By: Thomas J. Joy, Esq.

As part of the immigrant visa (green card) application process at the US embassy or consulate, each applicant aged 16 or older must submit police certificates. For the country of the applicant's nationality, the applicant must obtain a police certificate from the police authorities of each locality in that country where the applicant has lived for more than 6 months since the age of 16. The applicant must also obtain a police certificate from every other country where he or she has lived for more than 12 months. Finally, if the applicant was ever arrested for any reason at any age, he or she must obtain a police certificate regardless of how long they lived there.   Please note that police certificates from certain countries are unavailable. Present and former residents of the United States are not required to obtain any police certificates covering their residence in the United States.    

Police certificates must cover the entire period of the applicant's residence in that area and state what the appropriate police records show concerning the applicant, including all arrests, the reason for the arrest, and the disposition of each case of which there is a record.  

Applicants who have been convicted of a crime must obtain a certified copy of each court record and any prison record, regardless of the fact that he or she may have subsequently benefited from an amnesty, pardon or other act of clemency. Court records should include complete information regarding the circumstances surrounding the crime of which the applicant was convicted and the disposition of the case, including the sentence or other penalty or fine imposed.  

Each country has its own application procedures and requirements. Applicants born in the Philippines must obtain certificates issued by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) in Manila. Citizens of India residing in India may obtain the police certificate from the local Passport Office if their passports were issued within the past 6 months. If the passport was issued more than 6 months prior to immigrant visa application, they must also obtain a police certificate from the District Police Office serving their place of residence. Indian passport holders applying for immigrant visas outside India should obtain a statement from their local embassy or consulate confirming they have no criminal record. Persons who have resided in the United Kingdom for 6 months or more since age 16 are required to obtain a statement from the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) Criminal Records Office.         

It is always recommended that you start the process of obtaining police certificates and court records in a timely manner. Please consult with an US licensed immigration attorney for guidance on this topic.  

If you have any questions on this topic that you would like to direct to us, please feel free to email us.

2. Update on Proposed Legislation, Retrogression, Pending Solutions

By: Thomas J. Joy, Esq.

Unfortunately, retrogression of the immigrant visa quota is still causing severe delays in the immigration of large numbers of needed professionals and skilled workers, especially healthcare workers. However, recent developments give us more hope for a solution than we have experienced in the recent past.  

Legislation has been introduced in the House of Representatives (HR 5924) which addresses the shortages of certain healthcare workers and offers significant solutions. Specifically, all quotas would be waived for Schedule A shortage occupations (registered nurses and physical therapists) as long as the immigrant visa petition (I-140) is filed by September 30, 2011. This would give healthcare facilities approximately 3 years to bring in significantly more foreign nurses and physical therapists during that period, although consulates would be limited to approving no more than 20,000 nurse or physical therapist cases in a year. The ability of the government to handle the increased workload in a timely manner, as always, remains in doubt. The USCIS would be required to process the I-140 immigrant visa petition within 30 days, a vast improvement over the current 6-12 month processing times. Again, the ability of the government's limited resources to handle the expedited processing time remains in doubt.  

All nursing visas issued under this law would require a $1,500 fee, with limited exceptions, to be used to fund grants for schools of nursing. While commendable, past efforts by the government in other areas to fund the development of the American workforce at the expense of employers of foreign workers have met with little or no success. Finally, immigrant visa applicants will need to attest that they do not owe their country of residence a financial obligation that was incurred for their education so that they would remain in that country.  

This legislation is sponsored by members of both political parties, one of whom is known as tough on immigration. While we remain hopeful about the chances for success for this proposed law, a word of caution is necessary. The proposed legislation will need to survive debate and amendments in both the House and the Senate before it ever gets to the President for signature and becomes law. Election year politics and the illegal immigration/enforcement debate are also obstacles to passage of this law.

In addition, HR 5882 was recently introduced in the House of Representatives which proposes to recapture unused employment-based immigrant visas from past years. This could be as many as 218,000 immigrant visas. This is significantly more than the 50,000 Schedule A immigrant visas that were recaptured by special legislation in 2005 and ran out very quickly. This proposed law would act to speed up the EB-3 immigrant visa quota category which is where most nurses are delayed. This law appears to have bipartisan support and is sponsored by leading members of Congress.   However, as above, the same word of caution applies.

It is worth noting that the EB-3 immigrant visa quota cutoff date have been advancing more rapidly than usual due to the projections of the State Department for future demand on the limited quotas. If those projections prove inaccurate or if other unexpected factors intervene, the recent progress could slow or retrogress as in the past.  

Finally, a proposal to increase the period of stay for TN status from 1 year to 3 years, has made its way through the OMB. If this takes effect, Canadian and Mexican citizens who have TN status or visas pursuant to NAFTA as nurses, physical therapists, etc., may find it easier to move from nonimmigrant TN status to immigrant without adversely affecting their TN status, especially if one or both of the proposed laws to increase immigrant visa quotas is passed.    

We will keenly monitor all the above and other issues as they develop. We are pleased to report that we are starting to see a glimmer of hope.

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3. USCIS Updates Naturalization Processing Times for Local Offices

The USCIS published a revised list of times for local offices to complete processing of applications for citizenship from individuals who filed during the summer of 2007. Projected processing times at the end of September 2008 range from a high of 14.7 months for Washington, D.C., to a low of 5 months for Helena, Montana.

Last July, the USCIS received 460,000 applications for naturalization. That was three times the record for any previous month. For the year of 2007, the USCIS received 1.4 million applications; almost double the normal annual number.  

The USCIS is hiring and training hundreds of new immigration officers to hurry the process. The office is also conducting naturalization interviews on the weekends, after normal business hours, to help reduce the number of applications.

For more information on the new processing times in particular locations:
Read this press release from USCIS

4. USCIS to Allow F-1 Students to Request Change of Status

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced late last week that it would allow F-1 students who were selected for H-1B petitions for fiscal year (FY) 2009 to request a change of status after the recent consular notification.

This short-term measure follows an April 8, 2008 ruling that automatically extends the F-1 status of qualifying students who are the beneficiaries of approved H-1B petitions to cover the gap between the expiration of a student's F-1 status and the H-1B employment start date of October 1. To obtain the automatic extension, a student must be the beneficiary of an H-1B petition filed for the next fiscal year (with an October 1 employment start date) and have requested a change of status. Or F-1 student beneficiaries of petitions that USCIS subsequently rejects, denies, or revokes, or for those who violate their status -   the automatic extension terminates at that time.

To read more about the ruling:

Read the guide for designated school officials  

Read this press release from the USCIS

Read the USCIS OPT FAQs

5. States Consider Expanding Role of Advanced Practice Nurses

Bills are making their way through legislatures in more than 20 states this year that could grant more independence to advanced practice nurses.

States such as California, all the way to Florida, are considering approving bills that would expand the authority for advanced practice nurses in some manner. Nurse practitioners' scope of practice is governed by each state, so there are a wide variety of types of services that they may provide, given the amount of various legislative proposals.  

Supporters of the bills say that patients would benefit from expansions, given the current health care climate, which is noticing a growing shortage of primary care providers in some areas.

Some states, such as Ohio, may consider bills that would give nurses more independent authority to prescribe controlled substances. Other states will examine legislation that could allow nurse practitioners to practice with less physician supervision.

Supporters have said that patient care is the priority behind the drive for the legislation.

Immigration Compliance Group will keep you up-to-date with more information on this legislation as the story develops.

6. Virtual Fence on Mexican Border to be Replaced

Seventeen towers, new cameras, new radars, all along a 28-mile stretch of the area straddling the border crossing the Sasabe, southwest of Tucson - and half of that only cost $20 million.

That was the news in late April from the government, saying it would need to scrap the $20 million "virtual fence" on the Arizona-Mexico border because it just did not work properly.  

This move comes just two months after Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff officially accepted the completed fence from The Boeing Co. Customs and Border Protection officials are saying the so-called Project 28 pilot program to detect illegal immigrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border does not work well enough to keep in place.

DHS will add about 17 new towers, some will hold communications gear, and others will feature new cameras and radar, all at an undetermined cost.  

For more information on the new virtual fence:
Read this article from Arizona Central

7. Google Partners with Cleveland Clinic on Patient Record Exchange Website

The major search engine Google has recently announced plans for a healthcare website that will allow patients to share their medical records with a variety of providers to ensure a more precise exchange of relevant data.

Google has teamed with the Cleveland Clinic to launch the project. The company was chosen because the health system already had the online tools in place to implement such an advanced system.

There are more than 120,000 Cleveland Clinic patients participating in the Cleveland Clinic MyChart personal health record program, who are invited to join the secure exchange of their medical records, such as prescriptions and allergies, with providers outside the Cleveland Clinic Health System. So far, more than 1,300 patients have signed on to take part in the program.

Check out the eClevelandclinic.com  

8. New Book Details 'The Future of the Nursing Workforce in the United States'

A new book detailing the situation surrounding the current nursing shortage, including its growing trends, an aging workforce, and the lack of new nurses; could end up being a dismal future for any hope of a happy ending to the current nursing shortage.  

The Future of the Nursing Workforce in the United States: Data, Trends and Implications , by Peter Buerhaus, RN, Ph.D., Douglas Staiger, Ph.D., and David Auerbach, Ph.D., forecasts a significant spike in the looming crisis.

One reason given for the growing nursing shortage is that the current nurse workforce has quickly aged, and with more nurses retiring in the coming years, a large increase is expected around the year 2015.

The experts predict that the current workforce will grow to 2-3 percent, but that will fall severely short of the necessary nurses required to make up for the retired workforce.  

By 2020, an estimated 285,000 additional nurses will be needed, and that could increase to high as 500,000 by 2025.  

Although numbers don't seem to be on our side, the authors contribute an influx of foreign-born nurses and older nurses returning to the workforce as pivotal stalling blocks that have helped ease the effects of the shortage in the past few years.  

To read more about the future of nursing:
Purchase a copy of the book today

9. H-1B Visa Holder's Wife Creates Film Documenting Struggles in the U.S.

With the well-documented struggles of obtaining H-1B visas leading the headlines, some forget to consider what an H-1B holder's wife might go through when this process begins.  

Talented, well educated, and very capable of leading their own lives, these women find themselves unable to work in the U.S. as a dependent wife of an H-1B visa holder.  

Meghna Damani, a 32-year-old Mumbai native, who lived in India and had her own career as a model and newspaper writer, never had to worry much about money. She then made her way to the USA with her H-1B husband.. In H-4 status, she was unable to work and not permitted to open a bank account in her own name.

Damani took her frustrations and placed them behind a camera lens in a new documentary, " Hearts Suspended ."

With little to do, she enrolled in film school with the intention of documenting her struggles as an H-1B visa holder's wife, and found a new purpose when she approached other women in similar situations.  

Damani ended up posting ads and waited to meet with women who were in similar situations to document their struggles living in the United States. Damani found women interested, but they worried if they were to contribute to the film, it could affect their green card status. In the end, the documentary ended up turning into a story partly about her own life in America.  

For more information on the documentary:
Go to the film's website and read the article about file.