The Emergency Nurse Supply Relief Act (H.R. 2536) that was introduced by Rep. Robert Wexler (D-FL) and Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI) are urging support of the Bill.  “This is not just about nurse staffing, it is about quality healthcare.”  The ASA references stats from  federal health authorities:  56% of the US nurse work force is 45 years of age or older and there are 3 Mil new and replacement nurses needed by 2020 to meet the shortage.

The Bill would provide up to 20,000 visas per year over a 3-year period for nurses and Physical Therapists and includes a $1,500 filing fee per application which is to fund US nursing schools.

Contact your local and state representatives to support this Bill.  We link to more on this.

Senator Schumer issues a game plan that he thinks will get a CIR bill passed.

We link to the ILW.com article.

(Reuters, San Francisco)…..

Silicon Valley is facing a brain drain of high achieving foreign-born students, more of whom are leaving in the face of a chilly local immigration environment in a trend experts say will hurt U.S. high-tech industry competitiveness in the long run.

We link to the article. “We’re simply not producing, in relative terms, significant numbers of engineers or scientists from people who have already been here for a number of generations”, said Wilcox, who specializes in helping the start-ups that gave his bank its name.  “You’ve got to bring them in from the outside.”

The Immigratiion Policy Center HAS issued an excellent “primer” on Comprehensive Immigration Reform (CIR).  We link to this for your reference and information.

As of 6/19/09, 44,500 H-1B cap-subject petitions have beenr received by USCIS for FY 2010 and 20,000 petitions seeking the advanced degree exemption.  As of this writing, USCIS will continue to receive cap subject and advanced degree petitions until the cap is met.

Reviews:  The inspection process, what does the law say, what can I expect to happen at a US port of entry and more….

http://www.ilw.com/immigdaily/news/2009,0624-admission.shtm

BusinessWeek‘s 4th article in its Immigration in the Recession series concerns the extreme shortage of nurses in the USA.  The article addresses that proponents of foreign nurse recruiting feel that the nurse shortage is negatively affecting patient health; that expanding into government-funded healthcare will escalate the situation. Other points of view assert that domestic nurses should be utilized and trained to put US workers back on the job; however, there is no such system in place for educating and training nurses on a mass scale in the USA to make a dent in the shortage that will only continue to increase with time.  This debate must culminate in nurse legislation being passed by Congress.

We link to this document:

http://www.docstoc.com/docs/7499686/AILA-Open-Forum—Dept-of-Labor

We link to this document

Notes address Premium Processing, changes to the H-1B program, changes in how to contact USCIS by telephone, amongst other matters.

A “desktop raid” is how the workers’ representative, John M. Grant, vice president of Local 770 of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, described the scenario. Overhill, a $200-million-a-year company that provides frozen meals for clients such as American Airlines, Panda Express, Safeway and Jenny Craig, says it had no choice: An Internal Revenue Service audit found that 260 workers had provided “invalid or fraudulent” Social Security numbers. The government took no action against the workers. But Overhill did: All of the employees were fired May 31.  We link to the story