Healthcare Blog

THE TIME TO DONATE IS NOW

With Thursday’s kickoff teleconference, the time to act on retrogression is right now. Our Coalition to Improve Healthcare Staffing (CTIHS) estimates that we will need to raise as much as $100,000 in order to hire Washington DC lobbyist. If you are considering whether or not to give to the cause, the time to decide is right now. If you donate funds to the CTIHS effort you are making a bold statement that this business is important to you. If you do not, you are telling us that this issue is not important to you and that the Coalition law firms should focus their attention elsewhere.

We have a small window of opportunity to push through legislation — between now and December. If we are successful, we will exempt nurses and physical therapists from the visa quota, which will eliminate retrogression as a problem for these two shortage occupations for a long time…perhaps permanently. However if we are unable to push through legislation at this time, then the retrogression could last for a period of 6-9 months, perhaps even longer.

At our New York Spring Symposium, many people made a point to tell us that they would donate when asked. We are now asking. On Thursday’s call, we had approximately 100 people dial-in. If each organization gives $1,000, we will have met our goal. The attorneys who are leading the CTIHS are donating their time to the effort. We will not be taking a fee. Indeed, the law firms will also be contributing to the cause. Last year the law firms’ own contributions were about one-quarter of raised funds.

Please send your contributions to Chris, below. Please indicate that your money is for the CTIHS effort.

Christopher T. Musillo, Esq.
Hammond Law Group LLC
3311 Carew Tower
441 Vine Street
Cincinnati, OH
45202
513.381.2011 x223 voice
513.381.2227 fax

cmusillo@hammondlawfirm.com

RETROGRESSION: THE END OF FOREIGN NURSES IN THE U.S.?

THE PROBLEM

The Department of State has just announced that, as of October 2006, the “EX” visa category for Registered Nurses and Physical Therapist immigrant visas (green cards) will expire. Once the EX visa category expires, RN’s and PT’s green card applications will be lumped into the “general” EB3 visa category with accountants, engineers, IT computer programmers, and other common professional occupations. The EB3 category is backlogged, or “retrogressed,” for five years. A hospital that sponsors a fully-qualified nurse in 2006 will have to wait until 2011 until that nurse is eligible for a visa.

This five year back-log will essentially end the supply of foreign-trained nurses and physical therapists into the United States. This will have grave consequences on this country’s healthcare system because nurses and physical therapists are in extremely short supply. Indeed, the U.S. Department of Labor has only found two occupations to be in such dire national short supply – Registered Nurses and Physical Therapists.[1] These “Schedule A” occupations have been the only two occupations designated as such in 15 years.

THE SOLUTION

The Coalition to Improve Healthcare Staffing (CTIHS) and the American Hospital Association (AHA) are asking Congress to make the EX visa permanent. We have a wide-group of Congressional allies.

· Sen. Brownback (R-KS) introduced an amendment to the Senate’s Comprehensive Immigration Reform bill (S. 2611, Sec. 505). This provision calls for the EX visa to be affixed to the Immigration and Nationality Act until 2017, provided that the DOL continues to determine that these occupations are in extreme shortage occupations (i.e. on Schedule A). S. 2611 passed Congress in May 2006, including Sen. Brownback’s amendment.

· Rep. John Shadegg (R-AZ) and nine co-sponsors have introduced the stand-alone SKIL Bill into the House (HR 5744). This bill calls for the EX visa to be permanently affixed to the Immigration and Nationality Act, provided that the DOL continues to determine that these occupations are in extreme shortage occupations (i.e. on Schedule A). Action on this bill will not happen until Congress finishes its national debate on CIR.

The CTIHS seeks to either:

1. Ensure that Sen. Brownback’s amendment survives conference, if Congress begins conference on CIR; or
2. If CIR is not passed, and stand alone immigration bills are permitted, to ensure that Congress quickly acts on Rep. Shadegg’s SKIL bill.

It is important to note that both provisions maintain all of the current regulatory checks on these vital healthcare workers. The checks currently call for foreign-trained nurses and physical therapists to pass state licensing examinations, pass English examinations, and pass visa screening, prior to entering the United States.

For more information on this matter, please contact Chris Musillo.

Christopher T. Musillo, Esq.
Hammond Law Group LLC
3311 Carew Tower
441 Vine Street
Cincinnati, OH 45202

513-381-2011 x 223
cmusillo@hammondlawfirm.com

[1] The US Department of Labor has determined that only two professions are worthy of “Schedule A” designation – RNs and PTs. Schedule A is the designation for occupations that are in short supply across the entire country. 20 CFR 656.15.

CIR W/ TRIGGERS PROPOSED

The CIR with Triggers proposal first suggested a few weeks ago has been formally announced by Rep. Pence (R-IN). Rep. Pence has lined up a Senate sponsor, Sen. Hutchison (R-TX). Their basic plan is outlined here. The outline doesn’t give the details on nurse/physcial therapist visa allocation, although it is expected that measures such as the SKIL bill would be folded into the Hutchison-Pence bill.

The basic plan calls for the DHS to certify that the borders are secure. Once DHS issues the certification, a number of provisons are automatically enabled which raise some immigrant quotas, mainly for NAFTA and CAFTA undocumented workers. Unfortunetly the details are wildly confusing.

The Sentaor and Congressman wrote an Op-ed piece for the right-leaning Washington Times in which they explained their “reasonable solution.”

REID: “WE HAVE A GOP BILL; LET’S GO TO CONFERENCE”

ABC News reports: On Tuesday Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) and Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) went so far as to propose an entirely new plan — one that, they said, would combine tough border security measures with a “no amnesty” temporary worker program.

“We have an immigration bill a week, it seems, by the Republicans,” complained Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.). “Let’s go to conference.”

RETROGRESSION LOBBYING AND ADVOCACY TELECONFERENCE

Free Teleconference – Thursday July 27 – 3 pm et / 12 noon pt

As we mentioned in our last Healthcare Immigration Alert, the allotment of 50,000 EX Schedule A immigrant visas will be exhausted in the 4th quarter of 2006. The Department of State will likely retrogress the numbers in October 2006 in order to ensure that cases with older priority dates are not prejudiced.This phenomenon last happened at the end of 2004.

At that time HLG, along with twenty immigration law firms, led the fight in Congress to approve the special 50,000 immigrant visa allotment. We raised almost $100,000 and were able to keep the retrogression short: it lasted from January 2005 – May 2005. HLG is again committed to leading the fight to eliminate retrogression. The strategy this time is to permanently exempt Schedule A occupations — Physical Therapists and Registered Nurses — from the immigrant visa quota.

This year’s fight will be no different. There are two key components to this:

1. Fundraising. Simply, if we do not raise enough money to hire a skilled lobbyist, we will not be successful. Our expected budget is $100,000. If you contributed last time, please consider donating again. If you didn’t last time, please remember that without fundraising, the retrogression will not be cured and foreign recruiting of healthcare professionals will not happen.

2. Grassroots advocacy. It is critical that we learn of any special relationships that any HLG clients have with Representatives and Senators. We will need to leverage these relationships in order to have our bill passed.

If you want to participate in this free teleconference, please send an email to mmc@hammondlawfirm.com by TUESDAY July 25. In your email you should include: name, title, company, telephone, and email.

RETROGRESSION IN OCTOBER

The latest Visa Bulletin tells a sad story. Unless a bill is passed in the next two months retrogression for EX visas (Schedule A) will occur in October. The time to call your representatives is NOW.

SEN. GRAHAM SAYS A DEAL IS 60-40

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) says that the odds of an immigration deal are 60-40 in favor of a deal being struck shortly. Sen. Graham thinks that the deal will be pushed by Sen. Kennedy (D-MA) and President Bush.

“I can’t tell you how impressed I am with Senator Kennedy’s willingness to try to solve this problem,” Graham says. And he thinks Bush will exert enormous political pressure on recalcitrant House Republicans: “This is about his legacy.”

HOUSE’S SKIL BILL TEXT POSTED AT THOMAS

THOMAS, the Congressional on-line listing of Congressional action, has posted the House’s version of the Skill bill, H.R. 5744

The bill mirrors the prior Senate’s version. This bill is even more favorable than the CIR proposal passed by the Senate in the Spring.

Among the favorable nuggets in the bill:

1. Market based H1 cap AND no cap for US Masters H1s. The H1 cap can increase as much as 20% per each successive year.
2. No Schedule A Immigrant visa (IV) quota — forever
3. Doubles the IV ( aka green card) numbers
4. No IV quota for US Masters degree holders.
5. Creates a “streamlined process” for employers of IVs so that they shouldn’t have to, for instance, keep answering an “ability to pay” RFE over and over again.
6. Premium processing of I-140s.
7. Eliminates SWA’s processing of PERM PWDs by making the function a national one AND mandates that the PWD must be issued within 20 days.
8. Re-institutes the in-country visa revalidation, which was eliminated in 2003, which eliminates the hurdle in revalidating H-1 visas.

SKIL BILL INTRODUCED

The “SKIL bill” — H.R. 5744, The Securing Knowledge, Innovation, and Leadership (SKIL) Act — was introduced in the House by Representative John Shadegg (R-AZ), and nine Republican cosponsors just prior to the July 4th holiday. The Senate’s version of the SKIL Bill included:

• Exemptions for U.S. educated foreign workers with master’s or higher degrees from the H-1B and EB green card quotas.
• Creation of a flexible, market-based H-1B cap.
• Extension of foreign students’ post curricular optional practical training from 12 months to 24 months.
• Exemptions for EB green card immigrant spouses and children from the annual cap.
• No quota for Schedule A occupations – RNs and PTs.

It remains to be seen if all of these provisions are in Congressman Shadegg’s bill.