We’ve had a lot of conversation in our office the last few weeks about the 644-page Comprehensive Immigration Reform legislation that was introduced in the House of Representatives (H.R. 4321) on December 15, 2009 by Luis Gutierrez (D-IL).

Before we put forth a summary of the major components of the bill, it’s important to remember that this bill is 100% a product of the Democrats (with 92 co-sponsors, all Democrats) and is an effort to change the law. However, as with all controversial legislation, the bill will be compromised, amended and will change as it moves through the legislative process with much controversial debate and competing interests. (We link to How a Bill Becomes a Law ) The bill incorporates the DREAM Act and the Emergency Nursing Supply Relief Act as well as a wide range of key immigration issues, attempting to address them comprehensively rather than through piecemeal legislation, including changes to the H-1B and L-1 programs.

It is expected in January or February that Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY), the Chair of the Senate Immigration Subcommittee, will introduce a bi-partisan, major immigration reform bill in the Senate. The bill is expected to be less lenient in regard to earned legalization of the undocumented, and will have tougher enforcement provisions than the House Bill.

We highlight some of the most significant proposed changes.

If you missed our 3-part series, you can access it here:

1. 12/28/2009 – Nurse Practitioners

2. 12/2/2009 – Clinical Nurse Specialists:

3. 11/21/2009 – Advance Practice Nurses:

While preparing our most recent NewsFLASH, the H-1B quote was met on 12/21/2009. H-1B’s can be filed for fiscal year 2011 commencing April 1, 2010 to commence employment 10/01/2010. We are already getting ready and doing preliminary case drafting at this time. Please contact us if you are interested in retaining our services. We will provide a pre-employment assessment consultation to employers who are interested in working with Immigration Compliance Group on their H-1B casework. What with Department of Labor delays in verifying employer information, please provide for a good 3 weeks or more lead time at the front end of case drafting. Contact Leslie Davis, Managing Director, 562 612.3996 or email leslie@immigrationcompliancegroup.com with your H-1B questions and requests for services.

By Thomas J. Joy, Esq. 

The recent downturn in the US economy has resulted in an upturn in the scrutiny given to H-1B, L-1A and L-1B visa petitions by adjudicators at the USCIS service centers. Many cases filed and approved in the same format and with the same supporting evidence for years are now being challenged with a Request For Evidence (RFE) and even denied. Even if the case is eventually approved, the RFE causes additional work, expense, delay and stress for all concerned. The purpose of this article is to point out certain areas of closer scrutiny regarding each of these visas and to suggest possible solutions to address and even avoid the dreaded RFE.

Please continue reading this article here.

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Judy Ozbolt, RN, Ph.D., FAAN, FACMI, FAIMBE, program director for the University of Maryland’s Nursing Informatics program, said that nurses specializing in informatics, which combines nursing science with computer and health sciences to integrate systems and help health care providers document care and record evidence of their practice, will be in greater demand as technology and health care become more integrated.

“Nursing informatics is a field that is certainly in growing demand,” Ozbolt said. “The Recovery and Rehabilitation Act covers $1 billion a year for projects that will help acquire and implement electronic health records. There will be an acute need for nurse informatics once this is implemented.”

Graduates of nurse informatics programs most often go on to work in health care organizations to help maintain and develop systems that support everything from patient information to care documentation. Nurse informatics graduates also work at companies that develop these systems as well as branches of the federal government.

“Health care reform is going to depend very heavily on electronic tools to improve the safety and quality of care,” Ozbolt said. “People trained in nursing informatics will be needed to help get good, useful systems in place. Because nurses are at the heart of the information flow in health care, they really have excellent insights into which kind of information systems will work well.”

Nursing specialties focusing on technology, geriatrics and the acute-care patient population are all expected to expand in the near future, according to Mary Jean Schumann, RN, MSN, MBA, CPNA and chief programs officer for the American Nurses Association.

Specialties centered upon more complex clinical cases are also expected to grow in demand as patients become sicker with chronic illness and disease. “Due to the economy, we are going to see more of these kinds of patients with complex needs because they are waiting to see the doctor and receive care.”   For more, we link to this article.

We also link to the best and most popular NurseZone articles of 2009.

CGFNS announced a new pricing structure for its core services and several ancillary services effective January 1, 2010. We link to the new CGFNS fees.

The new fees include increases for Visa Screen, Credential Evaluations, Certification Program fees and the Credential Verification Service for New York State and other ancillary services and will be effective as of January 1, 2010.

VisaScreen price increase to $540, from $498. The renewal Certificate price is increasing from $250 to $275.

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The DOL has designated a centralized Washington, DC location to handle Prevailing Wage Requests (PWRs) for all case types as of January 1, 2010.

PWRs for PERM, H-1Bs, H-1B1s (Chile and Singapore), H-2Bs and E-3s (for Australians) will be prepared on the PWR form that DOL rolled out for the H-2B program, form ETA-9141.  DOL has not yet offered an electronic version of this form so there isn’t any way to submit it online, neither are they accepting faxes.  If you subscribe to an immigration forms program, such as INSZoom, you can access a fillable version there.

All PWRs are to be mailed to the OFLC’s NPWHC in Washington, DC. at:  US Department of Labor-ETA, National Prevailing Wage and Helpdesk Center, Attn:  PWD Requests, 1341 G Street, NW, Suite 201, Washington, DC  20005-3142.

Here is AILA’s advance copy of the Federal Register Posting.

We’ll see how this centralized process goes.  To roll out a new system without electronic submission doesn’t make much sense.  Let’s keep our fingers crossed.

By:  Thomas J. Joy, Esq

For our article on this topic, please refer to this page.