Is the hiring freeze/retrogression of foreign RNs over?

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I got surprised, an old acquaintance of mine sent me pictures (of their hospital orientation and their hospital ID badges showing they are RNs in that particular hospital). They flew in from the Philippines to the US less than two weeks ago to work in a big South Texas Hospital, although I didn't get additional info how they were hired and how their docs were processed. But I was wondering, are they hiring RNs from different countries again?

Good for them.

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"to the op, i am just wondering why you started this thread in the first place. your initial post was questioning how a goup of filipino nurses were able to get hired recently in a large hospital in south texas and then you later gave an update that one of the nurses arrived on a "working visa" having only had volunteer experience in the philippines. then, when that fact was questioned (and rightfully so), you said that this person has experience working for a while in the middle east. against a backdrop of an economc recession when many nurses (even some experienced ones) are having a tough time finding a job, it's hard for others reading this thread to not react the way they did. "

my initial post was asking if the retrogression/hiring freeze is over. and some folks have answered my question clearly.

next, if you read the thread in it's entirety, you would see that when i fist posted this, i didn't have the complete info yet because my acquaintance obviously didn't reply yet. so i had to clarify eventually. i was under the impression that she didn't work as an rn and only volunteered-----but later on learned from her that she actually worked in icu in the middle east for a short while. note that i used the term acquaintance and not best friend-----so i don't know all the goings on in her life and i had to ask and clarify via e-mail.

"there certainly are no arbitrary number of years required for experience written in the rules as far as h1b visas. all it says is that the petitioned employee works in a specialized profession requiring a bachelor's degree."

based from what you said, i am thinking then that "a short while of an experience" shouldn't be a problem and shouldn't deem somebody unqualified.

"each case is reviewed individually by the immigration service and we really don't know much about this case other than what you've posted based on what you were told."

exactly, that's why i believed her when she said she came here in a legal way. and i believe in the capacity of this country's immigration system.

"as a filipino-american, i would be very careful posting threads that doesn't really do a lot of service to the kind of image we filipino nurses are conveying to the international nursing community."

i am a filipino-american too. i believe that each person is unique and should be treated as an individual-----an individual who makes up her own mind, her own choices, decisions, and is responsible for the choices that she makes. i think that to label one group of people is just unfair and wrong. if jane acts a certain way, that is her call, that is her responsibility, that is just jane in particular-----and it doesn't mean that jane and everybody from her place are all the same.

there certainly are no arbitrary number of years required for experience written in the rules as far as h1b visas. all it says is that the petitioned employee works in a specialized profession requiring a bachelor's degree. that's where nursing becomes problematic in terms of h1b visa approval. the minimum requirement for entry into many professional nursing practice roles is an associate's degree - even for nurses in critical care. in fact, there are many "experienced" icu nurses who have an associate's as their highest nursing degree.

to the op, i am just wondering why you started this thread in the first place. your initial post was questioning how a goup of filipino nurses were able to get hired recently in a large hospital in south texas and then you later gave an update that one of the nurses arrived on a "working visa" having only had volunteer experience in the philippines. then, when that fact was questioned (and rightfully so), you said that this person has experience working for a while in the middle east. against a backdrop of an economc recession when many nurses (even some experienced ones) are having a tough time finding a job, it's hard for others reading this thread to not react the way they did.

i am happy that this person you know has a job in the us. i sure hope that the real circumstances leading to this person's arrival to the us weren't fraudulent. each case is reviewed individually by the immigration service and we really don't know much about this case other than what you've posted based on what you were told. as a filipino-american, i would be very careful posting threads that doesn't really do a lot of service to the kind of image we filipino nurses are conveying to the international nursing community. i hate to say this but your posts did make it seem like this person cheated their way into an h1b visa.

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Specializes in ACNP-BC, Adult Critical Care, Cardiology.
“to the op, i am just wondering why you started this thread in the first place. your initial post was questioning how a goup of filipino nurses were able to get hired recently in a large hospital in south texas and then you later gave an update that one of the nurses arrived on a "working visa" having only had volunteer experience in the philippines. then, when that fact was questioned (and rightfully so), you said that this person has experience working for a while in the middle east. against a backdrop of an economc recession when many nurses (even some experienced ones) are having a tough time finding a job, it's hard for others reading this thread to not react the way they did. “

my initial post was asking if the retrogression/hiring freeze is over. and some folks have answered my question clearly.

next, if you read the thread in it’s entirety, you would see that when i fist posted this, i didn’t have the complete info yet because my acquaintance obviously didn’t reply yet. so i had to clarify eventually. i was under the impression that she didn’t work as an rn and only volunteered-----but later on learned from her that she actually worked in icu in the middle east for a short while. note that i used the term acquaintance and not best friend-----so i don’t know all the goings on in her life and i had to ask and clarify via e-mail.

“there certainly are no arbitrary number of years required for experience written in the rules as far as h1b visas. all it says is that the petitioned employee works in a specialized profession requiring a bachelor's degree.”

based from what you said, i am thinking then that “a short while of an experience” shouldn’t be a problem and shouldn’t deem somebody unqualified.

“each case is reviewed individually by the immigration service and we really don't know much about this case other than what you've posted based on what you were told.”

exactly, that’s why i believed her when she said she came here in a legal way. and i believe in the capacity of this country's immigration system.

"as a filipino-american, i would be very careful posting threads that doesn't really do a lot of service to the kind of image we filipino nurses are conveying to the international nursing community."

i am a filipino-american too. i believe that each person is unique and should be treated as an individual-----an individual who makes up her own mind, her own choices, decisions, and is responsible for the choices that she makes. i think that to label one group of people is just unfair and wrong. if jane acts a certain way, that is her call, that is her responsibility, that is just jane in particular-----and it doesn’t mean that jane and everybody from her place are all the same.

[color=#3366ff]my initial post was asking if the retrogression/hiring freeze is over. and some folks have answered my question clearly.

[color=#3366ff]next, if you read the thread in it’s entirety, you would see that when i fist posted this, i didn’t have the complete info yet because my acquaintance obviously didn’t reply yet. so i had to clarify eventually. i was under the impression that she didn’t work as an rn and only volunteered-----but later on learned from her that she actually worked in icu in the middle east for a short while. note that i used the term acquaintance and not best friend-----so i don’t know all the goings on in her life and i had to ask and clarify via e-mail.

you just answered the question why other posters are thinking that this person you came across with cheated their way in getting approved for an h1b visa. your post started out with little bits of information that doesn’t help paint a picture of someone who used legal routes in obtaining a visa.

i was actually very confused by your posts, hence, my question. it sounded like you are insinuating that retrogression isn’t over because there are still filipino nurses coming to the us in your first post. then you made it look that some filipinos are getting approved for a working visa with no actual rn experience (hence, the speculation of cheating). then, you tried to justify by saying that the person had icu experience in the middle east for a “short while” (further solidifying the suspicion of cheating).

i would personally hesitate (and that’s just me, by the way) to post her case in the first place without knowing the full details of how this person got here. it’s not fair to this person or to any nurse from the philippines to be looked at the same way the other posters have judged her actions merely based on your limited knowledge of the case. but given the facts you presented, i can’t blame the other posters who formed their generalizations.

[color=#3366ff]based from what you said, i am thinking then that “a short while of an experience” shouldn’t be a problem and shouldn’t deem somebody unqualified.

“short while” experience shouldn’t be a problem for h1b because there is really no specific provisions for this except in cases where the educational requirement isn’t met. there were pt’s from the philippines who were being approved for an h1b visa in the past who have never worked as a pt in the philippines. but the difference is that they are being approved by virtue of the fact that they will practice a “specialized profession” – pt, that “requires a bachelor’s degree and higher” – bspt.

your acquaintance is a nurse. nursing is a special case in terms of h1b visa. there are nursing positions that are specialized like critical care for instance but these positions typically do not absolutely require a bachelor’s degree to become specialized in. that makes it suspicious for even critical care nurses to get approved for an h1b visa.

[color=#3366ff]exactly, that’s why i believed her when she said she came here in a legal way. and i believe in the capacity of this country's immigration system.

and she probably arrived here the legal way. regardless, this person’s immigration business is theirs and not ours to meddle with. the posters here don’t know the person and based on your post, you don’t know the person well either.

[color=#3366ff]i am a filipino-american too. i believe that each person is unique and should be treated as an individual-----an individual who makes up her own mind, her own choices, decisions, and is responsible for the choices that she makes. i think that to label one group of people is just unfair and wrong. if jane acts a certain way, that is her call, that is her responsibility, that is just jane in particular-----and it doesn’t mean that jane and everybody from her place are all the same.

i’m not saying that anyone is not entitiled to act in a manner they see fit for themselves. what i see as a “problem” is the fact that the “spotlight” is on fellow filipino nurses who are still in the philippines and trying to come to the us in the setting of an economic recession and limited availability of visas. any insinuation that a fellow filipino is breaking the rules in getting a visa paints a bad image of us as a people. you can accept my statement or not but that’s just the way it is.

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Is it possible that the OP's acquaintance is in the US on an H1C (and not an H1B) visa? Perhaps, this little tidbit of information could explain everything. Just a thought...

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Specializes in ACNP-BC, Adult Critical Care, Cardiology.
Is it possible that the OP's acquaintance is in the US on an H1C (and not an H1B) visa? Perhaps, this little tidbit of information could explain everything. Just a thought...

You may well be correct on that assumption. Unfortunately the OP isn't able to give us details on what kind of working visa the acquaintance was approved for. What we have is basically hearsay.

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Exactly. I submit, therefore, that people ought to consider other possibilities before jumping to conclusions (ie, cheat, fraud, etc).

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Very well explained, juan dela cruz. i'm not replying to this thread to pick up an argument but that is how I also understood what the threadstarter is trying to say.

I also don't get what the OP is trying to drive at when she started the topic without first gathering the facts from her "acquaintance" hence all the speculations and bad impressions which sadly, whether we like it or not, reflects on the Filipino nurses.

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Several years experience can be anywhere between 2-5 years, it just depends on how you look at it. A short while could mean anything less than that, but most likely anything less than a year. If your friend doesn't have years experience in a specialty area of nursing in which a BSN is a requirement, and doesn't have several years experience then I'm sorry but that person doesn't qualify. Sometimes people manage to obtain a visa that they don't qualify for and usually they get caught. If someone is willing to lie in order to obtain a visa and they get caught then they should be prepared to suffer the consequences and not complain if they're forced to return home and are banned for how ever many years. As stated earlier, you get what you pay for. People shouldn't assume that they wont be found out and most likely it's because someone rightfully turned them in. Since you seem to be the one who is taking things personally I suggest you don't read this forum because you're going to come across a lot of people opinions whether you like them or not.

the only nursing program in the Philippines is a BSN and the next is Masteral or Doctoral of Nursing. Every Nurse Graduate in the Philippines is a BSN RN graduate. WE dont have LVN or LPN programs there. Thank you, so dont wonder if you find one Filipino nurse working on the ICU even for a short time. Coz we trained for it for 5years.

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Regardless of her experience, she does NOT qualify - because a position in a SNF does not REQUIRE a bachelor degree.

Sir/Mam

When you Graduate a nursing degree in the Philippines. Its already BSN. We go to nursing school for 5 years. we dont have short cut program like here in the US. We dont even have a LPN/CNA/LVN program in the Philippines. Dont assume that she is not qualified.

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Sir/Mam

When you Graduate a nursing degree in the Philippines. Its already BSN. We go to nursing school for 5 years. we dont have short cut program like here in the US. We dont even have a LPN/CNA/LVN program in the Philippines. Dont assume that she is not qualified.

The issue with the visas isn't what degree the person holds; it is what degree is required for the position. There are few, if any, bedside nursing positions in the US, particularly in long-term care, that REQUIRE a BSN.

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Specializes in CTICU.
Sir/Mam

When you Graduate a nursing degree in the Philippines. Its already BSN. We go to nursing school for 5 years. we dont have short cut program like here in the US. We dont even have a LPN/CNA/LVN program in the Philippines. Dont assume that she is not qualified.

Please read what I said. The issue is not the person's education. Even with a bachelor degree, she is not qualified for a H1B visa unless the position requires a bachelor degree.

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Specializes in Medical and general practice now LTC.
Sir/Mam

When you Graduate a nursing degree in the Philippines. Its already BSN. We go to nursing school for 5 years. we dont have short cut program like here in the US. We dont even have a LPN/CNA/LVN program in the Philippines. Dont assume that she is not qualified.

But you do have LPN programs in the Philippines, there is a big thread in the Philippine forum discussing them.

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