As most of you in the forum know very well by now, the US Dept of State has announced that they are forecasting a runout of the 50,000 "Schedule A visas" (from recaptured, unused visa numbers from the last fiscal year) by the 1st quarter of FY 2007. That corresponds to Oct to Dec of 2006. If all other things immigration-wise remain the same, this means nurses will revert to applying for immigrant visas under category E-3 which has a backlog of about 5 years. (June 2006 Visa Bulletin from the USCIS shows theyre processing July 2001 applications).
Now, maybe a shred of hope.. .Last May 25, 2006, the US Senate passed its own version of the immigration law significantly different from the one passed by the House in Dec of 2005. It provides a pathway for eventual resident status for those illegal immigrants in the US. (The major bone of contention with the House since the latter does not want any form of amnesty or concession to these illegals.) The interesting thing is, Senator Sam Brownback of Kansas (Republican) managed to insert a provision in the Senate version allowing for lifting of the visa limits for nurses and PT's (Schedule A) for 7 years. However, this must be taken with a grain of salt. This is all for naught if the Senate and House cant get their act together. Interestingly enough, much of the debate has been focused over the question of the illegals and border security and NOT so much the proposed unlimited visas for nurses.
Opinions on the senate bill:
American Nurses Asso. - dont support it, claiming that outsourcing is not the way to go...the right way is to spend more money in US nursing education to meet demand (a tall, tall order). In addition , opening the gates to foreign nurses will further hurt health care systems of other countries like the Philippines, India and China. (These send the most nurses over there, although the argument against the Philippines might not hold much water...this country has historically, year after year produced more nurses than it needs many times over). They even cited the example of the number of Filipino MD's retraining in nursing and then immigrating to the US.
US Hospital Asso's - most support the bill, since they'll be able to meet JCAHO standards (nurse-patient ratios) and keep many of their departments running.
Many nurse orgs say opening the gates to foreign nurses will lead to salaries taking a plummeting nosedive, which will hurt all US nurses in general. Immigrants included.
N.B. One factor that may weigh heavily on how US House Reps and Senators will tackle the issue is the looming mid-term (November) elections. Many hardliners against illegals among them will probably soften (or already have) in hopes of currying favor among the voting minority groups.
Comments anyone?