Senate Approves 61,000 visas for RNs and PTs

An amendment to provide additional 61,000 immigrant visa numbers for nurses, physical therapists and other Schedule A workers was passed by the Senate last week.

It was introduced by Senators Charles Schumer of New York and Kay Hutchison of Texas as a bridge amendment to H.R. 3043, the 2008 Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations Act.

The additional visa numbers will come from the recapture of visa numbers that were not used in 1996 and 1997.

Senator Richard Durbin of Illinois added a training fee of $1,500 per nurse to be paid by the petitioning employer who uses a recaptured visa number. The fee shall be collected as a condition of approval of an adjustment of status application or an immigrant visa application.

The training fee may be waived for a Health Professional Designated Area facility.

The Durbin amendment further requires the nurses to attest that they don’t owe any financial obligation to their country of origin or residence.

The Schumer-Hutchison amendment calls for the Secretary of Homeland Security to provide a process for reviewing and acting upon petitions not later than 30 days after the date on which a completed petition has been filed.

The main bill is now under consideration by a Senate-House conference committee composed of senior members of both Houses. The task of the committee is to reconcile the differences between the House bill and the Senate bill. The House bill which was passed last July 19 does not contain a version of the 61,000 visa number recapture.

Once the conference committee reaches a compromise, a conference committee report will be submitted to both Houses for approval. Once approved, it goes to the President for his signature.

Although passage of the bill is not assured yet, it is a significant development in solving the acute nursing shortage. Senators Schumer and Hutchison first introduced the measure last March and reintroduced it last August but it was never acted upon by the whole Senate.

Senator Schumer has been a consistent sponsor and advocate of nursing immigration. He has been on every bill calling for increased immigration of nurses including the Nursing Relief Act of 1989 when he was still in the House.

The Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2006 which sought to exempt nurses and physical therapists from the visa quota through September 30, 2017 was passed by the Senate but failed to become a law because of fierce opposition by restrictionist legislators.

Last February, Senator Norm Coleman introduced the Rural Nursing Promotion Act which also exempted nurses from the quota but the bill is still in the Judiciary Committee.

The Real ID Act enacted in May 2006 recaptured 50,000 visa numbers for Schedule A occupations including nurses and physical therapists and this eliminated the January 2004 to May 2005 retrogression for these occupations. But the 50,000 visa numbers were exhausted before November 2006. About 60% of these numbers went to Filipino nurses and physical therapists and their dependents.