H-1C Is Coming Back!

Date: Thursday, February 13, 2003 9:15 PM

H-1B and JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER

www.ZaZona.com

Those smart hospital directors that want to reduce their labor expenses
have figured out what to do with all those extra H-1B visas that aren't
being used - they are going to use them to import more Philippine and
Indian nurses: "Since the demand for technology workers has plummeted
there are plenty of visas available, but that may change as the economy
recovers." That should tie them over until H-1C kicks in.

In case you haven't heard the bad news:

The bill is sponsored in the House of Representatives
by Sheila Jackson Lee, (D-Texas), and in the Senate by
Sen. Sam Brownback, (R-Kansas). If passed in this
session of Congress, the new visa would allow a nurse
to come into the country in as little as four weeks.

This new bill to import cheap nurses is dubbed the "Rural and Urban
Health Care Act of 2003" but you can call it H-1C for short. Sheila did
a knock down job of copying the H-1B visa because she decided to use
the 195,000 limit for this new visa. That means in addition to the
195,000 visas granted for H-1Bs we will have 195,000 for nurses also.

If nurses think things are bad now, just wait, they are going to get
worse very soon once the cheap labor floods into our nation. Nursing
will become a minimum wage job - thanks to Sheila and Sam!

Be sure not to miss the part about the English proficiency exam. For
those of us with sick (pardon the pun) senses of humor it's actually
quite funny.

To see the ugly details of this bill just go to http://thomas.loc.gov/
and search for the following bill:
Rural and Urban Health Care Act of 2003 (Introduced in House)

108th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 87
To modify the requirements applicable to the admission into the United
States of H-1C nonimmigrant registered nurses, and for other purposes.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

January 7, 2003

http://memphis.bizjournals.com/memphis/stories/2003/02/10/story8.html

>From the February 7, 2003 print edition
Recruitment process of foreign nurses gets a boost from INS
Scott Shepard
The high-tech collapse and a new English language test should soon help
hospitals recruit foreign nurses, bringing them into the country in a
matter of weeks, rather than a couple of years.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics says there are 400,000 vacant nursing
positions in the United States today, and the number will only grow as
the population ages. Foreign nurses are considered one way to bridge
the gap.

The Immigration and Naturalization Service gave the recruiting industry
a boost at the end of the year by issuing for the first time clear
guidelines for using a H1-B visa for a nurse. The H1-B has a quota
limit and was originally created to import high-tech workers, but some
nurses were also able to apply if they had a specialized skill. One
stipulation of the visa is that the immigrant have at least a four-year
degree in their field. Since nurses in the United States can practice
without a degree, the INS has interpreted the rules to say that a nurse
isn't necessarily a technical, skilled position.

"It's not been used much by nurses because the INS takes the position
that states will allow a nurse to get a license without a B.S. degree,
so they don't meet the criteria of a specialty," says Greg Siskind, an
attorney who concentrates on immigration law. "Most countries where we
recruit nurses require a B.S. degree."

It can cost a hospital $10,000 to find and bring in a foreign nurse, so
the lack of clear guidelines was always a damper on the idea. A former
visa type, the H1-A, expired in the mid-1990s and was not renewed under
pressure from nursing unions. Since then, the only way to bring in a
foreign nurse has been through the green card route. That entails
preliminary approval from the INS, followed by a consular investigation
and a visa screening.

Most foreign nurses come from the Philippines.

"A lot of these nurses are already overseas," Siskind says. "The United
States is the first choice for most, so a recruiter will park a nurse
in England, Canada or Norway while going through this process."

The green card process can take up to two years, making it difficult to
plan manpower needs at a hospital. Since the demand for technology
workers has plummeted there are plenty of visas available, but that may
change as the economy recovers.

Siskind is encouraged by a new visa proposal that would mirror the H1-A
and be designed specifically for nurses. The bill is sponsored in the
House of Representatives by Sheila Jackson Lee, (D-Texas), and in the
Senate by Sen. Sam Brownback, (R-Kansas). If passed in this session of
Congress, the new visa would allow a nurse to come into the country in
as little as four weeks.

Along with a nursing degree and practical experience, foreign nurses
must pass an English proficiency exam. That's made the Philippines --
where American English is everyone's second language -- the single
largest source.

But India, a former British colony, may be the next big supply store.

The INS delegates assessment to the Commission on Graduates of Foreign
Nursing Schools. Foreign recruiting was slowed in November when the
Michigan English Language Assessment Battery ceased to be offered. A
key part of the test was a cassette tape of the nurse speaking, but
many potential employers said the tapes were made in noisy, public
areas and it was impossible to assess language skills. A new test
begins this month: the International English Language Testing System.

Nurses unions defeated the H1-A visa by arguing that there was no
nursing shortage, which has become untenable today.

"Now they focus on wages and hours, so the shortage works to their
advantage," Siskind says. "They now claim that foreign recruiting
exploits other countries and exacerbates nursing shortages overseas,
but the countries where these nurses come from have enormous surpluses
of nurses, especially India and the Philippines."

In those countries, becoming a nurse is marketed as a path to success
in a Western country and a way to send money home to support the
family. More than 5 million Filipinos work overseas, for example, and
send home more than $6 billion a year, 60% of it from the United States
and Canada. Remittances are the country's single largest source of
foreign trade.

"India is a classic example of a country that now sees its brightest
people as an export industry," Siskind says. "High-tech is a good
example. They leave, send money back, and eventually do business with
India."

CONTACT staff writer Scott Shepard at 259-1724 or
sshepard@bizjournals.com

) 2003 American City Business Journals Inc.

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