RETROGRESSION for this year?

[kingof heart]

This is just a humor I heard recently that another retrogression will take place by next year 2007, and it will last for 5 years? please comment..

[FutureUSRN]

THE "SKIL" Bill (Securing Knowledge Innovation and Leadership Bill) was introduced in the Senate on May 3, 2006 by Senator Cornyn. The aim of the SKIL Bill is to reform both the H-1B visa, the employment based green card visa and the F-1 Student visa process. Many of the provisions in the SKIL Bill have been duplicated in the Comprehensive Immigration Reform bill currently in the Senate floor. We will discuss below the features of the SKIL bill.

What are the proposed changes in the current H-1B law?

Answer: The proposed changes are the following:

1. Raise the H-1B cap from 65,000 to 115,000;

2. Create an uncapped exemption for professionals who have earned a U.S. master's or higher degree and those have been awarded a medical specialty certification based on post-doctoral U.S. training and experience;

3. Modify the existing 20,000 cap exemption to apply to those with a master's or higher degree from an institution of higher education in a foreign country.

What are the proposed changes in the current Employment Based (EB) Immigrant Visa law?

Answer: The following are the proposed changes:

1. Raise the number of visa from 140,000 to 290,000 visas a year and allow unused visas to fall forward annually while recapturing unused visas from previous fiscal years 2001-2005;

2. Retain current green card allocation so that the majority of visas go to highly-educated and skilled workers;

3. Exempt from the EB cap professionals who have earned a U.S. master's or higher degree and those awarded a medical specialty certification based on post-doctoral U.S. training and experience;

4. Exempt from the cap those who have earned a science, technology, engineering or math master's or higher degree who have worked 3 years in the US;

5. Exempt professionals of extraordinary ability, outstanding researcher and professors as well as those who hold a national interest waiver;

6. Exempt those who will perform labor in shortage occupations designated by the Secretary of Labor for blanket certification as lacking sufficient U.S. workers able, willing, qualified and available for such occupation if the employment does not adversely affect conditions of similarly employed U.S. workers;

7. Exempt spouse and minor children of employment-based professionals from the visa being counted against the cap;

8. Provide special handling labor certification to those who hold a U.S. master's or higher degree and medical specialty certifications based on post-doctoral U.S. training and experience.

http://www.asianjournal.com/?c=163&a=12713

[FutureUSRN]

[color=#111111]legislative odds report

the blue numbers are “business favorable.” the red numbers are “business unfavorable.” keep in mind that even if “nothing” happens it is almost certain that targeted pro-business immigration bills will be proposed and passed. these would include a stand-alone h-1 bill, a stand-alone schedule a bill, and a stand-alone masters degree worker bill. all have wide-ranging support in both houses of congress.

* note: the three columns refer to: before the november 2006 election, the lame duck period (nov 2006 – jan 2007), and early 2007 when the new congressional session begins. this projection is of july 10, 2007.

legislation

before nov 06

lame duck

early 2007

comments

enforcement only

5%

5%

5%

senate appears unwilling

cir

5%

10%

10%

house appears unwilling

skill bill

20%

35%

45%

more likely if gridlock continues

cir with triggers

40%

20%

35%

pence’s program gaining steam

nothing

30%

30%

5%

long-term they will do something

[color=#111111]

totals

sum of all pro-business outcomes

65%

65%

90%

only the debate over enforcement stands in the way of a pro-business immigration bill

sum of all anti-business outcomes

35%

35%

10%

from: http://www.hammondlawfirm.com/alerts/07.11.2006_alert.htm

[rkm]

Hello everyone,

The 50,000 EX visas for nurses & their dependents will be exhausted by October 2006. Where along a nurse's immigration process is she safe from the retrogression?

[Daning]

There are already a number of threads here about retrogression. May I suggest to the mods to merge these threads? Thanks.

[rkm]

the fact still remains that NO AMOUNT OF DISCUSSION will change a thing. if retrogression happens, there is nothing we can do about it.

better focus on productive things than waste time discussing rumors which only add to the confusion floating around.

then again, it's your opinion and i respect that. have a nice day!

I agree. Everybody's stuck again. The door has closed once more. We can only wait, and hope.

[suzanne4, RN]

Just to clear up a few things.

The 50,000 visas: What are left of them will be going to nurses that are just in the final interview stages. Thos that are just applying now, are definitely not in line for one of those.

The reason that the 50,000 are done in one year is that family members included in the petition were part of the 50,000...........in actuality it will be under 20,000 RNs. That is why they are gone so quickly.

November is election time, for those of you that are not very familiar with how things are done here, most bills get shelved after summer recess unless there are extenuating circumstances surrounding it. Most members of Congress and the House of Representatives are busy with their campaign things and trying to get re-elected. That is first on their list, not foreign nurses by any means. And unless it is considered an emergency, which it is not, nothing is going to get done.

Go ahead and proceed with getting all of your exams and documents completed, just as you were doing before. Nothing is changing in terms of that.