How To Work In The USA As A Nurse

 Confronted with a nursing shortage crisis, many hospitals are hiring foreign-trained nurses. The American nursing crisis will continue to deepen since each passing year marks a drop in applicants to U.S. nursing schools. With an increasingly aging U.S. population, qualified nurses are in great demand.

Currently, there exist several methods for a foreign-trained nurse to obtain a U.S. visa.

A Nurse Sponsored as a Nonimmigrant Worker

1) One option is for the nurse to be sponsored as an H-1B Specialty Occupation worker. The H-1B visa permits an employer to hire a person in a specialty occupation, which is defined as having a minimum entry requirement of a bachelor’s degree or the equivalent. Such H-1B applications will be successful only (1) where the job requires a four-year nursing degree, for example Director of Nursing, Head Nurse, Nurse Practitioner or (2) when the employer can show that it has never hired a registered nurse without a bachelor’s degree. Therefore, general duty nurses are ineligible for the H-1B since all U.S. states license nurses without a bachelor’s degree.

2) Signed into law on November 12, 1999, the U.S. Congress passed the “Nursing Relief for Disadvantaged Areas Act of 1999” to alleviate the shortage of nurses. This Act created a new visa category, the H-1C, and allowed 500 H-1C visas per year to be issued to nurses to work in hospitals located in Health Professional Shortage Areas (HPSA). To qualify for the H-1C, the nurse must:

· have a full and unrestricted license in the home country or the country where the nurse received nursing education;

· have passed an appropriate exam, most likely the Commission of Graduates of Foreign Nursing Schools (CGFNS) , or be fully licensed in the state of intended employment;

· be fully qualified to practice as a Registered Nurse immediately upon admission to the U.S.

Employers seeking to hire H-1C nurses must file an attestation with the U.S. Department of Labor stating the following:

· the employer is a hospital that, as of March 31, 1997, was located in a designated HPSA and that since 1994, has not had less than 190 licensed acute care beds and has had at least 35% of its patients entitled to Medicare and at least 28% entitled to Medicaid;

· the employment will not negatively affect wages and working conditions of Registered Nurses similarly employed;

· the H-1C nurse will be paid the same wages as other similarly employed registered nurses;

· the employer is taking steps to recruit and retain sufficient registered nurses who are U.S. citizens or permanent residents; and

· there is no strike or lockout during a labor dispute, the employment of H-1C nurses is not intended to influence an election for a bargaining representative and that the employer did not lay off registered nurses within 90 days before and 90 days after the date of filing of the H-1C petition.

· the employer will provide notice to other workers and give a copy of the attestation to each nurse at the facility;

· H-1C nurses at the facility cannot account for more than 33% of the total registered nursing staff; and

· the facility will not authorize H-1C nurses to work at a worksite not under its control and will not transfer the H-1C nurse from one worksite to another.

The H-1C program is restricted to 500 visas a year. The H-1C will be issued for three years with no extension. States with populations of less than nine million will receive 25 visas. States with populations of nine million or more will receive 50 visas. If all available H-1C visas in a fiscal year quarter are not used, the visas may be issued, during the last fiscal year quarter, to any state irrespective of population or the state cap. The H-1C visa category is set to expire on June 13, 2005 so all H-1C petitions must be filed by that date.

The following facilities have been identified by the Department of Labor as Qualified to Use the H-1C Nursing Relief for Disadvantaged Areas Act of 1999:

· Beaumont Regional Medical Center, Beaumont, Texas
· Beverly Hospital, Montebello, California
· Doctor’s Medical Center, Modesto, California
· Elizabeth General Medical Center, Elizabeth, New Jersey
· Fairview Park Hospital, Dublin, Georgia
· Lutheran Medical Center, St. Louis, Missouri
· McAllen Medical Center, McAllen, Texas
· Mercy Medical Center, Baltimore, Maryland
· Mercy Regional Medical Center, Laredo, Texas
· Peninsula Hospital Center, Far Rockaway, New York
· Southeastern Regional Medical Center, Lumberton, North Carolina
· Southwest General Hospital, San Antonio, Texas
· St. Bernard Hospital, Chicago, Illinois
· Valley Baptist Medical Center, Harlingen, Texas

A Nurse Sponsored as a Permanent Resident