Urge Congress to Support HR 5924: Legislation to Address Nursing Shortage
Bill will provide visas for properly qualified RNs
While the shortage of nursing and healthcare workers persists, a visa shortage has compounded the impact of the workforce shortage by limiting the ability of American hospitals to hire foreign nursing professionals.
The Emergency Nursing Supply Relief Act, (H.R. 5924), will help alleviate the nursing shortage by providing visas for properly qualified registered nurses to work in the U.S.
Take action now and urge your Representative in Congress to support H.R. 5924 and help alleviate the nursing workforce shortage.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that jobs for registered nurses will grow 23 percent by 2008. That's faster than the average for all other occupations. About half of the RN workforce will reach retirement age in the next 15 years. The average age of new graduates is 31. They are entering the profession at an older age and will have fewer years to work than nurses traditionally have had. Click here to read more about the nursing shortage.
The U.S. has a waiting list for employment-based visas for internationally-educated nurses. In response, H.R. 5924 would: (1) set aside 20,000 employment-based visas in each of the next three years for foreign-educated registered nurses and physical therapists; (2) provide funds to help U.S. nursing schools expand the domestic supply of nurses; and (3) establish a three-year pilot program aimed at keeping U.S. nurses in the workforce.
Sorry to point it out, but the exact country you are in, Canada, gives priority (extra points), to the foreign students for immigration purposes. If one study in Canada for two years, he/she get five more points, etc. Quebec has similar immigration policies.
Sorry to say, but the immigration system in US do give international students a lot of advantages (kind of priority) though. Educated in US, have a-year OPT which helps them gain US experience. An obvious example is when immigration visa becomes available, like last JULY visa bulletin chaos, they can file AOS immediately, which gives them advantage of renewable EAD.
Actually students no longer get priority and this has been for two years since the retrogression started and there is no reason for anyone that trained here to be able to get it.
There should have never even been the open window last summer as it was, there were no visas available then. And if you take the time to do the math, you will see that it will be more than five years for all of those from last summer to be able to get a visa, or even have a chance at one. So anyone that is contemplating nursing school here based on that assumption, really needs to think again.
Next issue and one that you are not seeing is the fact that if the new graduate was petitioned last summer, they needed to have taken and passed the NCLEX exam, had a letter from their BON that takes about three to four weeks to get, plus have other requirenments met. Most from last summer did not have this completed and that is why you are seeing so many post that were not even able to get jobs with the OPT in the first place as they would not be able to remain in the US when they were done.
If you are not an American and pay taxes here, then it is really not up to you as to how things should be done here. No one dictates what your country should do.
And there are no other exceptions made to any of the requirements for the student that trained in the US, only thing that gets waived is the English exams.
And looking at it from the other side, if you were the US government; would you prefer a nurse from another country with a solid ten years of work experience behind them or a new grad that just graduated and has no experience behind them? Same thing as an employer?
As this bill is approved by house panel. i have few questions about this.
Is this bill is going to senate now. or it is passed and more visas will be available?
the 20,000 visas/year, do the immigration have to first clear backlog under this. i mean the nurses who file in summer 2007 and are already in line are they going to clear them first.
Did the people file in summer 2007 got EAD and working now and waiting for approval for I-485.
it is a big confusion for me. can somebody clear it.
This bill still has a very long way to go. Anything can still happen, so it's not wise to expect too much. The backlog should be cleared first and all those standing in line have to wait their turn, even if the bill is approved, if ever. That's only fair.
It has to be approved by both the House and Congress, before it can be submitted to the President to be signed off on.
Congress has just started a five week vacation, and then it returns to a major campaign between both parties for the final run-up to the election.
The other issue is that this is not for those that went thru AOS last year, there are many that are still waiting for green cards that got the I-485 submitted right before October 31, 2006 and they are still pending because there are no visas.
There are also nurses that have been waiting out of the country for three years plus for the green card. So expect them to be taken care of first. That would be the only fair way to do things.
...if you were the US government; would you prefer a nurse from another country with a solid ten years of work experience behind them or a new grad that just graduated and has no experience behind them?
If I were the US government I would choose the path that would help to lower the presently rising rate of unemployment among the citizens and legal residents -- I would seek to retrain people leaving other industries and provide incentives to hospitals to hire them.
I absolutely would not be inviting new residents to come take jobs in a growth industry.
I advocate contacting our elected representatives and asking them to enact legislation that seeks to solve whatever shortage might exist by employing people that are already legally entitled to work in the US.
And 95% chance of not passing probably lower since this is an election year, as Suzanne mentioned Congress is on a 5 week vacation and then the National elections. All bills must be passed by the time Congress closes for the year which is December, unless this bill is fast tracked it will not progress. The champion of this bill Congress Wexler is being investigated since he did not have a legal residence in the state he represents, I am assuming his time will be spent on keeping his congressional seat and fighting his legal battle.
visa shortage relief for nurses and physical therapists:
amends the american competitiveness in the twenty-first century act of 2000 to lift the numerical limitations for employment based immigrants (and accompanying family members) for nurses and physical therapists until september 30, 2011, subject to a cap.
directs the secretary of homeland security: (1) to impose a fee upon each petitioning employer who uses such a visa to provide employment for an alien as a professional nurse;
and (2) acting through the health resources and services administration (hrsa), to award a grant each fiscal year to each eligible nursing school that applies and meets specified requirements.
$1,800 for each full-time or part-time student who is enrolled at the school in a graduate program in nursing for nurse educators
$1,405 for each full-time or part-time student enrolled in bsn or generic msn program
966 for each full-time or part-time student in adn program
establishes in the treasury's general fund a domestic nursing enhancement account. (will fund above grant program)
amends the immigration and nationality act to: (1) direct the secretary to allow an eligible alien (and spouse or child) to reside in a candidate country (defined to include a lower middle income country or one experiencing a natural disaster) during the period the alien is working there as a health care worker; and (2) make inadmissible an alien seeking entry into the united states to perform labor as a health care worker unless the alien attests that he or she does not have an outstanding obligation to the alien's government or country of residence, subject to a waiver.
directs the secretary of labor to establish a partnership program to award grants to eligible entities to carry out comprehensive programs to provide education to nurses and create a pipeline to nursing for incumbent ancillary health care workers who wish to advance their careers.
suzanne4, RN
26,410 Posts
Actually students no longer get priority and this has been for two years since the retrogression started and there is no reason for anyone that trained here to be able to get it.
There should have never even been the open window last summer as it was, there were no visas available then. And if you take the time to do the math, you will see that it will be more than five years for all of those from last summer to be able to get a visa, or even have a chance at one. So anyone that is contemplating nursing school here based on that assumption, really needs to think again.
Next issue and one that you are not seeing is the fact that if the new graduate was petitioned last summer, they needed to have taken and passed the NCLEX exam, had a letter from their BON that takes about three to four weeks to get, plus have other requirenments met. Most from last summer did not have this completed and that is why you are seeing so many post that were not even able to get jobs with the OPT in the first place as they would not be able to remain in the US when they were done.
If you are not an American and pay taxes here, then it is really not up to you as to how things should be done here. No one dictates what your country should do.
And there are no other exceptions made to any of the requirements for the student that trained in the US, only thing that gets waived is the English exams.
And looking at it from the other side, if you were the US government; would you prefer a nurse from another country with a solid ten years of work experience behind them or a new grad that just graduated and has no experience behind them? Same thing as an employer?