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.