Health Care Blog

CGFNS has just announced that it now offers an Expedited Review Service for their Credentials Evaluation Service (CES) Academic Reports. The Expedited Review Service has a ten-day review period, provided that CGFNS is in possession of all of the applicant’s documentation.

If any documents are missing, CGFNS will notify the applicant of any missing document within the ten day period. Once the missing documents are provided to CGFNS the ten-day clock will start anew. The fee for this Service is $175 if the Expedited Review Service is selected at the time of the initiation of the application. Existing application may be upgraded to the Expedited Review Service for a fee of $275 ($100 more than if the selection is made at the application’s initiation). These fees are in addition to the usual CGFNS processing fees.

The Philipine Nurses Association of America holds their 33rd Annual Convention this week in San Antonio. The mission of the PNAA is to uphold the positive image and welfare of its constituent members; promote professional excellence and contribute to significant outcomes to healthcare and society. Over their long history, the PNAA has accomplished their goals. With events such as the Annual Convention, they continue to make an enormous contribution to American healthcare excellence. Musillo Unkenholt congratulates the PNAA on another successful year.

The Department of State’s Visa Office head Charlie Oppenheim met with the American Immigration Lawyers Association on June 19, 2012 to discuss the recent retrogression of EB-2 dates in All Other Countries, including the Philippines. Mr. Oppenheim has confirmed that he expects that the All Other Countries EB2 date will return to Current on October 1, 2012, which is the beginning of US Fiscal Year 2013.

Readers should note that the All Other EB-2 date shortly will become Unavailable. This will not impact the Current date on October 1, 2012.

Mr. Oppenheim also confirmed that EB-2 China and India will be August/September 2007 on October 1, 2012. He expects that the India and China EB-2 dates will remain in 2007 for the first several months of FY 2013.

The USCIS has been wildly inconsistent in adjudicating petitions for EB-2 Physical Therapists. But they should not be. The law is straightforward.

If the position requires an Advanced Degree, then EB-2 Petition should be approved. An Advanced Degree is a US Master’s Degree, the foreign equivalent of a US Master Degree, or a Bachelors Degree and five years of progressive work experience.

If the FCCPT or another credible educational evaluator finds that the Beneficiary’s foreign education is equal to a US Masters Degree, then the EB-2 Petition should be approved, since all US employers effectively require an Advanced degree as their minimum requirement for entry into the petition.

Many foreign schools issue a diploma that says “Bachelors Degree in Physical Therapy”. Many of these degree are, in fact, equal to US Masters Degrees and therefore approvable as EB-2 Petitions.

Unfortunately, the USCIS Texas Service Center has a training issue and some USCIS officers are denying these approvable EB-2 Petitions. Their flawed analysis is that since the degree is titled Bachelors Degree, the petition is inappropriate as an EB-2. This is wrong. The legal question isn’t the title of the degree but the US educational equivalence.

The most frustrating part of Physical Therapy EB-2 Petitions is the maddening inconsistency caused by the USCIS training issue. Virtually identical petitions will get different USCIS Decision: some denied and some approved. MU Law has several of these petitions on appeal and we are working with AILA to remedy this flawed training problem.

For now, the safer approach is to use the Bachelors Degree plus five years’ experience path to a Physical Therapist EB-2 Petition.

CAN I FILE MY I-485, ADJUSTMENT OF STATUS PRIOR TO JULY 1?