working visa affected by retrogression?

Moved to the International forum

Which working visa are you thinking about? Most nurses wanting to work in the US come under the EB3 visa and that is currently affected by retrogression.

H1b you have to have a bachelor degree and be a specialist nurse, there is talk of them becoming more strict as recent research shows it has been abused. Not all hospitals do H1b and for most it is a lottery with a application in April with a start date of October with demand higher than actual visas allocated

There are only 65,000 available per year and are by lottery system. Chances of meeting the requirements for one in the first place is actually quite strict. You are to be considered a specialist in your field first of all, so that limits many right away.

And as mentioned above, the US government is investigating all of them at this time. It is also very difficult to get any type of working visa for the US as an RN at any time.

USCIS also have at least 2 memos re: the H1B visa not generally for nurses.

We also have quite a few threads discussing that and even one w/c an immigration lawyer said that she specifically do not file H1Bs for nurses because she believes that it is really not for nurses.

You may refer to this one thread below containing the two USCIS memos but you would have to do your own search w/in the Int'l forum for more information and there are many here.


**See: http://allnurses.com/forums/f75/conf...1b-293399.html

wait. I am lost here. I thought H1B is a type of working visa which has a "dual intent" allowing nurses to apply also for immigrant status. So what is EB3 then? Is it purely a working visa without dual intent? Working visa allows you to work as a nurse for 3 years?

EB3 is a permanent visa (greencard) category for nurses, teachers and PT's. H1B is a general working visa for "everybody" and only 65,000 H1b visa's are available every year. That is not a lot considering that's for "everybody" meaning, IT, computer geeks, i mean experts =), etc...

So to answer the question, working visa is not technically under retrogression.

Silly of me to ask those ?s. Sorry

H1-B visas also have a requirement that the person be a specialist in their area; this is one reason that all of them are being investigated by the US government now. As a new nurse to the US without experience, how can one be considered to be experienced? No work experience and one is not going to be considered a specialist.

The US employer also has to prove that they could not get an American nurse to fill that position. With what is happening now in the US, going to be hard to prove as well.

Dual intent is always dual intent.