A Colorado trial started this week in which US Attorneys allege that US citizen Kizzy Kalu lured foreign-educated Nurse Instructors to the US to teach at Adam University, a fictional college. The US Attorney’s claim that the Instructors paid Kalu’s company, Foreign Heath Care Professionals Group, and his business partner $6,500 expecting that they would have H-1B visa approval and Instructor positions that paid them $72,000 per year. When they arrived in the US, FHCPG put them to work at low paying conventional nursing jobs and had to return part of their paycheck to Kalu or risk having their visas revoked.
Kalu and his partner, Philip Langerham, were first indicted in March 2012. Mr. Langerham has since reached a plea deal with the US Attorneys office and appears ready to testify against his ex-partner.
Kalu’s attorney claims that the proposed jobs were always expected to be supervisory nursing jobs at long-term care facilities. Supervisory nursing jobs and Nurse Instructor jobs are often permissible under the H-1B visa program. FHCPG apparently hired a well-regarded immigration attorney to help with the H-1B processing. According to the Denver Post, Kalu’s defense is that the nurses never intended to adhere to their employment contracts and began fabricating stories in order to maintain valid immigration status.
India’s EB-3 remained in January 2003. India EB-2 remained frozen at September 2004. The Philippines EB-3 modestly improved to October 2006.
As MU Law mentioned earlier, we expect the Philippine EB-2 number to remain Current or near Current until Spring/Summer 2013, when it should become unavailable as it does most Summers.
| July 2013 Visa Bulletin | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| All Other Countries | China | India | Philippines | |
| EB-2 | Current | 08AUG08 | 01SEP04 | Current |
| EB-3 | 01JAN09 | 01JAN09 | 22JAN03 | 01OCT06 |
The next steps on Comprehensive Immigration Reform are taking shape. Whether it can be accomplished by the end of the summer is still an open question. If CIR fails it will be because it is enormously difficult to get 435 House Representatives and 100 Senators to agree anything.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D- NV) says that a full Senate vote on CIR (S. 744) is expected to come before the July 4th Congressional recess.
S. 744 will need 60 votes to survive a filibuster. The odds are better than even that S. 744’s proponents can get the 60 votes. S. 744 stalwart Sen. Rubio seems to be wavering but this may be politics on his part. While sixty votes would be a victory, sixty-five or seventy would be better. It would signal broad bipartisan support for S. 744 specifically and CIR generally.
Once S. 744 is passed all eyes will be on the House. The House had its own Gang of Eight crafting its own CIR bill. This Gang of Eight has been downsized to a Magnificent Seven, with Rep. Raul Labrador (R-ID) leaving the posse. While Rep. Labrador’s abdication was not welcome news, the fact that the rest of the Republicans have decided to stay on the job implies that there is still a desire to get a House bill completed this summer.
Before we can get to the House though it will remain to be seen just how many votes S. 744 can obtain in the Senate. We should know the answer to this — and to be better able to handicap the viability of CIR — by the July 4 Congressional recess.
The Foreign Credentialing Commission on Physical Therapy is tasked with reviewing the credibility of foreign educated Physical Therapist’s transcripts. A recent News Item on their webpage says that they will require additional documentation before they will approve any transcript from Indira Gandhi National Open University.
FCCPT has apparently had a recent submission of fraudulent documents claiming schoolwork from this University. It is unclear if this was an isolated incident or a repeated problem. Graduates of Indira Gandhi National Open University should expect a delay in the processing of their FCCPT applications.
The electronic record of admission may be accessed and printed at www.cbp.gov/I94. Nonimmigrants are encouraged to print out their I-94 arrival record immediately after entry in order to insure that the information has been correctly inputted into the CBP electronic system. If the information is incorrect, please contact us immediately.
