I am starting a new thread to track cases from NVC - embassy to GC.
The best news for RN in China, Phillippines and India has been great and informative thread, but I think it is more appropriate and convenient if we start a new thread.
Also with the rapid scheduling of interviews for most of us, I am looking beyond the CP and anticipating the GC!
The August interview schedules are out already in India, and recently in the Philippines and hopefully in China.
Here is my case details
Category : EX Schedule A
USCIS receipt : April 2004
Processing Center : Vermont
I-140 approved : October 2004
NVC case number : MNL2004813XXX
NVC forwarded packet 3 : April 5, 2005
Packet 3 sent back to NVC : May 3, 2005
NVC case completed : May 16, 2005
Consular Interview : August 29, 2005
Visa received : ???
Date of entry in the US :???
GC receive : ????
I hope you can also post here your details interview experience.
What all of you need to be very aware of is the fact that things have changed here radically in the past month or two and not for the better in the US.
Sure, there have been times when there have not been any visas issued to nurses for a period of years. But the US economy has not been like this since the Great Depression of the 1930's, nothing that most of us have ever seen.
Even if you have a PD date of several years ago, the issue is that the factility or employer is going to need to prove once again that they tried to hire an American but were unable to do so. Many areas in the US are not hiring even Americans at this time, so even if an employer promises that they will have a job for you; they first need to prove again that they could not fill the position now with an American. If a facility is having a hiring freeze in place, then they cannot bring over a foreign nurse; hiring date is the date that one begins work. When you were offered a job, that was considered a job offer letter, but does not guarantee that an employer will have a job for you when the time comes for the internview with the US Embassy.
Best of luck to those of you that are waiting, but you need to be truly aware of all of the facts.
hi mam suzzane. thanks for keeping us posted with the present condition in us at present. these realities will be able to let us think of other options at the moment. i just would like to ask some questions if you dont mind.
youve said that and i quote "the factility or employer is going to need to prove once again that they tried to hire an american but were unable to do so."
how are they going to do this? how is the process of proving, to which govt office will they present a doc or something that would suffice the need of a foreign worker? will it take another more time and delays in doing this?
regarding my pd/petition, i for one was really in doubt before. i even emailed my lawyer last april upon knowi gn that my pd is still august 2005 despite the fact that a new petition had filed. this was my lawyer's reply and i quote:
"we have verified this with nvc and they have stated that since there was a previous i-140 petition filed on your behalf they’ll carry over the priority date stated in that petition to your new petition. they have resumed the processing of your paper and have send out the new visa fee bill this week to our office. as such, there’s is a great chance that you can land here while we’re retrogression and you might be our very first candidate to be handed to xxxxxxxxxx valley health system.with regard to your consulate, our i-140 shows that we have requested jeddah as your preferred consulate but nvc in granting you the earlier priority date also followed the old requested riyadh consulate. we can change this but this will delay the processing because nvc will require several documents and correspondence before they approve this. based on our experience the delay may be between 5 to 8 more months. we suggest that you keep this riyadh consulate to avoid further delay and complications".
hi mam suzzane. thanks for keeping us posted with the present condition in us at present. these realities will be able to let us think of other options at the moment. i just would like to ask some questions if you dont mind.
youve said that and i quote "the factility or employer is going to need to prove once again that they tried to hire an american but were unable to do so."
how are they going to do this? how is the process of proving, to which govt office will they present a doc or something that would suffice the need of a foreign worker? will it take another more time and delays in doing this?
regarding my pd/petition, i for one was really in doubt before. i even emailed my lawyer last april upon knowi gn that my pd is still august 2005 despite the fact that a new petition had filed. this was my lawyer's reply and i quote:
"we have verified this with nvc and they have stated that since there was a previous i-140 petition filed on your behalf they’ll carry over the priority date stated in that petition to your new petition. they have resumed the processing of your paper and have send out the new visa fee bill this week to our office. as such, there’s is a great chance that you can land here while we’re retrogression and you might be our very first candidate to be handed to xxxxxxxxxx valley health system.with regard to your consulate, our i-140 shows that we have requested jeddah as your preferred consulate but nvc in granting you the earlier priority date also followed the old requested riyadh consulate. we can change this but this will delay the processing because nvc will require several documents and correspondence before they approve this. based on our experience the delay may be between 5 to 8 more months. we suggest that you keep this riyadh consulate to avoid further delay and complications".
thanks and hoping for reply mam.
in regards to what you posted with the letter that you have received, this is not normally how things are done and there are many here that had to get a new pd date when they moved onto another agency or employer. the only exception to this is those that are actually in the us as explained above by me, and are going thru aos. you can actually read about this on the us state dept website, that is why this is quite confusing to me. even those that have waited for three years and then found that there employer did not have work for them, they could not change their employer and keep the same pd date. they have to start over from the beginning, that is why i find things so odd about this.
if anything, the government here is tightening things; not making them easier.
when one gets scheduled for an interview with the us embassy, they are required to provide a current and updated letter of employment from the employer. and this letter has to provide proof that a job is still available for the nurse. if the facility is having any lay-offs or hiring freeze in place, then they cannot bring over a foreign nurse with a start date then. they also need to prove that the job was advertised and no american was available for it. things have changed considerably in the past month or two, it is going to be very hard for a facility to prove this. as well as the fact of proving to their board of directors why they are spending over $10,000 to get a new nurse to bring over.
also, just noted that your visa bill is just being sent out; this tells me that you do not have a completed file, so do not expect anything to happen for quite sometime for you, no matter what this agency is promising. once the bill is paid, you still have to complete the ds-230 and get approval on this. even if there were visas available, you would not be considered for one now as your file is not completed.
and note, this agency states that you will be the first person that they send to the us; so this means that they have no experience in any of this as a start as well.
have to say that they are not giving you correct information at this time.
to suzanne, like nightingale's idol, I would like to ask, to whom should the hospital/facility prove that there is no american for the job? I felt you didn't answer this in your previous post. Is it the USCIS, FBI,or is it just an internal matter within the hospital? I'm a bit confused because from what I know, you just need an updated job offer letter during the interview, along with the other documents(birth cert, marriage cert, nbi clearance, etc). From what you've been saying, an offer letter is just paper and the facility/hospital should prove first that they can't find any american for the job. Is this a new procedure?
In regards to what you posted with the letter that you have received, this is not normally how things are done and there are many here that had to get a new PD date when they moved onto another agency or employer. The only exception to this is those that are actually in the US as explained above by me, and are going thru AOS. You can actually read about this on the US State Dept website, that is why this is quite confusing to me. Even those that have waited for three years and then found that there employer did not have work for them, they could not change their employer and keep the same PD date. They have to start over from the beginning, that is why I find things so odd about this.
If anything, the government here is tightening things; not making them easier.
When one gets scheduled for an interview with the US Embassy, they are required to provide a current and updated letter of employment from the employer. And this letter has to provide proof that a job is still available for the nurse. If the facility is having any lay-offs or hiring freeze in place, then they cannot bring over a foreign nurse with a start date then. They also need to prove that the job was advertised and no American was available for it. Things have changed considerably in the past month or two, it is going to be very hard for a facility to prove this. As well as the fact of proving to their Board of Directors why they are spending over $10,000 to get a new nurse to bring over.
Also, just noted that your visa bill is just being sent out; this tells me that you do not have a completed file, so do not expect anything to happen for quite sometime for you, no matter what this agency is promising. Once the bill is paid, you still have to complete the DS-230 and get approval on this. Even if there were visas available, you would not be considered for one now as your file is not completed.
And note, this agency states that you will be the first person that they send to the US; so this means that they have no experience in any of this as a start as well.
Have to say that they are not giving you correct information at this time.
Hi Suzanne,
Your description of the procedure to obtain updated offer letter sounds more like that required to obtain Labor Certification. As long as RNs and Pts are exempt by DOL from Labor Certification requirement, I dont see how the present economic situation will automatically change this requirement.
Of course its another issue if the hospital is unable to offer the job to the nurse but seems like that would be an internal matter of the hospital. If the hospital states that the job offer still exists for the petitioned nurse, I dont see how USCIS or State dept or anyone can regulate this.
In case if there actually exists such an official procedure for the hospital to process this updated job offer then I am not aware of it, hopefully someone can enlighten me.
When someone is first petitioned, included with the submission of the I-140 is documentation from the facility of the specifics that they went thru for adveritising of the job, etc. All told, the job is usually required to be posted for about six weeks both in the facility as well as in local newspapers, etc. This is something that the attorney is required to submit from the employer, most are not aware of the fact that it is submitted and one of the reasons that it is usually six weeks or so before petitions are submitted when one is hired. Depending on the facility and its locale and if a union hospital, then there is also documentation provided by the union as well that they okay the job being offered.
You must have a current job offer letter when you have your interview and the facility must provide proof that they have a job for you, this is where things are going to get sticky for some. If the facility is under a hiring freeze, they are not going to be able to provide this letter that there is work for you. A job offer letter is just that, it is an offer of a job if they can hire at that time, if they cannot, then one is going to get everything cancelled. Things are changing quite rapidly in the US from fair to bad in terms of getting hired at this time, and getting worse.
Remember that it costs a facility about $10,000 for each and every new foreign nurse that they bring over at a minimum; chances are that they are able to hire an American at this time to fill the job. There are many areas in the US where a new grad American cannot even get hired things are that tight, and expected to get worse as time goes on.
A facility must guarantee that they will have full-time work for you, and there is no hinderance in one being able to begin work when they arrive and have their license and SSN# in hand. There is alot more involved with a job offer letter than many think.
So, the availability of the updated job offer is completely dependant on the prevailing economic condition of the employer and the situation in the job market at the time of its requirement for the consular interview.
Hence it will be an internal decision of the hospital, taking into consideration all these factors and not subject to approval by govt. agencies like USCIS.
Hello Mam Suzzane. Just would like to clarify things up to avoid confusions. Sorry if I wasnt able to state it well.
As I mentioned above, My PD remains to be the PD of my first I-140 (August 2005). When I knew about this last April 2008. I Immedietly emailed to my lawyer questioning why the PD remains August 2005. Note that I emailed them last April 2008, and Got their reply on same month, which also by that time, They've gotten the visa fee bill notice. It was also during April 2008 that the NVC had resumed the processing of my case, a month before my PD got Current ( May and June 2008 ).
They've settle the Visa Fee Bill last end of April, and in the middle of May, I got documentarily qualified. To confirm this, last JUly 2008, I emailed NVC directly, and got a reply that my Case was already completed and had placed in the list of Documentarily qualified applicants awaiting for visa availability.
But I am not yet fully satisfied with this and had consulted Atty. Gotcher, He replied that granting same PD is not unusual regardless of the applicant's category, be it AOS or Consular Pocessing.
Another point of order. As anyone can read above, my lawyer had stated that If given the chance, I will be the first one to be handed over to the facility, not to US. They've placed so many nurses already in cali, floria, ny...What the lawyer meant was, I might be the first to be handed over to that health system, precisely because my PD is August 2005 while others in line with same petitioner as mine got a PD of 2006 and 2007.
Thanks for the informations given. I hope I made it clear. Godbless
When someone is first petitioned, included with the submission of the I-140 is documentation from the facility of the specifics that they went thru for adveritising of the job, etc. All told, the job is usually required to be posted for about six weeks both in the facility as well as in local newspapers, etc. This is something that the attorney is required to submit from the employer, most are not aware of the fact that it is submitted and one of the reasons that it is usually six weeks or so before petitions are submitted when one is hired. Depending on the facility and its locale and if a union hospital, then there is also documentation provided by the union as well that they okay the job being offered.
You must have a current job offer letter when you have your interview and the facility must provide proof that they have a job for you, this is where things are going to get sticky for some. If the facility is under a hiring freeze, they are not going to be able to provide this letter that there is work for you. A job offer letter is just that, it is an offer of a job if they can hire at that time, if they cannot, then one is going to get everything cancelled. Things are changing quite rapidly in the US from fair to bad in terms of getting hired at this time, and getting worse.
Remember that it costs a facility about $10,000 for each and every new foreign nurse that they bring over at a minimum; chances are that they are able to hire an American at this time to fill the job. There are many areas in the US where a new grad American cannot even get hired things are that tight, and expected to get worse as time goes on.
A facility must guarantee that they will have full-time work for you, and there is no hinderance in one being able to begin work when they arrive and have their license and SSN# in hand. There is alot more involved with a job offer letter than many think.
Hope that this explains it.
so if you have a current job offer letter, and I mean current (days before the interview), you should be fine and you will get a greencard. Correct?
According to Topscot, he has gotten in touch with his employer and was assured that they still want him and the petition remains ok.
September 27, 2008, Suzanne's reply to Topscot was:
Unfortunately, your employer is not being very truthful with you. It is not just having a job offer that is current for you, but they will need to provide documentation to the US federal government that they are still unable to fill that position with an American at this time. Quite a few facilities are having lay-offs or hiring freezes at this
Now, suzanne is saying:
You must have a current job offer letter when you have your interview and the facility must provide proof that they have a job for you, this is where things are going to get sticky for some. If the facility is under a hiring freeze, they are not going to be able to provide this letter that there is work for you.
Suzanne,
So which is which? In your reply to Topscot, you're saying that an updates job offer letter is not enough. Now, you're saying that if you have an updated job offer letter, you'll be fine.
According to Topscot, he has gotten in touch with his employer and was assured that they still want him and the petition remains ok.
September 27, 2008, Suzanne's reply to Topscot was:
Unfortunately, your employer is not being very truthful with you. It is not just having a job offer that is current for you, but they will need to provide documentation to the US federal government that they are still unable to fill that position with an American at this time. Quite a few facilities are having lay-offs or hiring freezes at this
Now, suzanne is saying:
You must have a current job offer letter when you have your interview and the facility must provide proof that they have a job for you, this is where things are going to get sticky for some. If the facility is under a hiring freeze, they are not going to be able to provide this letter that there is work for you.
Suzanne,
So which is which? In your reply to Topscot, you're saying that an updates job offer letter is not enough. Now, you're saying that if you have an updated job offer letter, you'll be fine.
Employers do not issue visas, and with the sudden change in everything here right now, visas are going to be slow to come. The information in the job offer letter is what there is going to be problems with in many cases. There are quite a few hospitals that have put hiring freezes in place over the past month or two and if the facility has one in place, then they are not going to be permitted to bring over an international nurse. Remember that a job offer letter is not a guarantee of work when it is offered, that is why there needs to be an updated one issued right before the interivew; not months out from the interview.
I did not say that if you have an updated letter offer that anyone will be fine and did not say that to you either. I am still stating the same thing as I have been all along. There has been a significant change in the US economy over the past few months, more severe in the past two to three weeks than I have seen in my lifetime on this earth, they are speaking of it as being worse than the Great Depression of the 1930s. There is a very high rate of unemployment now as well and many nurses are returning to working at the bedside as well as picking up a second or third job.
The hospital is going to have to be able to prove that they have an available job at this time for the nurse, and if a union hospital, it is going to be quite hard for them to do if there are lay-offs or hiring freezes in place at the facility. Money is also quite tight coming from the government in terms of medicare reimbursement so a facility having to pay all of the money for a foreign nurse when there are many Americans that are unable to find work now is just not going to be high on the list. Also depends on the state where you will be going to as well, CA is essentially on a freeze at this time, things are very tight in many areas. AZ is also quite tight as well.
Sure, there are always going to be some outlying city in some locale, but the bigger cities are all having drastic issues right now. The issue is that the job offer letter may have to submit proof again of the actual job being there and no American available for that specific job. A nurse with years ot experience is going to be more in need, but a new grad without any experience and many new grads that are American cannot find jobs in their locale, there is no way that a facility can offer a job to a foreign nurse if they do not have any foreign nurses.
It is common sense and jobs are first going to go to Americans, the same way that it has always been.
suzanne4, RN
26,410 Posts
What all of you need to be very aware of is the fact that things have changed here radically in the past month or two and not for the better in the US.
Sure, there have been times when there have not been any visas issued to nurses for a period of years. But the US economy has not been like this since the Great Depression of the 1930's, nothing that most of us have ever seen.
Even if you have a PD date of several years ago, the issue is that the factility or employer is going to need to prove once again that they tried to hire an American but were unable to do so. Many areas in the US are not hiring even Americans at this time, so even if an employer promises that they will have a job for you; they first need to prove again that they could not fill the position now with an American. If a facility is having a hiring freeze in place, then they cannot bring over a foreign nurse; hiring date is the date that one begins work. When you were offered a job, that was considered a job offer letter, but does not guarantee that an employer will have a job for you when the time comes for the internview with the US Embassy.
Best of luck to those of you that are waiting, but you need to be truly aware of all of the facts.