[lee1]

U.S. National - AP


Work Permits for Foreign Nurses on Hold

1 hour, 21 minutes ago U.S. National - AP


By LAURA WIDES, Associated Press Writer

LOS ANGELES - The government announced plans to block a shortcut that has allowed thousands of foreign nurses to get fast-track U.S. work permits, a move that could worsen a nationwide nursing shortage when it takes effect next year.


AP Photo



In an announcement Thursday, the State Department said the nurses — predominantly from the Philippines — will not be allowed after Jan. 1 to use the shortcut that has allowed them to begin working in U.S. hospitals as quickly as 60 days. Those applications could now take up to three years or more.


"It's basically going to cut them off," said Charles Oppenheim, head of the State Department's immigrant visa control division.


The new policy, which also could effect doctors and tech workers, is the indirect result of a more efficient immigration process. After the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the system became backlogged due to updated security measures. Many foreign workers from the Philippines, and to a lesser extent India and mainland China, got by on temporary work permits as they waited for their "number" to come up for a green card.


Now those cases are being processed, and the government has decided it will no longer issue temporary work permits for workers from these countries until it deals with the backlog, which could take several years.


The change is bound to hurt hospitals already operating with too few nurses, health economist Len Nichols said.


"The Philippines are our major source of imported nurses, and we've been doing that at a clip of thousands a year for a while now," said Nichols, vice president of the Center for Studying Health System Change, a nonpartisan Washington D.C.-based think tank.


Recruiters have long sought nurses from the Philippines, where schools train nurses to work in the United States.


Robert Salasar, 31, a nurse from the Philippines, began working at a Los Angeles area hospital in July and is awaiting his green card. "It's much better pay and less patients," he said of his job here, "and you can have it personalized and individualized for each one."


Salasar now worries about friends and family back home who will have to wait years to get the chance he had.


Immigration attorney Carl Shusterman, whose firm represents hospitals throughout California and helps about 350 Filipinos nurses a year find jobs in the United States, said he frequently obtains work permits for qualified nurses in 60 days, allowing them to work as they wait the roughly three years for their permanent residency.


"There's no way for us to keep a nurse here for three years until we have the job," Shusterman said. "It's like meeting some guy, falling in love and saying you can't be together for three years."


U.S. authorities have warned that the country could face a shortage of roughly 275,000 nurses by 2010, though exact estimates are difficult to come by. Technology will likely reduce the number of nurses needed in the future, but the aging U.S. population will require more.


Gwen Matthews, a senior vice president for Glendale Adventist Medical Center just north of Los Angeles, said she is worried because the 430-bed hospital plans to open a new wing in two years and will need 90 new nurses.


"I'm doing a lot of local recruitment, but we do expect it's going to take foreign employment as well," she said. "We anticipate we will have more than what the local market can provide."

[Rep]

Not only the work permits are affected but also with the employment-based immigrant visas. Majority of foreign nurses come to the US through these visas. Countries affected are China, India and the Philippines.

Before, nurses from these countires can get into the US in two years time. Now, with the new visa rules in placed, processing will take three to four years before one can find himself in the US.

The US government will strictly implement the new visa rule and the State Department will only release visas based on the quota. This would create a backlog of applications that would lie dormant before somebody can act on it.

Right now, the new visa bulletin released by the State Department listed the Philippines, India and China as no longer current on the EB3 categories. These countries cut off dates were moved back to January 2002. This means that for those nurses whose priority dates fall after Jan 2002 will have to wait at least two years before visas will be issued.

I say this is sad because all of us foreign nurses who are still in our native countries, who are not yet in Packet 3, will be affected by this new ruling.

[NurseGuy_in_06]

This is one of the prices we MUST pay to keep people out of the country that would do us harm.

[Rep]

Originally Posted by NurseGuy_in_06

This is one of the prices we MUST pay to keep people out of the country that would do us harm.

You are right but the policy also is disadvantageous to good people who want to live and work in the USA and possibly become citizens in the future.

There are many ways to screen individuals coming in but not this way.

[NurseGuy_in_06]

Originally Posted by Rep

You are right but the policy also is disadvantageous to good people who want to live and work in the USA and possibly become citizens in the future.

There are many ways to screen individuals coming in but not this way.

ALL policies such as this one put someone at a disadvantage. And we all know or know of someone that will be affected by this and are saddened by it. So how would you screen these individuals?

[Pattiecake]

Originally Posted by NurseGuy_in_06

This is one of the prices we MUST pay to keep people out of the country that would do us harm.

Lordy lordy, do we have killer nurses on the loose now? Saints preserve us and protect us from the mean mean nurse.

[stbernardclub]

Im fine with that decision...I would rather this country spend the money on education and better pay and working conditions for american nurses before they offer assistance to a foreign nurse to move here to work.

[VizslaMom]

Originally Posted by stbernardclub

Im fine with that decision...I would rather this country spend the money on education and better pay and working conditions for american nurses before they offer assistance to a foreign nurse to move here to work.

I agree!

[Hellllllo Nurse]

Originally Posted by stbernardclub

Im fine with that decision...I would rather this country spend the money on education and better pay and working conditions for american nurses before they offer assistance to a foreign nurse to move here to work.

I agrree, as well. I think this new, longer waiting period is an EXCELLENT idea.

Employers may be forced to look at retention issues more closely now.

[Rep]

Originally Posted by stbernardclub

Im fine with that decision...I would rather this country spend the money on education and better pay and working conditions for american nurses before they offer assistance to a foreign nurse to move here to work.

Wrong, it is not your country/government who spend money for foreign nurses but the employers. They are the ones who sponsor the visas and gives assistance to them.

Anyway, whether you like it. Foreign nurses will still arrive and fill up vacancies except that the waiting period is longer.