Immigration News and Updates

mpoova · Mar 10, 2007

Could you please give us detailed information?

Pls try this link...This is not something final.. just a begining, and an updates on relief efforts!:welcome:

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/F?r110:4:./temp/~r110J0864R:e151802:

suzanne4, RN · Mar 10, 2007

All of you:

Please be aware that these are just bills being discussed. They are far from being approved. You will see tons of things coming thru over the next month or two. And just because something makes it thru one House, it does not guarantee that it will make it thru the other. We have seen this many times before. And if and when something passes, it is at least three months before there are new visas available, it will not happen overnight.

Just something to consider.

suzanne4, RN · Mar 10, 2007

The only thing that will say on it is to stay away from any temporary work permit. They will only cause you problems.

And do not take as law something that you see on an attorney's website. Take your sources only from the US State Dept. Too many of these things are just for marketing of the law firm.

pinguina · Mar 10, 2007

It says that it is a new Non-Immigrant category for nurses,

As I understand it it does not mean a Green-Card, Just a work visa like H1-B?

What does it mean? and how will the spouse and children of the nurses affected by this bill?

flight027 · Mar 10, 2007

I'm neither a lawyer nor an expert on legal matters, but here's my personal take on HR 1358 or the Nursing Relief Act. This is just for discussion's sake and this is by no means an expert interpretation of the bill. Please correct any inacuracies that you may find.

The new bill, which was introduced on March 6 in the US Congress, seeks to create a Nonimmigrant Category for Nurses in the US Immigration and Nationality Act. Under this new category, nurses can apply for nonimmigrant status, through a lawful US employer, and be able to work in the US for an initial period of 3 years and which can be extended to a maximum of 6 years. However, this maximum stay rule would not apply to a nurse, under a nonimmigrant status, who already has either an immigrant petition or adjustment of status filed for him not less than 365 days or 1 year before he reaches the 6 years maximum stay.

The bill also stipulates that aliens (not the Martian kind!) already in the US can have the Nonimmigrant status filed on their behalf by an employer, and thus extend their stay in the country. Also, those who go through this process may switch employers (provided they have no contractual obligation, of course), just as long as their new employers file for the same Nonimmigrant petition for them.

With regard to spouses of the Nonimmigrant nurse, they may be given work permits as well.

HR 1358 seeks to allocate up 50,000 slots for alien nurses, but this may be increased to 120% of the allocation (please do the math) if the slots were all used up for a given fiscal year. If the allocated number was not consumed within the specified period, then the allocations would remain at the 50,000 level for the succeeding year. Unlike other visa allocations, the 50,000 would only be given to the principal alien and not to their spouses or children. So, regardless of the number of family members a nurse would be bringing along with him, only one allocated number would be consumed for his application. Out of recaptured 90,000 or 50,000 Schedule A visas last year, only 15,000 was reportedly given to actual nurses. The rest of the allocation was consumed by their accompanying family members.

Let's not forget, of course, that the HR 1358 has only been introduced and there is NO ASSURANCE this or other nursing-related bills would get passed into law. Let's all just hope for the best.

It says that it is a new Non-Immigrant category for nurses,
As I understand it it does not mean a Green-Card, Just a work visa like H1-B?
What does it mean? and how will the spouse and children of the nurses affected by this bill?

vermountindia · Mar 10, 2007

Hi all,

According to http://hammondlawgroup.blogspot.com/, Sen. Hutchison has formally introduced a provision to recapture about 90,000 visas for Schedule A nurse and PTs.

Pls read and comment.

Rds

sofia_815 · Mar 10, 2007

In case this bill will pass as law, what would happen to those nurses who are applying for greenacards via employer petition??..For instance, those who are in the Packet 1 or 2, what would happen to them???..

flight027 · Mar 10, 2007

Hmmmm...

Perhaps a possible scenario I see with the Nursing Relief Act is that a nurse may potentially be tied to one employer for 5 or 6 years or more? For a good employer, that's too short. but for a rotten one, that's an eternity of hell.

Picture this... an employer agrees to petition you based on the W-1 and puts you on a 3-year contract. Then when you're already in the US, the employer agrees to file a petition for immigrant status in your behalf but only if you sign up for an additonal 3 years with them. Oooh.. very complicated, no?

I can't remember if the proposed bill says anything about the length of time you can lawfully stay in the US when your 3 years of nonimmigrant nurse status is up.

(Insert here a reminder that all this is purely speculation.)

lawrence01 · Mar 11, 2007

Thanks for all the updates everyone but as Suzanne said all these bills are just being introduced and we have already posted several of them here. More bills of the same nature are coming. The original CIR last year also has a provision for non-CAP immigrant visas for Nurses (SKIL Bill by Sen. Brownback) and remember this was last year.

Which Bill would be the one to be actually approved is the what we are looking for. Hope there will be one Bill that will stand out and personally I think that the more realistic one and the most probable one to be considered would be the recapturing of the 90,000 unused visas.

What do you guys, think?

sweet_nurse · Mar 11, 2007

im very optimistic about this 90k visas for us nurses and pt's..dont lose hope guys everything will be fine..:w00t: im crossing my fingers!!! :lol2:

all we need to do is to pray that retrogression will end..

flight027 · Mar 11, 2007

Hey lawrence,

Would you know the exact number of the bill that has the provision on recapturing 90,000 visas? I made a search at the US congress site and had no luck. Is this provision part of the bigger 9/11 bill?

mpoova · Mar 11, 2007

Hi all,
According to http://hammondlawgroup.blogspot.com/, Sen. Hutchison has formally introduced a provision to recapture about 90,000 visas for Schedule A nurse and PTs.
Pls read and comment.
Rds

Apparently, lawfirm is refering SA 364 by Hutchison. I cann't find a number like 90,000 visas mentioning in the amendement!