18. July 2008 by JenO.

The most recent update on the Emergency Nurse Relief bill is in the link I
have provided. Last month the bill HR 5924 had 10 bi-partisan co-sponsors,
now that number is up to 17. The support is mounting which is a very good
thing! This bill, when passed, will put an end retrogression for nurses. I
know people are hearing a lot of negative things, through blogs and the
internet especially in the Philippines, about how retrogression will never
end. Please know that rumors and misinformation are easy to spread and that
is exactly what those negative messages are. They are not based on fact!
The bill HR 5924 is a fact and it is counter to the rumor that retrogression
will never end. People involved in the Healthcare Industry know we have a
nursing shortage here in the U.S. Business leaders know that small business is negatively impacted by retrogressions as well. They, along with our government leaders,
are working hard to rectify the situation which is good reason for all of us
to be hopefull that these times will soon come to an end. if you have a specific question, seek proper legal advice, speak with an immigration specialist or send me a message here. Keep up the spirit!

“Hammond Law Group Blog”<

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19. May 2008 by JenO.

I am long overdue in giving you a retrogression/what’s-going-on-about-the-nursing-shortage-update. Some good things are happening out there. Back on March 1st the Dept. of State
(DOS)/National Visa Center (NVC) pushed the dates for Employment Based 3rd category (EB3) visa processing to January 1st 2005 in an attempt to utilize the visa quota for fiscal year 2008 before they go in the trash. The USCIS is processing petitions too slowly and as a result they don’t use all the visas available to them each year. They go unused even though we are neck
deep in retrogression. What this means is that any nurses with petitions that have a priority date on or before the processing date has a shot at getting a visa. It gets even better; the last I looked at the visa bulletin the processing dates jumped from Jan. 1, 2005 to March 1, 2006! I have started getting paperwork from the NVC for some of our nurses, let’s hope it jumps
forward even more so we can get some of our long awaited RNs in. This situation is volatile and could change at any time and the dates could go back again so pushing all the paperwork through quickly is required in order to get a shot at visas, and trust me, we are on top of it.

Now in regards to retrogression the song remains the same, we are waiting for the elections
to conclude, so attention can be directed back to the need for some kind of immigration change that will allow nurses to obtain visas and fill the ever growing shortage. This leads me to my next point. We are approximately 250,000 nurses short and this number will keep going up; statistics are saying that by 2020 we will be a million short (recent reports have reduced that estimate, but there will still be a massive shortage that threatens quality of care). There is a lot of noise about getting more nurses through increased enrollment in nursing programs and ways to make this happen. I agree that we need domestic solutions, but what stands out are the numbers I have seen for increased enrollment still only supplies a small quanity of nurses
compared to the hundreds of thousands of nurses we need. With an aging baby-boomer population, the health care systems will become even more strained, not to mention the baby boomer nurses who are retiring. More nursing programs and students is a good and important plan, but it will take 20+ years to fully reap the benefits. We need something that answers to
the crisis now. In my opinion, a good solution is one that is well-rounded; that includes a combination of domestic solutions such as more nursing schools, better working conditions for nurses, domestic recruitment, etc. and recruiting from abroad. We aren’t the only country that has a nurse shortage and we are losing out due to our restrictive visa program for nurses. Other countries are much more welcoming to foreign nurses and they are the ones getting them instead of us. I have attached an article that is about one domestic proposal for getting more RN Educators in order to increase enrollment through the military. It is very interesting. Please comment on your thoughts and reactions!
“RN Educators”

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15. January 2008 by JenO.

Happy New Year! This is my first 2008 email update addressing the ever looming shadow of visa retrogression for nurses. I think the one thing I am fervently hoping for everyday is to hear media adress the nursing shortage and need for immigration reform. I have seen a few articles and briefs more recently, The National Foundation of American Policy published a couple of briefs last September and October and they continue to address the need for more legal immigration overall in the country and the nursing shortage. See these links for the articles. “deadly consequesnces” “nurses”

What I hope comes next is coverage of this issue from the more mainstream media and I am looking to see what the Presidential candidate’s stances are on the topic of more visas for nurses and immigration reform overall. It is too much to hope that they would even touch on the topic of the nursing shortage and the needs for visas but it is not too much to expect them to address their thoughts on making more visas available for employment based immigrants and reforming current immigration practices. Some seem to be only focusing on the border security and illegal alien problem and, in my opinion, that is not broad enough of a view. I hope for a President who understands the importance of changing the immigration system and removing visa caps for shortage occupations. Even if they don’t make this a campaign topic I am doing my research to see what their stance would be on passing legislation to help get nurses visas. Something good probably will happen before the election; I am hearing hopeful whispers that something may happen in the first quarter of 2008. Nevertheless, it is important to me, and probably all you affected by the current situation, to have a President who will work to change the system long term, so that this kind of situation never happens again. Hammond Law Group’s blog spot covers both the presidential candidates’ views and what is happening in the media among other immigration topics. I have included the link here for those who wish to read it through, I found it very informative. Thanks for your participation by reading my thoughts and let’s hope for some happy news in 2008.
“www.hammondlawgroup.blogspot.com”

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20. December 2007 by JenO.

I’ve been waiting a long time to write something so I’d have some good news to share. Unfortunately all the Retrogression updates I’ve read recently report that nothing much has been happening. There are still no visas available for nurses and health care workers, in fact the longer this goes on the more it will have negative effects on patient care. Some believe the reason for all of this is that there is a political war going on within our own government which is paralizing us and that there is a strong anit-immigration sentiment currently.

It is a fact that Bush vetoes many bills that Congress passes. Congress may gain some leverage to get something passed because there is a need for Congress to pass legislation giving more financial support for the war in Iraq, so there might be some compromise. It is a historic truth that legal, employment based, immigrants are an important factor in the U.S.’s economic growth. Not having enough people to fill jobs, ANY jobs, causes economic stagnation or worse. There is always hope, I have seen an increase of communication on this topic in the media and slowly it should start to reach the general American public who are for the most part unaware of the level this nursing crisis has reached. Once it is common knowledge, there will be a lot of noise that will be heard by our law makers. I have tacked on some articles for reference.

The first one gives us a glimmer of hope that the bill HHS Education Appropriation Act of 2008 which was passed by Congress and that Bush vetoed may be amended by Congress to add a provision for nurse visas and that with the Bush Administration’s need for Congress to work with him to get him war funding, it may pass. A point to note is this article on American policies and issues is written by a Filipino and published in a Filipino paper. The second piece is an example of how businesses, etc. are hurting because of lack of immigration reform which results in a lack of workers and thus reinforces the fact that we need a legal immigrant worker population and the current caps on visas hurts business and economy. The last article exemplifies the fact that the nursing shortage has deadly results and discusses the shortage in a manner that matches the conclusions I have come to from much reading and research on this topic.

You all can help with this cause by speaking out and raising people’s awareness of the personal impact this shortage can have and then perhaps it will drive us toward a positive change in immigration and help to lift retrogression.

“www.globalnation.inquirer.net”

“www.businessweek.com”

“www.foreignnurses.net”

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