Retrogression - Update

Published Apr 20, 2005

12 Posts

I have been a reader rather than a writer on this forum and understand the frustrations of nurses who are stuck in this retrogression jam and my heart goes out to you all - however I do think there is a solution to it. The shortage of nurses is so acute in the US - they will have to resolve it - so every cloud has a silver lining.

I have been very fortunate with my GC - after trying on my own for 3 years I nearly gave up and signed up with an agency in london, petition was filed end Jan 05 - believe it or not my priority date is 8th Feb 05! That was super super fast for me !! May have something to do with the fact that i was born in sweden

I have an update to share about Retrogression - this bulletien was sent by my agency today, please do not hang your hopes on it untill the bill is signed.

After several months of behind-the-scenes advocacy work, we are pleased to report an important development in the efforts to reverse retrogression for EB-3 green card applicants from the Philippines, India and China. The US Senate voted today to add a provision to the defense/tsunami appropriations bill that would allow unclaimed EB-3 numbers from the last four years to be reclaimed. Half will be available to nurses and physical therapists. The other half will be open to all other occupations.

One previous versions of the bill would have made no distinctions between occupations while another would have only allowed nurses and physical therapists to claim the numbers. The final version passed is seen as a compromise that could be supported by the various groups working on this issue.

The draft language was sponsored by Senators Hutchison R-TX, Domenici (R-TX), and Schumer (D-NY) reads as follows:

"Recapture of Visas

Sec.6047. section 106(d)(2)(a) of the American competitiveness in the twenty-first century act of 2000 (PL106-313; 8 USC 1153 note) is

amended-

(1)in paragraph (1), by inserting before the period at the end of the second sentence "and any such visa that is made available due to the difference between the number of employment-based visas that were made available in fiscal year 2001,2002,2003 or 2004 and the number of such visas that were actually used in such fiscal year shall be made available only to employment-based immigrants and the dependants of such immigrants, and 50% of such visas shall be made available to those whose immigrant worker petitions were approved based on schedule A, as defined in section 656.5 of title 20, Code of Federal Regulations, as promulgated by the Secretary of Labor"; and

(2) in paragraph(2)(A) by striking "and 2000" and inserting "through 2004""

GOOD LUCK TO YOU ALL - WE ARE ALL PRAYING...

Lena