Posted on Immigration Daily 3/13/09

The Federal Times reports that USCIS is spending over half a billion dollars to digitize its paper files so that it can process immigration applications over the internet instead of through US postal service. “The agency signed a five-year contract with IBM in November; the company will be the lead systems integrator on the project. It’s tasked with digitizing the agency’s processing system, which currently relies on some 70 million paper files scattered at hundreds of locations across the country.” The IBM contract – the latest in a series of modernization projects at the agency – could eventually shave months off processing times.

Read more about this story at FederalTimes.com

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The U.S. healthcare system is pinched by a persistent nursing shortage that threatens the quality of patient care even as tens of thousands of people are turned away from nursing schools, according to experts.

The shortage has drawn the attention of President Barack Obama. During a White House meeting on Thursday to promote his promised healthcare system overhaul, Obama expressed alarm over the notion that the United States might have to import trained foreign nurses because so many U.S. nursing jobs are unfilled.

Democratic U.S. Representative Lois Capps, a former school nurse, said meaningful healthcare overhaul cannot occur without fixing the nursing shortage. “Nurses deliver healthcare,” Capps said in a telephone interview.

For more information on the pinch:
Read this story from Yahoo! News

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President Barack Obama tapped a registered nurse, Mary Wakefield, RN, Ph.D. , FAAN, to head the Health Resources and Services Administration(HRSA), an agency that helps deliver health care to the uninsured and underserved in America.

Read more about the article here

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Of note, there have been some substantial changes in the EB-3 category in which virtually all RNs are classified for green-card purposes. The cut-off date for worldwide and the Philippines retrogressed from May 1, 2005 to March 1, 2003, while EB-3 for India advanced 16 days to 11/01/2001. We were warned that this might happen at the start of this current fiscal year in October 2008.

The cut-off dates for the retrogressed EB-3 subcategories – which cover all countries except India and China – are effective immediately. This retrogression is due to the increased demand for visa numbers by USCIS in adjustment of status cases for persons already in the USA. Therefore, beginning today, March 9, 2009, Immigrant visa applications overseas should be processed according to the March 2009 Visa Bulletin, as the March 2009 visa numbers were allocated to the consular posts by the State Department at the beginning of the month. USCIS will not accept applications for adjustment of status in the retrogressed EB-3 subcategories unless the priority date is current under the April 2009 Visa Bulletin.

In April, priority date cut-offs for the first three employment-based categories will be as follows:

* EB-1: Current for all countries.
* EB-2: China – February 15, 2005; India – February 15, 2004; all other countries – current.
* EB-3 Professionals and Skilled Workers: India – November 1, 2001; all other countries – March 2003.
* EB-3 Other Workers: All countries – March 1, 2001.
The notes to the Visa Bulletin indicate that depending upon future demand for visa numbers for the remainder of fiscal year 2009 (through September 30, 2009), further retrogression and unavailability is possible. It further indicates that this situation is temporary pending release of the October 2009 Visa Bulletin – the start of fiscal year 2010.

Although this is the not the greatest of news, in an effort to continue to keep you informed with accurate information, we’d rather you hear this from us then in the chat rooms and nurse forums. We remain optimistic that new legislation will be enacted this year to increase visas for nurses and speed up the process.

Would people favor immigration if they knew how many of our biggest companies exist because of it?

John has already written here at Splice about the anachronistic American immigration laws that make it difficult for skilled, legal immigrants to settle here. Today, The Economist’s Lexington blog makes its own case:

Chinese and Indian immigrants founded more than half of all high-tech companies in Silicon Valley. Immigrants co-founded Google, Intel, eBay and Yahoo. Immigrants contributed to more than a quarter of US global patent applications. Immigrant-founded companies employed 450,000 workers in 2006 and generated $52 billion in revenue.

I don’t know how you could argue with those numbers. One pro-immigration argument has been “America is a nation of immigrants,” but it seems to me that the more effective argument would be to point to the Fortune 500 companies that wouldn’t exist had immigrants not wanted to come to America. Financially, immigration makes sense.

But then again, the anti-immigration views in America largely resemble that infamous South Park “They Took Our Jobs!” episode. But America deserves better. Under Obama, maybe we’ll get something better.

For more information on this subject:
Read this article from SpliceToday.com

If you’re an employer, compliance with immigration laws is crucial. We are in a historic moment regarding U.S. Immigration reforms. Major U.S. companies have been slapped with steep fines for non-compliance with immigration laws and contractors have been closed and even jailed for employing illegal immigrants.

Now is the time for prudent companies to implement a Corporate Immigration Compliance Program. Our firm’s years of experience and knowledge with employer compliance and worksite enforcement issues can assist your business in offsetting the extent of sanctions and other ICE enforcement threats. Because of this, employer compliance is becoming more complex and enforcement (investigations and audits) is increasing.

In order to effectively deal with these issues and avoid the very severe consequences for non-compliance, employers must take the time to develop a strategy and be prepared in advance with an Immigration Compliance Program. Immigration Solutions has created a package of services and solutions to assist you with your compliance procedures that can be tailored to your specific needs and concerns.

Review our services page for more information.

Contact us, we’ll be glad to schedule an initial consultation with a licensed immigration attorney who specializes in compliance, 562 612.3996 or info@immigrationsolution.net

On February 11, 2009, a new Nurse Relief Act was introduced in the House – HR 1001.

The purpose of this Act is to create a new nonimmigrant, temporary visa category for registered nurses – the W Visa, that will work in a very similar way as the H-1B visa.

The bill is a good one for nurses, healthcare providers and, of course, for patients. Whether or not it survives and garners the recognition that it urgently requires at this time in our nation and makes it though the arduous process in the House and Senate and passes – well, we don’t have a crystal ball on this one.  We are, however, extremely pleased to see the issue brought before the House once again this year and salute all the sponsors -and are hopeful that it passes.

The Findings and Purpose of the Bill:

1. There are more vacant nursing positions in the United States than there are qualified registered nurses and nursing school candidates to fill those positions.
2. According to the Department of Labor, the current national nursing shortage exceeds 126,000.
3. States in the West and Southwest have a disproportionate number of nursing vacancies because of rapid population growth, which exacerbates a widening gap in the number of facilities and staff compared to patients that need care.
4. Foreign countries such as the Philippines, India, and China have an oversupply of nurses.
5. Major hospital systems in the United States spend hundreds of millions of dollars every year recruiting foreign nurses under our current immigration system.
6. Current law, with certain limited exceptions, requires health care providers to sponsor desired nurses for permanent resident status while the nurses remain outside of the United States, which can take as much as 3 years or more.
7. This cost is passed on to consumers and adds to the rising cost of health care.
8. Health care providers cannot efficiently and effectively recruit qualified foreign nurses through the existing immigration process.
9. Our health care system requires an immediate modification of Federal laws relating to recruitment of qualified foreign nurses in order to operate at an efficient and effective level.

Read more about the bill here.

Read the White House Immigration Agenda here.

On February 12, Chairman Patrick Leahy and Ranking Member Arlen Specter announced membership lists for the Senate Judiciary Committee’s subcommittees in the 111th Congress.

There will be six subcommittees: Administrative Oversight and the Courts; Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights; The Constitution; Crime and Drugs; Immigration, Refugees and Border Security; and Terrorism and Homeland Security…

Senator Schumer has been a big proponent of Comprehensive Immigration Reform and co-sponsored the Nurse Relief Act of 2008.

Learn how Schumer has voted on Immigration

For more information on the subcommittees being announced:
Read this article from OnTheIssues.org

Immigration, Refugees and Border Security

Democratic Members
Charles Schumer, New York (Chairman)
Patrick Leahy, Vermont
Dianne Feinstein, California
Richard Durbin, Illinois
Sheldon Whitehouse, Rhode Island
Ron Wyden, Oregon

Republican Members
John Cornyn, Texas (Ranking Member)
Charles Grassley, Iowa
Jon Kyl, Arizona
Jeff Sessions, Alabama

$500 Million for Nursing and Health Professional Training

$300 Million is to be allocated to the National Health Service Corps with the remaining for Titles VII and VIII for health professional and nurse development programs.

American Association of Colleges of Nursing President Fay Raines said in a press statement, “Nurse educators are grateful for this infusion of funding which will help nursing schools battle the financial challenges they are currently facing.”

Additional provisions in the bill:

• $2 Billion in renovations and health IT purchases for community health centers
• $9.5 Billion for biomedical research
• $1.1 billion for comparing the effectiveness of treatments funded by Medicare, Medicaid and the State Children’s Health Insurance Plans (SCHIP)
• $2 Billion for the Office of national Coordinator for Health Information Technology
• $50 Million to improve IT security at the Dept of Health and Human Services

For a copy of the bill: www.Recovery.gov

USCIS has confirmed that the implementation of the new I-9 form, dated 02/02/2009, has been postponed until April 3, 2009. New regulations revising the list of documents acceptable for completion of Form I-9, have also been postponed until April 3, 2009. Both were set to go into effect on February 2, 2009.

Note to Employers: Continue to use the June 5, 2007 version of the form until further notice.

For more information on the I-9 form:
Review the new USCIS Q & A released 2/11/09 regarding the I-9 form