Obtaining Green Card as a Registered Nurse is no Longer Automatic

The visa bulletin released by the U.S. Department of State on April 12, 2007 which becomes effective on May 1, 2007 will for sure upset the dreams of many registered nurses, physical therapists and other schedule "A" filers. In an unexpected trend that could discourage many aspiring nurses looking to fill the drought in the field of nursing, the ever current schedule "A" now carries a priority date of October 1, 2002.

The latest development is no good news for nurses and other schedule "A" filers with pending applications with the U.S. Citizenship & immigration Services. If this trend holds, it will take a nurse about two years to obtain a permanent resident status. This will further delay the entry of such nurses into the labor market. The simple interpretation of this is that the shortage of nurses in our hospitals will worsen.

Prior to the recent setbacks, nurses and other Schedule "A" filers obtained permanent resident status within 6months. The simplicity of the process and the pace at which permanent resident status could be obtained has attracted so many immigrants into the field of nursing in the United States. The pool of immigrant nurses has considerably alleviated the problem of scarcity of professional nurses. This news is a setback to the progress made by the healthcare industry in recruiting nurses. Something needs to be done about this matter by Congress.

It is certain that leaders in Congress are monitoring this regression. Unless congress intervenes, Schedule "A" will continue to weaken as predicted by statisticians monitoring the number of applications currently being received in this category.

Schedule "A" is an employment based visa category for "privileged" workers in the United States. Unlike other employment based categories, any occupation under schedule "A" does not need labor certification before the I-140 petition and the application for adjustment of status is filed. Such filers are exempted from the need to apply for labor certification, a process which takes an average of two to three years to complete.

The deterioration of Schedule "A" will create three major problems for nurses and hospitals. Hospitals will have to wait much longer for nurses to begin work. This could discourage some hospitals from filing for nurses.

Secondly and more importantly, it may no longer be possible to file the I-140 petition with adjustment of status application at the same time. This simply means that the alien will not be able to obtain his/her employment authorization within three months as it is now. The reason for this is that the law relating to adjustment of status provides that an application for adjustment of status cannot be filed until the priority date of the underlining petition is ripe. Since we now have more than a one year waiting period as against "current" prior to November 2006, the priority date will not mature until after many years; therefore, nurses will remain unemployed for years before they are able to obtain employment authorization cards.

Finally, some of these nurses will be out of status by the time their priority date is ready. The law provides that you cannot adjust your status in the United States unless you are in status at the time the adjustment of status application is filed. The two exceptions to this rule relate to marriage to a U.S. citizen by an alien whose initial entry to the U.S. was legal and those who are qualified under S. 245(i) of the Immigration & Nationality Act which allows the payment of $1000 as penalty for overstaying in the United States. The effect of this is damaging to the healthcare industry because most immigrant nurses who graduated recently in the United States will not be able to work for a long time.

The current scenario whereby an immigrant enters the United States as a student to study nursing will also be affected. Usually, the aspiring nurse remains in status through College. At the end of his/her academics, the immigrant nurse is granted a one year optional training employment authorization card which further keeps the immigrant in status and allows him/her to do all the licensing examinations. Before the expiration of the one year, the immigrant nurse secures an employer who will file the I-140 petition and the adjustment of status at the same time. Six months later, the immigrant is a permanent resident alien. But with this change, the immigrant alien will run out of status after the one year optional training period because the I-140 petition and adjustment of status application can no longer be filed together.

This change makes a mockery of the recent addition of I-140 petition to the list of petitions that could be filed by premium processing. The situation is not totally hopeless because the schedule "A" category could return to "current" in subsequent months.

The immigrant community and the healthcare industry must rise up and flood Congress with calls to add more visas to schedule "A".

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