BEST news for RNs from India, Philippines and China

NYrnTX · May 13, 2005

looks like there is a confusion here.

since the reference was shusterman's monthly update (www.shusterman.com) bulletin, lets focus on it.

first the good news! qualified nurses from pic countries are ok for the next four years. why ?

shusterman says "the 50,000 new green cards should insure a steady supply of rns and pts for the next three to four years, but ultimately, a law needs to be enacted to restore the temporary visa category for nurses".

in a democratic country like us, 4 years is a looong term. laws can be made/ammended accordingly within this time period. based on this quote, i dont think nurses have any reason to worry now. i am sure he would have considered family members also.

then what is the cry about october 1, 2005 issue. again, lets go back to shusterman. i think the mis-understanding of the context of the following extract from shusterman is the problem here

"consider the numbers. in fiscal year 2005, u.s. employers were able to use 248,000 eb immigrant visas, almost double the 140,000 usually available. this is because they used the normal 140,000 quota plus 7,000 unused family-based immigrant visas from the year before plus 101,000 "recaptured" visas from a law enacted in 2000, popularly known as ac-21. by september 30, all of the recaptured visas will be used.

what happens starting on october 1, 2005, the beginning of fiscal year 2006, when the quota reverts to a mere 140,000 visas plus the visas reserved for rns and pts?"

here, the context is the entire employment based category (eb-3), including all those it guys over there. but, see the line "when the quota reverts to a mere 140,000 visas plus the visas reserved for rns and pts?", yes, "plus visas reserved for rns and pts" is the important portion there. and in that "reserved" is the golden word for nurses. no one can come and steal our meal.

see, shusterman law firm deals with all eb3 cases and the bulletin focusses on all (not only nurses).

so, i cant find any reason for nurses to be panic. ofcourse, a first year nurse student in pic country has reason to worry about "what would happen by the time (3 or 4 years) i complete my studies" ? well, if i were that student, i would have concentrated on my studies than worrying about the immigration law after 3 years !!

disclaimer : i am not a lawyer. these are some perosnal thoughts about the happenings.

i agree with you. myself, for example, will be bringing my wife and three children. that means 5 us visas. multiply that, we expect around 10,000 to 15,000 foreign nurses will get their visas this year. if we assumed all these nurses have families.
acccording to mr. shusterman, www.shusterman.com, by october 2005, when all the visas will be used , the retrogression will set in again.
the 50,000 additional is good news to all us whose packet 3 are with the nvc for processing. but for those who are still starting the process, this means nothing to them. 2,000 visas cap per country will not help the philippines, india and china unless the us congress and senate will enact a law that will instruct bcis to use unused eb3 visas from other countries and allocate them to the pic countries every year.
let us celebrate because this is good news and i know many of us whose ds-230 forms were submitted to the nvc along time ago will get our packet 4 in a few more months. :)
:balloons: :balloons: :balloons: :balloons:

NYrnTX · May 13, 2005

June Visa Bulletin just got published but , as expected, PD for EB3 did not change at all. It still remains at June 2002.

read it here :

http://travel.state.gov/visa/frvi/bulletin/bulletin_2507.html

Congress has done thier job and now its up to the USCIS to act.
Lets wait and see.. June Visa Bulletinn will be out anytime now, and realistically I dont expect the PD for EB-3 SCHEDULE A will be 'current' on it. If it happens on June Bulletin itself, it will be an icing on the cake

himdale · May 14, 2005

June Visa Bulletin just got published but , as expected, PD for EB3 did not change at all. It still remains at June 2002.
read it here :
http://travel.state.gov/visa/frvi/bulletin/bulletin_2507.html

These are articles i wrote at http://boards.immigrationportal.com/showthread.php?p=1148733#post1148733

There are HUGE CONFLICTS on the statements that DOS made last month regarding visa numbers. I think all of them doesn't know how to compute and do a simple arithmetic. How can they say that visa numbers are exhausted when it only permits them to use only 27% according to law of 140,000EB numbers...JUNE IS STILL PART OF THE THIRD QUARTER...But how can they say that visa numbers will continue to retrogress if there ARE MORE VISAS THAT WOULD BE AVAILABLE ON THE LAST QUARTER??? Visas that would be available on the last quarter are more than 130,000 almost the amount of the worldwide limit...There are not even mentioning the numbers from AC21...I THINK THAT WE SHOULD DEMAND AN EXPLANATION OR LET US SEE THE STATISTICS FROM USCIS AND THE DOS...

dale

himdale · May 14, 2005

These are articles i wrote at http://boards.immigrationportal.com/showthread.php?p=1148733#post1148733
There are HUGE CONFLICTS on the statements that DOS made last month regarding visa numbers. I think all of them doesn't know how to compute and do a simple arithmetic... I agree with most of you...how can they say that visa numbers are exhausted when it only permits them to use only 27% according to law of 140,000EB numbers...JUNE IS STILL PART OF THE THIRD QUARTER...But how can they say that visa numbers will continue to retrogress if there ARE MORE VISAS THAT WOULD BE AVAILABLE ON THE LAST QUARTER??? Visas that would be available on the last quarter are more than 130,000 almost the amount of the worldwide limit...There are not even mentioning the numbers from AC21...I THINK THAT WE SHOULD DEMAND AN EXPLANATION OR LET US SEE THE STATISTICS FROM USCIS AND THE DOS...
dale

These are the statements released by DOS:

Quote VISA AVAILABILITY DURING THE REMAINDER OF FY-2005

Employment-based: During the past month there has been a significant increase in the amount of numbers being used by Citizenship and Immigration Service (CIS) offices for adjustment of status applicants. This level of demand has significantly depleted the supply of Employment-based numbers available under the annual limit. Recent discussions with CIS have made it clear that their backlog reduction efforts will sustain or increase the current level of demand. Therefore, continued visa availability in the Employment-based categories cannot be guaranteed during the final quarter of FY-2005. If demand continues at the current rate, it will be necessary to oversubscribe many or all of the Employment categories on a Worldwide basis. Such oversubscription could result in the establishment of cut-off dates, retrogression of already established dates, or some categories becoming "unavailable".

(These is also the one i wrote at http://boards.immigrationportal.com/showthread.php?p=1148733#post1148733)

How can this LEVEL OF DEMAND could exhaust the visa numbers when it only permits them to use 27% per quarter...This is only the JUNE visa bulletin..JUNE is still part of the 3rd quarter...Quote

USCIS IS SO SLOW in processing how can they exhaust all the numbers???

dale and still_dale are one

himdale · May 14, 2005

This is also the article i wrote http://boards.immigrationportal.com/showthread.php?p=1148733#post1148733

Outdated Immigration Laws Are Killing U.S. Economy

These outdated immigration laws are killing the U.S. Economy... In a statement made by the world's richest man Microsoft CEO Bill Gates said "why is there a quota on H1-B...it is like saying don't let the smart people get in..."

This is true, they are preventing talented, well-educated, smart people from entering U.S. People that should have been already contributing to the U.S. economy and paying taxes. This is sad, just because we are born in the wrong countries that we have to face so much delays in our visa processings. I know that we are not US senators and US congressmen but I think that the DOS should provide a more complete detail, statistical figures and mathematical figures on the level of demand of visa numbers and NOT JUST SAY THAT THEY ARE BASING THEIR FIGURES ON ESTIMATES AND PREDICTIONS. What is their basis? THE SIZE OF THE MOON, LOW TIDE OR HIGH OF THE WAVES? THE HEAT OF THE SUN?

I THINK THAT THE DEPARTMENT OF STATE HOLDS A "MAGIC CRYSTAL BALL"...yeah that is more of a reality...and they would rub that ball and say..."oh mighty magic crystal ball of visa numbers... oh tell us what would be the priority dates cause we have no way of knowing how to do a simple math...

OR MAYBE THE DOS BOSSES WOULD PLAY DARTS AND THEY WOULD PUT DATES ON THEIR DARTS AND START TO TARGET them...whatever comes up would be the dates that would be publish in the visa bulletin...

dale and still_dale are one

himdale · May 14, 2005

I do not agree with some of you here that you have said that 50,000 visas would not be enough. I believe with immigration lawyer Carl Shusterman and Hammond that this new law would ensure TEMPORARY supply of nurses for the next three years. If you had read some discussions made by the ONE's who lobbied this law to the Congress...They state that U.S. is need of nurses and the demand would continue to grow...I think 50,000 visa numbers for schedule A have been CLEARLY COMPUTED, STUDIED AND PRECISELY ESTIMATED by the people at the Joint Congress and Senate Comittee that they had agreed on the fact the US really needs the nurses and these numbers could CLEAR THE BACKLOG FOR SCHEDULE A temporarily. Otherwise they should have given all the 130,000 for Schedule A which is already and would be available in the recapturing of unused visas for 2001 to 2004.

THE MAIN PURPOSE OF THIS LAW IS TO ENSURE THAT NURSES AND PT'S from the PIC countries ENTER THE U.S. and work there. A steady temporary supply of nurses is needed to patch the growing need for healthcare workers. So if you think that these numbers would only be enough for the one's who had packet 3 or only for the one's who are adjusting status I COMPLETELY DISAGREE. You should also consider the fact that not all nurses are married, not all nurses have 3 kids...MARRIAGE AND HAVING KIDS ALONE ARE NOT THE ONLY FACTORS THAT CAN BE TAKEN INTO CONSIDERATION WHEN DOING MATHEMATICAL OR STATISTICAL ANALYSIS. All factors should be considered on computing visa demand. I have done my MATH for example in the Philippines last 2003...there are only 8,705 EB3 visas issued from the U.S. embassy website http://philippines.usembassy.gov/wwwhr433.html

EB3 visas are the most and vastly used visas which includes Schedule A. Just imagine that Schedule A would have a different category from the rest of EB3 don't you think that it would bring some decongestion???

Another thing, nurses are also based on the law of supply and demand...What i mean is that for example in the Philippines, demands for nurse visas are different every year...Simply because graduating nurses differ every year, nurses who take the CGFNS pass or fail would be different every year, nurses who pass or fail TOEFL, TSE or IELTS are different every year, nurses who pass or fail NCLEX are different every year. Most of the nurses I know are already in the U.S. so somehow the applicants now are not so many with regards to the applicants from previous years. If you would look at the statistics from CGFNS you can see that there is a decline in terms of nurses who took the exams. In 2004 only around more than 16,000 nurses and 800 for Physical Therapists for the whole world are awarded VISA SCREEN CERTIFICATES. Although the Philippines still remains to be the dominant breed in terms of foreign nursing passing CGFNS and NCLEX exams.

LAWS are made to solve problems...Laws are made on the principles of COMMON SENSE and factual basis. I believe and I have faith in the U.S. Congress and most of the immigration lawyers who have established good reputation and earned hard years of working experience in terms immigration law that these figures that was given to Schedule A which is 50,000 have been carefully studied, discussed by the Joint Committee to clear the backlog of nurses that U.S. is facing today.

We may have different opinions and understanding on the issues that were being discussed here, but most of the people I believe that are reading these forums would somehow like to see hope in these dark days of retrogression and not some thoughts that impact them negatively...

Most of the people here would like to have their AMERICAN DREAM fulfilled, where the system of government favours legal immigrants and U.S. citizens. In fact all the people that wants to come here to U.S. would like to have a nice life and escape poverty and extreme corruption from their home country.

It will be a matter of time before change takes place. Based on 6 months of comprehensive research of RETROGRESSION, analysis of the Immigration and Nationality Act, the AC21 Act and visa numbers retrogression history from previous years...

I THEREFORE CONCLUDE THAT THE LAW THAT WAS SIGNED BY THE PRESIDENT WOULD EASE THE BACKLOG OF NURSES...I agree with Immigration lawyer Carl Shusterman that this law even TEMPORARY would ensure steady supply of nurses for the next THREE YEARS...

So for all those nurses who ARE NOT STILL in PACKET 3...do not worry...

DALE

Rep · May 14, 2005

my priority date is january 26,2004. already paid the visa fee and just submitted ds-230,will i benefit from these 50,000.00 visas? thanks

I don't think you should worry. My PD is November 2003.

Rep · May 14, 2005

All my statements here regarding the 50,000 additional visas are my personal opinions based on my research and understanding of the retrogression.

Anybody can agree or disagree with me. The important thing is through these discussions we shared a lot of informations that can help others viewing this thread with similar problems like ours.

I am not pessimistic but optimistic with regards to future migration of foreign nurses to the US.

The reason why I am saying that this 50,000 visas is not enough because this is just a band aid solution to the problem regarding the number of eb3 visas each country is allocated. There should be law enacted that for those countries whose eb3 visas were not used up should be given to countries where there is a high demand for it.

Unfortunately, the USCIS stick to the quota of 2800 visas for eb3 per country.

Yes, unused visas from other eb categories can be allocated to eb3 but this is also based on the number of visas per country is allocated. That is why for the Philippines alone, around 8,700 immigrant visas were given to nurses, pts and their dependents for the fiscal year of 2004.

There are thousands of nurses who are in their own countries ( PIC) waiting in line for the visas. But there are thousands of nurses under working visas who are also waiting for their eb3 visas. So this means approved I-140 and I-485 ( adjustment of status ) petitions are waiting in line for the eb3 visas.

I was wrong to say all nurses are married and have three children at most. It is just a safe estimate of mine to figure out how many foreign nurses can get their visas this year.

The additional 50,000 visas is a great help to ease the retrogression but we will go back once again after two or three years. The Lantos Bill which calls for 130,000 visas would have been a different story if the US Congress and Senate acted on it.

If you happen to check the archives of eb3 way back in the late 1990's, you will find out that for the Philippines alone, the backlog was two years. By year 2000, the Visa Bulletin became current. You all know that congress enacted a law in 2000 recapture unused visas.

If Congress will act on a law that would give the unused eb3 visas from other countries to the PIC countries automatically every year then the retrogression will be a thing of the past.

Anyway, I stand corrected. :)

And I am very happy that with the additional 50,000 visas will give me and my family of five the opportunity to immigrate to the US this year. :balloons:

suzanne4, RN · May 14, 2005

There is currently a very large number of new grads, who happen to have tourist visas, coming over, and until the retrogression, were getting AOS made almost immediately. This has also taken quite a chunk out of the number of visas that were available. But not sure when they will begin approval for the nurses that came over on tourist visas who hadn't made any application before, or will give them to the nurses with their families that have been waiting since 2002.

This bill signing just creates another law.........it doesn't specify as to how it is going to be used, or even when. Immigration hasn't posted anything about it yet. Definitely not in the June bulletin, and still not sure when you will see some of the dates advanced. I don't see them being current for awhile, and especially with all of the new applications that are being entered, at least when they will be accepted. They really need to clear up everyone waiting at the Packet 3/4 Levels first, then proceed. But none of us make the rulings...........so it is still going to be a waiting game.

NYrnTX · May 14, 2005

I keep reading here sentimental statements like nurses waiting for visas since 2002. I just do not think it is true.

Does anyone know of any nurse who has a PD before Jan 1 2004 (and ALL educuational requirements met) still waiting at a PIC country for GC? Very few. (Rep, I know yours is Nov 2003). Many of my friends who have filed papers even on Mar 2004, got their GC and are working here in US.

EB3 cases as a whole are retrogressed to June 2002 right now but that should not make us to think that Nurses from June 2002 are waiting even now. PD was CURRENT till December 30 2004, and nurse GC used to get approved within 8-10 months then. That means, most of the QUALIFIED nurse GC application filed before Feb 28 2004 might have already been approved before Dec 30 2004.

On an average how much nurses from PIC (forget family) immigrate to US every year ? Whatever be the reason (Monopoly CGFNS screws up application, failure to clear exams, agency playing cheap games, family issues), I do not think this number would exceed 10K. and it does not matter whether the applicant is doing AOS or CP because the retrogression affects both.

So if I were correct assuming that VERY few nurse who has PD before Jan 1 2004 is waiting now, and an average 10K visas are used by PIC nurses every year (These two are wild assumptions, no proof or anything) by mid 2005 (july 1), 15K visas are in queue and we have enough.

Thats why I completely believe Shusterman that nurses are OK for next couple of years. Their's is a reputable law firm and they have all the numbers and professional experience needed for predictions. I just dont think Shusterman made that comment without doing research with numbers and considering families.

Anyways, I go with shusterman on this.

I am only anxious about the June 15 bulletin where I hope to see EB3- Schedule A as 'C'.

himdale · May 15, 2005

I keep reading here sentimental statements like nurses waiting for visas since 2002. I just do not think it is true.
Does anyone know of any nurse who has a PD before Jan 1 2004 (and ALL educuational requirements met) still waiting at a PIC country for GC? Very few. (Rep, I know yours is Nov 2003). Many of my friends who have filed papers even on Mar 2004, got their GC and are working here in US.
EB3 cases as a whole are retrogressed to June 2002 right now but that should not make us to think that Nurses from June 2002 are waiting even now. PD was CURRENT till December 30 2004, and nurse GC used to get approved within 8-10 months then. That means, most of the QUALIFIED nurse GC application filed before Feb 28 2004 might have already been approved before Dec 30 2004.
On an average how much nurses from PIC (forget family) immigrate to US every year ? Whatever be the reason (Monopoly CGFNS screws up application, failure to clear exams, agency playing cheap games, family issues), I do not think this number would exceed 10K. and it does not matter whether the applicant is doing AOS or CP because the retrogression affects both.
So if I were correct assuming that VERY few nurse who has PD before Jan 1 2004 is waiting now, and an average 10K visas are used by PIC nurses every year (These two are wild assumptions, no proof or anything) by mid 2005 (july 1), 15K visas are in queue and we have enough.
Thats why I completely believe Shusterman that nurses are OK for next couple of years. Their's is a reputable law firm and they have all the numbers and professional experience needed for predictions. I just dont think Shusterman made that comment without doing research with numbers and considering families.
Anyways, I go with shusterman on this.
I am only anxious about the June 15 bulletin where I hope to see EB3- Schedule A as 'C'.

Those people who are still THERE on their home country and opted on Consular Processing and have years waiting...There could only be ONE REASON...THEY DID NOT PASS THE EXAMS...OR THEY HAVE TO TAKE IT AGAIN AND AGAIN UNTIL THEY PASS...

DALE

kid80 · May 15, 2005

(if in july visa dates do not become current the cut off may move upto any of the two points 30 sept 2004 (end of visa year) OR 31 dec 2004(end of year) (pd cut off that is )ANY COMMENTS ( most have sugessted that pds will be current for july 2005) including hammond/siskind/shusterman /dale /not suzzanne/everbody has differnt views MOST SAY CURRENT BY JULY 2005 i agree good luck good day