Posted on: Saturday, December 11, 2004
New visa policy may worsen nursing shortage
By Laura Wides
Associated Press
LOS ANGELES — The government announced plans to block a shortcut that has allowed thousands of foreign nurses to get fast-track U.S. work permits, a move that could worsen a nationwide nursing shortage.
Damian Dovarganes • Associated Press "It's basically going to cut them off," said Charles Oppenheim, head of the State Department's immigrant visa control division.
The new policy, which also could affect doctors and tech workers, is the indirect result of a more efficient immigration process. After the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the system became backlogged because of updated security measures. Many foreign workers from the Philippines — and, to a lesser extent, India and China — got by on temporary work permits as they waited for their "number" to come up for a green card.
Now those cases are being processed, and the government has decided it will no longer issue temporary work permits for workers from these countries until it deals with the backlog, which could take several years.
The change is bound to hurt hospitals already operating with too few nurses, health economist Len Nichols said.
Recruiters have long sought nurses from the Philippines, where schools train nurses to work in the United States.
Robert Salasar, 31, a nurse from the Philippines, began working at a Los Angeles-area hospital in July and is awaiting his green card. "It's much better pay and less patients," he said of his job here, "and you can have it personalized and individualized for each one."
In an announcement Thursday, the State Department said the nurses — predominantly from the Philippines — will not be allowed after Jan. 1 to use the shortcut that has allowed them to begin working in U.S. hospitals in as quickly as 60 days. Those applications could now take up to three years or more.
Carl Shusterman, an attorney in Los Angeles who specializes in immigration law, meets with Filipino nurses Myrene Villanueva and Robert Salasar, who are waiting for their green cards.
