Health Care Blog

TheUnited States is about to learn the hard way what happens when an entiregeneration of nurses retires without enough new clinicians to fill their shoesat the bedside.  That is how an opinionpiece in Time magazine presents the US nursing crisis.  The opinion piece co-authored by HHSSecretaries Kathleen Sebelius (Obama) and Alex Azar (Trump) urges Congress torecapture unused visas for qualified international nurses to address thegrowing US nursing shortage.

TheSecretaries plainly argue that,

This is a whole-of-America crisis and weneed a whole-of-government response, including a sensible loosening oflicensing requirements, prioritize positive patient outcomes by modernizing theresponsibilities and standards of nursing, supporting expanded educationalopportunities, and enabling lawful employment-based immigration.

The Congresswould do well to heed the Secretaries warnings and embrace their solutions.

MULaw will be hosting a FREEwebinar for our clients and friends on Tuesday, May 16, 2023 at 2PM Eastern(1PM Central).

Joinus for this FREEwebinar to learn more about

• Green Card Process for Schedule A
• Healthcare Worker Certificates
• PERM for Healthcare Workers
• H-1Bs for Healthcare Workers
• Priority Dates/Retrogression Predictions

PLEASEJOIN US!

The Department of Statejust issued the June 2023 Visa Bulletin. This blog post analyzes this month’s Visa Bulletin.

Visa Bulletin 

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

USCIS

The USCIS is expected touse Table A: Final Action Dates chart for I-485 employment-based filings. ABeneficiary must be current on the above Table A chart to file their I-485,Adjustment of Status applications. See: USCIS Visa BulletinDates

MU Law Analysis 

There was virtually nochange between the June 2023 Visa Bulletin and the May 2023 Visa Bulletin,which is unsurprising given that the May 2023 VB was notably retrogressed,indicating that the State Department has probably allocated most of this fiscalyear’s visas. 

The only change on theabove chart was that China EB-3 Other Workers progressed four months toSeptember 15, 2015.

TheJune 2023 Visa Bulletin included a statement indicating that all India EB-3visas have been utilized. 

E. VISAAVAILABILITY IN THE EMPLOYMENT-BASED THIRD PREFERENCE (EB-3) FOR INDIA

Steady number use and highdemand in the EB-3 category for India will most likely necessitateretrogression of the EB-3 final action date for India as early as next month tohold number use within the maximum allowed under the FY-2023 annual limit. Thissituation will be continually monitored, and any necessary adjustments will bemade accordingly.

MU Law is pleasedto recognize that May 6^th to May 12^th is National NursesWeek in the United States. National Nurses Week is a weeklong celebration ofthe significant contributions nurses have and continue to make inAmerica. 

Nurses make upthe largest part of the health care workforce, with more than four millionregistered nurses, almost one million licensed practical nurses, and over300,000 nurse practitioners nationwide. While it is a large profession, thereis still room for more nurses to overcome longstanding staffing shortages andmeet growing demand in the future. 

Every day, nursesgo above and beyond to provide heroic and life-saving care. At MU we are proudto honor nurses for their amazing dedication and commitment to their patients,their patient’s families, and our nation’s most vulnerable communities.

To all the nurseswho read this page, THANK YOU for all that you do!

To read moreabout the history of National Nurses Week, check out the American NursesAssociation’s website.

USCIS announced that it has received a record 758,994 eligible registrationsfor the FY 2024 (March 2023) H-1B cap season. This issubstantially more than the 483,927 registrations in the FY 2023 (March 2022)H-1B cap season, a 60% increase.

Hereare the H-1B registrations totals for the last several fiscal years.

USCIShas notified H-1B cap lottery winners.  H-1Bwinners have until June 30, 2023 to submit their full H-1B cap petition to theUSCIS for adjudication.

TheUSCIS report acknowledges that there may be “misuse” of the H-1B capregistration system.  At the AILA SpringConference, USCIS said that it expects to make investigations that could leadto both civil and criminal penalties for people who fraudulently filed multipleH-1B petitions.

Ashas been the case since the launch of the on-line registration system in March2020, the USCIS will continue to update the H-1B cap winners list.  Additional winners may be selected insubsequent rounds until March 2024. USCIS is not expected to notify any H-1Blottery entrants of non-selection until all 85,000 H-1B cap approval noticeshave been issued.

MULaw will be hosting a FREE webinar for our clients and friends onTuesday, May 16, 2023 at 2PM Eastern (1PM Central).

Joinus for this FREE webinar to learn more about:

• Green Card Process for Schedule A
• Healthcare Worker Certificates
• PERM for Healthcare Workers
• H-1Bs for Healthcare Workers
• Priority Dates/Retrogression Predictions

MU Law will be hosting a FREE webinar for ourclients and friends on Thursday, April 20, 2023 at 3PM Eastern (2PM Central).

Join us for this FREE webinar to learn more about:

·        Whatis Retrogression? Why did this happen?

·        Philippinesand ROW 

·        Whata Healthcare Worker should continue to do during Retrogression  

·        Alternativesto an EB-3?

·        Analysisand Prediction for FY 2024

PLEASE JOIN US!

The Department of State just issued the May 2023 Visa Bulletin. This blog post analyzes this month’s Visa Bulletin.

Visa Bulletin 

Table A: Final Action Dates –Applications with these dates may be approved for their Green Card (PermanentResidency card) or Immigrant Visa appointment.

USCIS

TheUSCIS is expected to use Table A: Final Action Dates chart for I-485employment-based filings. A Beneficiary must be current on the above Table Achart in order to file their I-485, Adjustment of Status applications. See: USCISVisa Bulletin Dates

MU Law Analysis 

The May 2023 Visa Bulletinretrogressed Philippines and Worldwide EB-3 to June 1, 2022.  This means that unless the Beneficiary has apriority date earlier than June 1, 2022, they will unfortunately not be able toproceed with a visa appointment.  MU Lawexpects that this June 1, 2022 date will not progress until at least October 1,2023.  The October 2023 Visa Bulletin,which should be released by the State Department in mid-September 2023, will bethe next time that we may see forward movement in the EB-3 category. 

On the good news front, China EB-3actually progressed five months to April 1, 2019.  China EB-2, India EB-3 and India EB3remained unchanged.  Philippine andROW EB-3 Other Workers, which is the category for occupations such as NurseAides, remains retrogressed but held steady to January 2020.

 Effective March 31, 2023, USCISno longer requires that the medical exam (Form I-693) be submitted to USCISwithin 60 days of the civil surgeon’s signature.  Medical exams remain valid for two yearsafter the civil surgeon’s signature, regardless of when the underlying immigrationapplication was submitted to USCIS, including I-485 applications for greencards. 

USCIS indicates that this new policywill allow the USCIS to process I-485 applications more expeditiously insteadof requesting updated medical exams.  USCISalso clarified that civil surgeons must use the current edition of Form I-693as of the date of the civil surgeon’s signature and comply with the CDC’sTechnical Instructions for Civil Surgeons in effect at the time of thecivil surgeon’s signature.

Beginning May 30, 2023, consular fees required forcertain nonimmigrant visas will be raised according to an updated Schedule of Fees published in theFederal Register.

The fee changes to be put in effect are:

• The application processing fee for non-petitionbased nonimmigrant visas (such as B-1/B-2 and F-1 visas) will be raised from$160 to $185.
• The application processing fee for H, L, O, P, Q,and R nonimmigrant visas will be raised from $190 to $205.
• The fee for E category nonimmigrant visas will beraised from $205 to $315.
• The processing fee for Border Crossing Cards forMexican citizens age 15 and over will be raised from $160 to $185.