FutureUSRN

Direct hire is better than agency. However, due to the retrogression, facilities or hospitals are shying away from hiring foreign nurses because it is a long wait for them. My personal experience was that I was interviewed by the hospital and was able to pass it. After learning that if they petition me, it will take years, they backed-out. Most HRs think that using agency will speed up the process and that's why some will refer you to their recruiters. However, be careful, the recruiters will let you sign a contract that is one-sided in favor of them. Using Agencies (Registries) is another tricky matter. Some will really exploit nurses. They have hidden charges that you don't know and can't escape once you start working for them. I have friend who received a paycheck ( - 200$). Yes, it's negative. Negative two hundred dollars. The next month she received 35$ paycheck. Not enough to survive another month.

Dear Suzzane, what happens after this surge of AOS applications in the US? Will there be a long retrogression? Are we seeing two or three years retrogression for the Philippines' EB3?

I even found a contract that says "if the agency cannot find an employer for the client (nurse), the client shall pay the agency with all the expenses incurred plus 20,000 USD"... Can you imagine that?

Very true...for that reason, my lawyer is filing my I-140 this coming August....getting a visa is another story....I have no problem waiting actually...I am still enjoying my life....it's summer time, you know... regarding trusting the Visa Bulletin or not....it's up to us individually....but with the recent events, I would look at it but wouldn't trust it.....it will always have a shade of doubt in my eyes....

It means, three months of waiting.... it means, we have ample time to prepare all our documents... it means , we have enough time to plan our way forward.... it means, we cannot trust the visa bulletins anymore....

Retrogression starts again before it ended......it isn't really over....hang-on and wait for October bulletin...that is if we can still trust the DOS Visa Bulletin....

Does it mean it will be current in October as new numbers will come in?

If the DOS will revise the July Bulletin to make all EB-3 Visas retrogressed, then it would somehow help nurses push the Schedule A only bridge....I am thinking positively....hopefully, something good will come out of bad things...

Let's listen to Suzzane. She's always right.

Try premium processing....it may help you.

If you are just at the beginning stage such as at the filing of the I-140 stage, I would suggest that your petition be filed using the premium processing so that by July, you got it approved (or denied). If lady luck strikes, you could be one of the many who could be interviewed. This 2+ month window is also good for those who are already in the US and are changing their status. It will help them get an EAD, even if retrogression kicks in again in September or October. There are so many ways to skin a cat, but there are only a handful of ways to get a "visa number".

It means "visa numbers" are available to all applicants, even for Change of Status.

Yes, it could retrogress heavily in October. However, I do not see that the Philippines will suffer that much compared to India and China. The new CIR could affect new application. This is what I am worried about. NO TO CIR!

EB3 is current for July!...Yipee!

Wowowee!.....Yipee!...This is really good news for all of us. See you all in the USA.

I agree that it is better for this current CIR to be dead for now....there is nothing in it that will help foreign nurses...it's all about border security and legalization of illegals....much worse, nurse will get fewer points in the "merit-based system" than other professionals. Visa recapture or atleast forward movement in the priority dates will give us hope.

I think the cut-off dates that we are hearing about are products of the interpretation of the new immigration bill. In the bill, it is said that the "pending or approved" petition will be grand-fathered if it is filed before the "introduction of this bill" AND approved or pending before the "effectivity of this bill". In the interpretation, they assume that the "introduction of this bill" is May 2007 and the "effectivity of this bill" is Oct. 2008. So if this interpretation is correct, only those which was filed before the May 2007 cut-off day will be grand-fathered. If you filed it after the May 2007 Cut-off date, then it will only retain its priority date but will have to follow the procedures to be set by DHS under the mandate of this bill (if it becomes a law). However, since this bill will set to remove the Schedule A DOL certification, and you filed it under that, it will have risk of being denied. Currently, DHS won't act on any EB1-2-3 petition filed after the introduction of this bill because of what they call "changes in legislation in the foreseeable future"

It appears clearly now that under the point system, foreign nurses will be disadvantaged. Registered nursing in the US does not require a bachelor degree thus, it does not qualify as "specialty occupation"; therefore they cannot get 20 pts. for that.

There are news recently that those I-140 petition filed after May 15, 2007 until after the effectivity of the new bill will be denied if the bill is enacted into a law. This means that it is really not good to file a petition while this bill is being discussed in Congress.

I am waiting for the final joint congress bill to pass before my employer files for a petition. I am thinking if this is a good move or a blunder??? ...it's like playing chess now. We need to have a good opening so that we can play around the board in the middle game and hopefully, can find ourselves in the end game fast enough and winning. However, changing the rules of the game in the middle of it isn't so good. So we should first stop for while, think of a better move, considering the rules may change anytime. In my analysis, with the new proposed system, nurses will still be in good position. This is taking into consideration that most foreign nurses have degrees, can speak english, have experience, and licenced or can pass NCLEX (50% passing rate of tens of thousands of takers). But still, we hope for exemption of schedule A occupations from numerical limits. Some groups are already lobbying for it. Let's hope and pray....

I guess you're right! If you want a nice, slow-phased life, go elsewhere, not in the US or atleast choose a state in the US with that kind of life-style. Been to Australia as well, I really would love to live in Melbourne. But since I got all my papers filed for the US already, I feel it is already late to do that. But still, I am thinking twice and thrice...and so on...

Just cross the bridge when we get there...but I do not think I will ever get into that situation and if ever, I will get an Arizona licence instead.

What you're saying now is the current practice but not two or three years ago, when a CGFNS exam was the only requirement used by most agencies and/or hospitals. And because of the problems they encountered, they changed their requirements to make sure that they got the right skills this time around. There are still nursing home agencies right now recruiting nurses who passed CGFNS. These agencies do not care if you could pass NCLEX or not because they really wanted the nurse for the nursing homes. This is the classic case of what happened in New York where the foreign nurses weren't given an RN job eventhough they already got licences after passing NCLEX. Regarding wasted visa numbers, I would guess that could number up to a thousand, not 90,000 ofcourse, due to nurses not passing English exams. And the rest would be due to faulty petitions that hadn't any good support and eventually failed in the process. I hope that an amendment be passed so that the INS (BSCIS) could re-use these wasted visas on the following year.

The bad thing about the existing immigration system is that any employer can file a petition for a permanent immigrant worker eventhough that worker is not likely to qualify for a visa. One classic example is when an employer file a petition for a nurse who passed CGFNS but has not passed any English exams yet. The nurse gets interviewed but due to lack of Visa Screen, he/she was told to submit it within one year. One year passed, still can't pass the English exam, then a visa number is wasted. Multiply that case and there you got it, a whole lot of wasted visa numbers. These wasted numbers are the what we call "unused visa" that we are asking to be recaptured and be used.

There are some hope come October, the start of the fiscal year. New batch of 140,000 for workers or about 30,000 visas for EB3 petition will come. This could move the PD processing forward significantly.