The End of Retrogression for Nurses and Physical Therapists

Agreement has been reached by the United States Congress to pick up the pace of the immigration for nurses and physical therapists to help alleviate the critical nursing and therapists shortage in the US hospitals and other health care facilities.

The law creates a special EB3 immigrant class for registered nurses and physical therapists. The special class exempts 50,000 immigrant visas from the general EB3 category and effectively ends retrogression for nurse and physical therapist for at least the next two or three years.

Registered nurses and physical therapists are the only shortage occupations designated by the U.S. Department of Labor. It is estimated that the number of vacancies for RNs in the U.S. could grow from the present shortage of over 100,000 to over 600,000 by 2020.

The Background: It takes years for U.S. health care providers to hire foreign-trained nurses. First, there is the long wait for Service Centers to approve the employer visa petitions, then another long wait at the National Visa Center. Foreign nurses must pass a licensing exam, NCLEX-RN, which was administered only in the US until recently. Starting 2005, these exams are also given in select centers in London, Hong Kong and Seoul. To qualify to take the RN exam, most foreign-trained nurses must also take a CGFNS qualifying examination, pass exams for English proficiency, and obtain a VisaScreen Certificate. Finally, the nurses must meet all the US Visa requirements such as medical exams, police and security clearances, and a personal interview by the US Embassy or Consulate abroad. In January 1, 2005, the waiting time for the employment-based third preference category (EB-3) backlogged three years for RNs born in the Philippines, India and China.

The three plus years of waiting to prompted hospitals, and other health care providers to pursue Congress for an immediate remedy. Congress passed a law to "recapture" 50,000 green cards that were not issued before and allocate them to registered nurses, physical therapists and their spouses and unmarried minor children. President Bush is expected to sign this bill (H.R.1268) into law within the next few days.

The effect of this new law is that the 50,000 new green cards should insure a steady supply of RNs and PTs for the next three to four years. It may take the Departments of State and Homeland Security several weeks to apply the law. It is anticipated that the retrogression will be effectively lifted for EB3 Schedule A occupations by July of 2005.