Hospital in Los Angeles Hiring Immigrant Nurses

jjjoy, LPN · Mar 24, 2009

Is it possible that it's an outdated webpage that was put up in the past and never taken down or updated to note if the program is currently on hold?

tferdaise · Mar 25, 2009

This is not an old ad, there are many hospitals in the US who wants to lower thier cost, how do you do that, lower the pay of the nursing staff. The nurses staff is the biggest cost hospitals pay out. It would be nice if the big news agencys did a story on this, it horrible to bring nurses from other countries to take jobs from nurses here who are looking for jobs.

Neveranurseagain, RN · Mar 25, 2009

No, it is not an old web page. There is actually lots of hospitals offering this type of EB-3 visa. Here is a link to what an EB-3 is. http://faq.visapro.com/EB3-Green-Card-FAQ2.asp#Q1

Looks like the EB-3 visa is a loophole to retrogression that hospitals are using to bring in foreign RN's. Try googleing immigration RN and you will see them listed.

Silverdragon102, BSN · Mar 25, 2009

EB3 is not a loop hole to bypass immigration. EB3 is the GC category that nurses come under and at the moment this visa is actually affected by retrogression and current processing dates are 2003 unless from India and that is 2001. Many many foreign nurses are affected by retrogression

Visa bulletin for April 09

jjjoy, LPN · Mar 25, 2009

So does that mean that some hospitals are still hiring foreign nurses on a EB3 visa but that they are only hiring from a pool of applicants who applied for their visa prior to the cutoff date in 2003 (for those from the Phillipines)? I'm kinda confused so thanks for any clarification!

Trauma Columnist · Mar 25, 2009

Would still like to see/talk with real live nurses who work in these hospitals. Doubt its really happening.

Neveranurseagain, RN · Mar 25, 2009

I too am confused, especially when I see so many CURRENT ads from hospitals and blogs on how to get hired here. According to some of their websites, the EB-3 is being accepted but not a H1B visa.

Silverdragon102, BSN · Mar 25, 2009

EB3 is the Greencard category that nurses come under and before retrogression nurses was given a special category in EB3 called Schedule A and nurses was fast tracked and given a greencard. In 2005 there was a retrogression that affected nurses that was born in the Philippines, China and India so they was restricted in getting a visa but the rest of the world moved forward then in Oct 06 retrogression hit everyone regardless on where they was born and suddenly there was no movement for nurses. This is still in progress and I doubt it will be resolved soon as the demand for visas by foreign workers including nurses is still higher than the actual amount of visas allocated on a yearly basis. When someone gets a visa their priority date must be being processed and for most the current processing times is 2003 although India is 2001. This means that someone who's employer filed I140 and comes under the EB3 category and for example filed in 2005 will not be processed and will have to wait for the date to move forward. This date does move backwards and forwards and if you look at previous bulletins in the link I gave you will see that in Feb the processing date was 2005 but has now gone back 2 years. This I believe was a decision made because of the current US job situation. As far as I am concerned jobs at the moment should be going to citizens and legal residents.

Some hospitals will use the H1b visa but I would say this isn't a good visa to be under as there really is no protection, employer can pay what they want (EB3 the employer has to pay the same as a US nurse of the same level) and if the person looses the H1b then they have to leave the US.

There is no quick route at the moment for foreign nurses to come to the US and the ones that are coming have to meet state requirements, pass NCLEX and have a visa screen certificate before they will be issued a visa regardless on type. So all the hospital is saying is they will not petition a H1b only a EB3 (greencard) and they can not quickly put someone through the system and haven't updated their information in regards to retrogression. The government at the end of the day is the one to issue the visa

Hope this helps clear things up a bit

jjjoy, LPN · Mar 25, 2009

The question is, though, can a hospital currently hire a foreign nurse who does not yet have a work visa? It sounds like all new work visas for foreign nurses have been put on hold and that it may take years before someone recruited today by a hospital for immigration sponsorship might be approved.

Are some facilities still actively recruiting foreign nurses despite the retrogression in hopes that they will be able to officially hire them sometime in the next few years (note that it says it may take 12-36 months - that's 3 years!).

Added: I just googled RN Immigration Sponsorship and saw the type of hospital webpage you're referring to. It could be that they are keeping the webpage up to let folks know that they are willing to sponsor foreign nurses if given the chance. That doesn't mean that they are actively starting the sponsorship process for any foreign nurses these days. Goodness knows, I've seen many hospitals advertise long orientations and a wide variety of shift and unit availability only to have much more limited offerings in reality.

Silverdragon102, BSN · Mar 25, 2009

Hospitals can still petition a foreign nurse if they want but they will have to wait several years before they will be there with a valid work visa. What we are seeing in the International forum is less and less employers willing to petition nurses and the employer at the time of the foreign nurse interview has to prove that they was unable to employer a local nurse for the job. What we are also seeing are agencies still offering to petition nurses but no guarantee on where they will be working and high (and very high) cancellation fees. Plus there is no telling that the agency will still be in existence at the time visas are available.

Only the other month we had a nurse post that they had a GC but the agency that was petitioning them was not able to find them a job in a hospital which totally is against the rules and was expecting the petitioner to find a job themselves and more than likely have to pay the cancellation fee.

allnurses Guide · Mar 25, 2009

EB3 is just the lowest category of green card. It's not possible to progress in the green card process while visas are not available. Sure, they can petition, but it would still be several years until you could work there, unless you're eligible for a temporary work visa.