployment crisis in the USA it is not expected to be revisited until 2010. Why? Because CIR will allow workers, both non-immigrant guest workers and permanent resident immigrants to enter the US and compete for the shortage of jobs that presently exist. But such is not the case with Schedule A workers. The DOL has since 1980 listed nurses on Schedule A. Essentially there are not enough US workers in the US to do the jobs of registered nurses. If we pass laws letting nurses into the US to work, their employment will not affect the jobs of American workers because there are not sufficient trained registered nurses, in America, to fill the jobs in the US. Thus, few in the field of US immigration expect to see CIR passed into law, until the unemployment situation in the US is addressed and remedied. But piecemeal legislation directed at Schedule A nurses is possible in 2009. H.R. 5924 Emergency Nursing Supply Relief Act has not been reintroduced, but it is expected to be in 2009. The Nursing Relief Act (HR 1001) was re-introduced House Feb 11, .2009 whose purpose was to create a new non-immigrant visa for nurses. Like the Bill for schedule A nurses that does not create competition for American workers, the passage of the new non-immigrant “W” visa, only for nurses, will also not create competition for American workers. The shortage of nurses nationally is presently 126,000, and growing, according to the Citizenship and Immigration Service (CIS) Ombudsman. Passage of some form of nursing relief is inevitable due to the acknowledged national nurse shortage and allowing them into the US as Schedule A immigrants or non-immigrant “W” nurses will not create or result in competition for American workers. But the reason legislation will be passed allowing foreign nurses into the US is because the American populace have a self interest in seeing them admitted. |
NON-IMMIGRANT “W” VISAS FOR NURSES |
 | |  | |  | |  |