THE PROBLEM

For the past decade, the US employment-based immigrant visa allotment has been undersubscribed.  Recent improvements at the CIS have led to unintended consequences: full subscription of the employment-based immigrant visa rolls.  When full subscription is reached, US law compels the Citizenship and Immigration Service (CIS) and the Department of State (DOS) to establish visa quotas, which create waiting list “queues.”  These queues can delay immigrant visa (a.k.a. Permanent Residency or Green Card) cases by several years.  This phenomenon is known as retrogression.

These queues are based on the skill of the worker and the worker’s country of nationality.  Traditionally, Filipino and Indian workers have been the hardest hit.  Starting in January 2005, it is expected that the queue for Filipino and Indian-national EB3 workers (e.g. registered nurses and most physical therapists) will retrogress several years.  Registered Nurses will likely be hardest hit by the retrogression phenomenon because they have no nonimmigrant visa solution.

THE SOLUTION

Hammond Law Group and a team of leading immigration lawyers who represent some of the largest health care organizations in the country have begun to put together a lobbying effort – the foreign nurse taskforce (FNT).  This effort is modeled on a similar effort, led by a similar group of attorneys, who have made great strides in liberalizing the immigration rules for foreign born and trained physicians.  That lobbying effort has increased the capacity for facilities to hire physicians by 33%. 

The FNT has targeted two achievable ends:

(1)       A nonimmigrant visa option for Schedule A occupations.  Schedule A occupations are so-designated by the DOL because of their short American supply.  There are currently two Schedule A occupations: Physical Therapists and Registered Nurses.  Ideally this solution would look similar to the current H-1B visa in terms of the speed of processing, yet with the labor protections embedded in the H-1B.

(2)       An immigrant visa (“green card”) option for Schedule A occupations.  This solution calls for increased immigrant visa quotas. 

These ends would achieve the FNT’s desired result: the ability to partially solve facilities’ nursing shortages by hiring foreign trained nurses in less than six months, while still providing for all of the current regulatory checks, such as licensing, English examinations and visa screening.

WHAT YOU CAN DO TO HELP

In order to fund this endeavor, the FNT is seeking a wide base of stakeholders: hospitals, health care facilities, long term care organizations, nursing groups, staffing organizations, recruiters, immigration law firms and NGOs.

We are establishing three levels of membership; however any and all stakeholders will be asked to participate in lobbying efforts regardless of contribution class.  Lobbying may include some or all of the following: recruiting additional lawyers/clients to participate, drafting and sending off letters to Congress, and calling on congressional representatives.  Any membership level allows anyone access to any lower membership privileges.

Gold membership: Expected contribution: $10,000+.  Gold members can expect to have monthly access to the lobbyist via phone conferences.  Gold members will also take an active role in the actual drafting and revising of proposed legislation. We would expect that companies, law firms and health care facilities who process over 100 cases per year would become Gold members.

Silver Membership: Expected contribution $5,000-$10,000.  This is the mid-range access which gets members indirect access to the lobbyist.  Silver members will be invited to participate in a phone conference about a week in advance of the Gold Membership call with our lobbyist to talk over strategies.  Silver members may also be called on to assist in the actual drafting and editing of legislation.  We would expect that companies, law firms and health care facilities who process over between 50 and 100 cases per year would become Silver members.

Bronze Membership: Expected contribution: $1,000-$5,000.  This base level avails members to a monthly update email, specifically about the lobby effort the lobby effort.  Bronze members will have access to the FNT listserv, along with a preliminary introductory phone conference and periodic phone conferences as events warrant.  Bronze members would also be expected to communicate ideas to a special email account which would be set-up where Bronze members could ask questions and suggest strategies.  I would then collate and send off to the lobbyist and/or ask at the Monthly Gold Membership Phone Conference. 

Right now we are looking for donation pledges.  We have about $30,000-$50,000 in pledges already committed to the effort. 

It is our opinion that users of immigrant visas ought to consider a pledge of $100 for every nurse that they anticipate having in the system.  For instance, if you are hospital that plans on hiring 20 foreign trained nurses in 2004, we suggest a contribution of $2,000.

Our estimate is that we will need in excess of $100,000.  If you are interested in contributing to this effort, please immediately contact Chris Musillo.  We need this commitment’s by year’s end so please contact Chris immediately.