red carpet for H-1B nurses
red carpet for H-1B nurses
Date: Friday, January 10, 2003 9:20 AM
H-1B and JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER
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The U.S. government opened a major loophole to allow more foreign nurses to
get H-1B visas. Now foreign nurses don't have to have a college degree, they
only have to have "equivalent experience". Three years of work experience
will be considered equivalent to a year of college training. Until now, only
degreed nurses could use H-1B visas.
Equivalent experience exemptions are nothing new to H-1B but this is the
first time that nursing degrees have been formally marginalized. The
equivalency loophole gives employers carte blanche authority to grant
virtual college degrees to any H-1B they want to import to the USA. The
burden of proof is on the government to prove that the virtual degree isn't
justified. Verification of work experience in a foreign country is difficult
if not impossible, so this loophole is truly a red carpet into the U.S.
Verification difficulties could prove disastrous for the quality of American
healthcare. What if a hospital aid in the Phillipines did nothing more than
change bed pans for 12 years but a company gave her an RN position based on
experience: 12 years changing bed pans = 4 year degree?
Nurses will soon understand why high tech workers are complaining about the
glutted labor market that H-1B has caused. Resultant declines in wages and
working conditions will follow as more low cost nurses from India, China,
and the Phillipines compete for the available nursing jobs. Market economics
of supply and demand in the nursing field will be manipulated by the medical
industry in much the same fashion as the electronics industry.
The article below incorrectly states that nurses only come to the US on H-1C
visas. As anyone can see by using the LCA database at
www.ZaZona.com/LCA-Data there are plenty of nurses that use H-1Bs. The
reason the medical industry wants to use H-1B instead is probably because
H-1C only allows 500 visas a year.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/xml/comp/articleshow?artid=33191833
The Economic Times Online
Printed from economictimes.indiatimes.com >Politics/Nation
US rolls out the red carpet for nurses
URMI A GOSWAMI
TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ FRIDAY, JANUARY 03, 2003 03:48:49 AM ]
NEW DELHI: Things may have just got a bit easier for US-bound Indian nurses.
Till recently, entering the US was limited to H1-C visa holders. Last year
it became easier for a nurse to get a green card than a non-immigrant visa.
A recent clarification by the US government may have opened up yet another
path to the US. It may make it possible for some nurses to opt for a
non-immigrant H-1B visa. This clarification is timely, given the acute
shortage of qualified nurses in the US.
Johnny Williams, executive associate commissioner in the field operations,
issued a memorandum providing H-1B visa guidelines for registered nurses. An
employer can petition for an H-1B by proving that the applicant has the
requisite degree for that particular position.
The employer is also required to establish that similar nursing positions
have the same educational requirement. The INS is also considering
specialised training or workex. So three years of specialised training or
workex will be considered equivalent to a year of college training.
Nurses working in administrative positions will find it useful to apply for
an H1-B. As will nurses with graduate-level education in areas such as
critical care, acute care an palliative care.
The H-1C non-immigrant visa was issued for a maximum of three years, and the
number of such visas was limited to 500. Also, each state could only have a
maximum of 25 H-1C nurses.
For an H-1B petition to be approved, the position has to be a “speciality
occupation” — one requiring “theoretical and practical application of a body
of highly specialised knowledge” and “attainment of a bachelor’s or higher
degree in the specific speciality or its equivalent”.
Also, as per the Act, if a particular state requires a licence to practice,
then such a licence was required to be considered for a H1-B visa. These
requirements posed a problem because the minimum requirement to be get a
licence was a two-year degree in nursing.
http://www.visas2usa.com/visas2usa/pub/nurse.htm
A Nurse Sponsored as a Nonimmigrant Worker
1) One option is for the nurse to be sponsored as an H-1B Specialty
Occupation worker. The H-1B visa permits an employer to hire a person in a
specialty occupation, which is defined as having a minimum entry requirement
of a bachelor’s degree or the equivalent. Such H-1B applications will be
successful only (1) where the job requires a four-year nursing degree, for
example Director of Nursing, Head Nurse, Nurse Practitioner or (2) when the
employer can show that it has never hired a registered nurse without a
bachelor’s degree. Therefore, general duty nurses are ineligible for the
H-1B since all U.S. states license nurses without a bachelor’s degree.
2) Signed into law on November 12, 1999, the U.S. Congress passed the
“Nursing Relief for Disadvantaged Areas Act of 1999” to alleviate the
shortage of nurses. This Act created a new visa category, the H-1C, and
allowed 500 H-1C visas per year to be issued to nurses to work in hospitals
located in Health Professional Shortage Areas (HPSA).
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