Healthcare Blog

TheDepartment of State has just issued November2021 Visa Bulletin.  This is the secondVisa Bulletin of Fiscal Year 2022. This blog post analyzes this month's VisaBulletin.

VisaBulletin

Table A: Final Action Dates -- Applicationswith these dates may be approved for their Green Card (Permanent Residencycard) or Immigrant Visa appointment.

Table B: Dates of Filing

The USCISwill be using the Table B chart for I-485 employment-based filings. See: USCISVisa Bulletin Dates

MU LawAnalysis

The DOScontinues to confound.  On one hand – andto the detriment of Indian and Chinese EB-3s – the DOS retrogresseddates massively.  EB-3 India Final Actiondates retrogressed about two years, back to January 15, 2012. EB-3 China retrogressedto March 22, 2018, which is about 9 months. Adding to the pain of Indian and Chinese EB-3s, Dates of Filing forthese categories also retrogressed, which means that there will not be a chancefor I-485 filings.

On the otherhand, the dates for India and China EB-2, progressed.  India EB-2 moved ahead by three months.  China EB-2 advanced by 5 months.  Similar progressions occurred in the Dates ofFiling chart.

The story wasbenign if confusing for Philippines and Worldwide EB-3, where dates heldat Current. 

The confusioncomes on the heels of lastmonth’s DOS comments that implied retrogression in all categories, not justIndia and China EB-3.

Join us for areview of some of the latest immigration changes and updates!

MU Law will be hostinga FREE webinar for our clients and friends on Tuesday, November 2,2021 at 1PM Eastern (noon Central).

REGISTER HERE    

Join us for this FREEwebinar to learn more about:

-         The Potential forRetrogression

-         Consular Backlogs

-         Expediting Casesfor Health Care Workers

-         Additionalupdates and policy proposals and lobbying efforts

-         CovidVaccinations now Required for Green Cards

Andyet when the October 2021 was released not only did the dates stay the same,but the VB included a note at the end,

Employment Third:

Worldwide:A final action date could be imposed as early as November

China: Aretrogression of this date could occur as early as November

India: Aretrogression of this date could occur as early as November

Mexico:A final action date could be imposed as early as November

Philippines:A final action date could be imposed as early as November

Withthat we now expect retrogression in all EB categories starting in November. CharlieOppenheim, who runs creates each month’s Visa Bulletin for the Department ofState, said as much in his monthly YouTube video broadcast. 

Thereappears to be two reasons for this change in expectation:

-Therewere many more I-485, Adjustments of Status filed in FY 2020 than anyone in theDOS expected.  Likewise, the USCIS isapproving more I-485s.  This is adisappointing answer because most of these I-485s were filed in October andNovember 2020.  This insight should havebeen apparent much earlier.

-TheDepartment of State knows that their overseas consulates and embassies have theability to dramatically increase processing of consular processed visas.  This is good news for overseas for consularprocessed immigrant visas, like nurses, because it implies that the DOS isholding back immigrant visas instead of allowing the entire quota to be used byAOS cases.  On the other hand, it is surelydisappointing if you are in the US awaiting a visa. 

MULaw’s interpretation is that if the overseas consulates and embassies donot dramatically increase their visa issuance, that these visas should be putback into the AOS queue later in FY 2022.

A potential amendment to theforthcoming budget bill may dramatically raise the employment-based visa quota,if Senate Democrats canrewrite it in a way to appease the Senate parliamentarian.  Over the weekend, Senate Democrats attemptedto pass a positive immigration bill, but the Senate parliamentarian said thatit was inappropriate to include wide-ranging immigration language in a budgetbill.  Senate Democrats are said to beworking on a back-up plan.

A budget bill is expected to passbefore October 1, 2021 to prevent a federal government shut down.  Between now and then, the budget negotiationsare expected to consume Washington.  Aspart of the process, House and Senate committees propose and suggest languageto place into the bill. 

The HouseJudiciary Committee last week approved immigration language for the budgetbill, which included several positive immigration measures.  Notably, the HJC language included a“recapture” of immigrant visas that were authorized but unused by DHS from1992-2021.  A 2010report by DHS found that between 1992-2010 about a half million employmentbased visas were authorized by Congress but unused simply because ofbureaucratic delays and inefficiencies.  Recapturingthese visas would dramatically clear up most retrogressed green cards and wouldbe an amazing piece of legislation for foreign nationals, US employers, and theUS economy as a whole.

The language included a few otherpositive items:

-A legalization path for a largenumber of undocumented people in the US

-A similar recaptured visas forfamily-based visas

-A liberalized Adjustment of Statusprocess for those with priority dates that are 2 years old

-An increased budget allocation forUSCIS

TheDepartment of State has just issued October2021 Visa Bulletin.  This is thefirst Visa Bulletin of Fiscal Year 2022. This blog post analyzes this month'sVisa Bulletin.

VisaBulletin

Table A: Final Action Dates -- Applicationswith these dates may be approved for their Green Card (Permanent Residencycard) or Immigrant Visa appointment.

Table B: Dates of Filing

The USCISwill be using the Table B chart for I-485 employment-based filings. See: USCISVisa Bulletin Dates

MU LawAnalysis

The DOS’comments at the end of this Visa Bulletin confounds.  They predict that the DOS will enact prioritydate cut-offs (retrogression) with the November Visa Bulletin.  Most prior DOS predictions did not call for aretrogression.

It remains tobe seen if this prediction holds true, and if it does, how long it lasts.  It seems certain that there are many numbersavailable.  This could be the DOS tryingto slow inquiries by being able to point to the retrogression.

TheDepartment has just updatedtheir guidance on emergency IV appointments for healthcare workers.  U.S. embassies and consulates now may prioritizeas emergencies immigrant visa cases of healthcare professionals who will workat a facility engaged in pandemic response.  Healthcare professionals should review thewebsite of the relevant U.S. embassy or consulate for procedures to request anemergency visa appointment.

If the caseis being processed at the National Visa Center (NVC), the applicant may requestexpedited processing by emailing NVCExpedite@state.gov, including the case orreceipt number on the subject line, along with at least one of the following:(1) petitioner’s name and date of birth, (2) beneficiary’s name and date ofbirth, and/or (3) invoice ID number.

Hospitalsin every corner of the country are once again buckling under the weight of thecoronavirus. But unlike earlier surges when intensive care capacity flexed togrow the number of available beds or acquire additional ventilators, thechallenge for health systems today is neither space nor supplies—it's staff.

Evenbefore the coronavirus, US hospitals were short about 200,000 nurses. Thesituation is far worse today. One survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation found3 in 10 health care workers are considering or already have left the bedside.Nurses are superheroes of this pandemic. But they're not superhuman. Tired andtraumatized after more than a year on the front lines, nurses are vacating thepractice in historic numbers.

Absenta massive infusion of qualified nurses, patient care—and, crucially, patientoutcomes—will plummet because nurse staffing directly influences patientmortality. Increasing a nurse's workload by just one patient increases patientmortality by 7 percent.

Hospitalsneed reinforcements. The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services hasapproved green cards for at least 5,000 qualified, skilled internationalnurses. These nurses all have sterling clinical records and have passed Englishlanguage tests, but they cannot emigrate because their visa processing hasstalled at the final step due to a bureaucratic backlog.

Underthe US State Department's visa processing schedule, there are four priority tiers.Nurses are fourth—dead last—in this framework. In practice, it means they're atthe end of a very long, slow-moving line. Meanwhile, ICU beds are filling, andhospitals are struggling to staff them.

TheDepartment of State must fast-track nurse visa processing. American patientsdeserve nothing less.

Weurge you to take just a few minutesand contact your elected representatives in Washington and ask them to elevatethis issue with the State Department so we can expediate the approval of thesedesperately needed nurses.

ContactYour House member:

https://www.house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative

Contactyour Senator:

https://www.senate.gov/senators/senators-contact.htm

 

The Department of State has just issued September Visa Bulletin.  This isthe final Visa Bulletin of Fiscal Year 2021. This blog post analyzes thismonth's Visa Bulletin.

Visa Bulletin

Table A: Final Action Dates -- Applications with these dates may be approvedfor their Green Card (Permanent Residency card) or Immigrant Visa appointment.

Table B: Dates of Filing

The USCIS will be using the Table A: Final Action Dates chart forI-485 employment-based filings. A beneficiary must be current on the aboveTable A chart in order to file their I-485, Adjustment of Status applications.  See: USCIS Visa Bulletin Dates

MU Law Analysis

Both the Philippines and Worldwide (All Other) EB-3 continueto be current. Our opinion remains that these categories will stay current forthe foreseeable future and into 2022.

EB-1 remains current for all categories.  This will certainly be the case for the restof the fiscal year and into FY 2022.  IndiaEB-2 advanced by three months, which shows that the demand for thiscategory remains strong.  India EB-3again moved ahead by six months in spite of widespread reports of downgradesfrom EB-2 to EB-3.  This category hasadvanced by one year in just two months, meaning that the DOS is trying toencourage EB-3 applications.

ChinaEB-2 showed a three-monthadvancement, which is encouraging. 

On theother hand, EB-3 remained the same, indicating exhaustion of thiscategory’s visas for FY 2021.