An Employer’s Guide to Getting Visas and Green Cards

The scarcity of Registered Nurses (RNs) within the U.S. continues to broaden because the COVID-19 disaster drags on.  With greater than half 1,000,000 RNs anticipated to retire by 2022, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics initiatives the necessity for 1.1 million new RNs for enlargement and substitute of retirees.

U.S. nursing colleges haven’t been capable of sustain with the demand for RNs.  Now, with hundreds of thousands of child boomers retiring, the scarcity continues to worsen.  Virtually half the registered nurses working within the U.S. are 50 years previous or extra.

California is the state with essentially the most extreme scarcity of registered nurses in your complete nation.

Fortuitously, there are tons of of hundreds of foreign-born RNs working overseas who’re in search of to immigrate to the U.S. We hope that this text will help hospitals and different healthcare suppliers in acquiring work visas and inexperienced playing cards for foreign-born RNs.

To ensure that a foreign-born RN to be sponsored for a inexperienced card or a short lived work visa by an employer within the U.S., she/he should first:

1. Have a school diploma in nursing, often a B.S.N.

 

2. Have a license to work overseas as an RN

 

3. Go certainly one of following English Language Examinations:

   Exemptions:  RNs who obtained their levels within the U.S., Canada (aside from Quebec Province), Australia, New Zealand, Eire or the UK are exempt from having to take an English Examination so long as English was the language of instruction and the language of the textbooks.

 

4. Go the Nationwide Council Licensing Examination (NCLEX).  NCLEX examinations are presently administered within the U.S., Australia, Brazil, Canada, England, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Mexico, the Philippines, Puerto Rico, South Africa, South Korea, Taiwan and Turkey

 

5. The RN might want to get a VisaScreen Certificates earlier than she will be able to obtain a inexperienced card or a short lived work visa. Nonetheless, an employer might select to sponsor an RN for a inexperienced card or work visa even earlier than she has handed the English Examination or obtained a VisaScreen Certificates. The RN can apply for a VisaScreen Certificates from both of the next organizations:
   

   A VisaScreen Certificates insures that the RN’s schooling and English language expertise have been evaluated and located acceptable as a way to work as an RN within the U.S.

 

Consumer Critiques

 

Inexperienced Playing cards for RNs

Since few RNs qualify for short-term work visas, U.S. employers must sponsor most foreign-born RNs straight for inexperienced playing cards.

The excellent news is that the variety of inexperienced playing cards by way of employment has greater than doubled this fiscal 12 months (October 1, 2021 to September 30, 2022) from 140,000 to 290,000. Whereas it may well take years to get inexperienced playing cards for RNs born in India or mainland China resulting from per-country backlogs, there are presently no backlogs for nurses born in different nations.

The U.S. Division of Labor (DOL) has designated Registered Nurses (and Bodily Therapists) as Scarcity Occupations.  Due to this fact, employers don’t must promote their jobs or show to DOL that they’re unable to search out certified American RNs as a way to start the inexperienced card course of.

Employer sponsorship of an RN for a inexperienced card entails the next 5 steps:

 

Step One

Employers want to begin the inexperienced card course of by requesting a Prevailing Wage Willpower (PWD) from the DOL.  This course of presently takes between 5 and 6 months.

We advocate submitting for a PWD each 6 months so that there’s all the time one which is legitimate.

The place there’s a Collective Bargaining Settlement (CBA), the DOL will defer to the wage provisions within the CBA as a substitute of basing the PWD on DOL’s Occupational Employment Statistics wage database.

 

Step Two

Earlier than an employer can file a petition for an RN with the USCIS, it should present a discover of the place it’s in search of to fill to the bargaining consultant.  If there is no such thing as a such consultant, then the employer should present discover to its workers by posting a discover for 10 consecutive enterprise days in a clearly seen location on the office.

 

Step Three

The employer should file an immigrant visa petition (Type I-140) with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Providers (USCIS).  Though it may well take the USCIS many months to approve a petition, the employer can expedite the method by requesting “premium processing” and paying an additional $2,500 in authorities submitting charges.  Premium processing reduces the time that the visa petition will probably be acted on by the USCIS to fifteen enterprise days.

 

Step 4

 
If the RN resides overseas, the USCIS will ship the authorized I-140 visa petition to the Nationwide Visa Middle (NVC) of the U.S. State Division in New Hampshire.

The NVC will request a listing of paperwork from the RN (and nurse’s partner and kids).  As soon as the NVC receives these paperwork, and the nurse’s precedence date (her place in line for a inexperienced card) is present, the RN will probably be scheduled for an immigrant visa interview on the U.S. Embassy or Consulate the place she resides.

 

Step 5

If the RN resides overseas, she will probably be interviewed at a U.S. Embassy or Consulate.

She will probably be requested inquiries to make it possible for she is eligible for a inexperienced card.  For instance, she will probably be required to submit a police background verify and a medical examination.  The officer might want to make it possible for she is admissible to the U.S., just isn’t a prison, has not dedicated immigration fraud and doesn’t have a considerable interval of illegal presence within the U.S.

As soon as her immigrant visa software is authorized, she should come to the U.S. inside 180 days.  On the airport, a Customs and Border Safety (CBP) officer will study her paperwork and ask her questions.  As soon as the CBP officer approves her software, she will probably be admitted to the U.S. as a lawful everlasting resident or “inexperienced card” holder.

RNs who’re lawfully residing within the U.S. might file an Software for Adjustment of Standing within the U.S. (Type I-485 packet).  They’ll obtain an EAD work allow in roughly 180 days and a inexperienced card interview in about one 12 months.

 

Momentary Work Visas for RNs

Alternatives for employers to sponsor RNs for short-term work visas are restricted.  I testified earlier than the U.S. Senate’s Immigration Subcommittee in 2001 on the necessity to restore short-term work visas for RNs.

Sadly, the invoice that I helped draft for the Committee Chairman was by no means enacted into legislation.

Nonetheless, there are a few forms of short-term work visas that some RNs might qualify for:

 

H-1B Skilled Visas­­

If an employer can show {that a} B.S.N. diploma or greater is a prerequisite for a job, the nurse may be sponsored for an H-1B skilled visa.  The employer must file Type I-129 with the USCIS.  H-1B standing is mostly legitimate for 3 years and may be renewed for an additional 3 years, extra if the RN is ready in line for a inexperienced card.

Since many RN jobs require solely the completion of an affiliate’s diploma, some H-1B petitions filed for nurses are denied by the USCIS.  Nonetheless, the USCIS has authorized H-1B petitions for Nurse Practitioners, Licensed Registered Nurse Anesthetists, some RN Managers and Most cancers Nurses.­­­­­

U.S. employers search H-1B visas for over 200,000 professionals yearly, however most employers are topic to a cap of 85,000 H-1B visas.  The winners are chosen in a random lottery in April and might begin working in October if their H-1B visa petitions and visas are authorized by then.  The employer can velocity issues up by requesting premium processing.

The next H-1B cap-exempt employers are exempt from the lottery and might sponsor individuals for H-1B visas at any time:

1. If the job is positioned at an establishment of upper schooling;
2. Non-profit employers “associated to” an establishment of upper schooling;
3. Non-profit employers “affiliated with” an establishment of upper schooling;
4. Non-profit analysis establishments; and
5. Authorities analysis establishments.

Employers should conform to pay RNs on the “prevailing wage” as decided by the U.S. Division of Labor or on the “precise wage” for equally located nurses, whichever is greater.

The RN’s partner and single youngsters beneath the age of 21 could also be admitted to the U.S. in H-4 standing.

 

TN Visas

Some RNs who’re residents of Canada or Mexico could also be sponsored for Commerce NAFTA (TN) standing by U.S. employers.

For Canadian residents, TN standing could also be legitimate for as much as 3 years, and there’s no restrict to the variety of occasions that TN standing could also be prolonged. Canadian residents are “visa exempt”.  They might present their paperwork on the border or at an airport in Canada and be admitted to the U.S. in TN standing.

Mexican residents should get TN visas that are legitimate for 1 12 months.  Their employers can begin the method by submitting type I-129 with the USCIS. Like Canadians, there is no such thing as a restrict to the variety of occasions that their TN standing could also be prolonged.

There isn’t any prevailing wage requirement for U.S. employers of TN nurses.

The RN’s partner and single youngsters beneath the age of 21 could also be admitted to the U.S. in Commerce Dependent (TD) standing.

 

Further Info

Employers who want extra details about methods to sponsor RNs for inexperienced playing cards and short-term visas can entry our Nurse Immigration Information.

Employers who’ve particular questions can contact me at carl@shusterman.com

Nurses can schedule a Zoom session with me.

You can too entry U.S. Immigration for Well being Care Employees together with medical technologists, occupational therapists, pharmacists, bodily therapists, speech language pathologists and audiologists.

Lastly, since immigration legal guidelines and guidelines are continuously altering, you possibly can preserve updated by subscribing to our free immigration publication.