HAPPY HALLOWEEN
October 30, 2012
MU hopes that its clients and friends enjoy a Happy Halloween from "Boo-Sillo" Unkenholt.
*Note - this is what our lobby actually looks like right now!
CONFERENCE SEASON
October 25, 2012
Reader of this Blog may want to participate in two upcomingConferences.
The NBCOT will be holding their 18th Annual Conference inAlexandria, Virginia on October 26-27. The Annual Conference will focus on Contemporary Issues impactingOccupational State Therapy Regulation. Thisyear’s conference features speakers covering a variety of topics, including: NBCOTCertification Examinations –A Defensible Measure of OT Knowledge, and adiscussion on Social Media.
The AAIHR’s Annual Meeting is designed for individuals thatrecruit foreign trained RNs, PTs, OTs, SLPs, and other healthcare professionalsand are interested in the regulation of nursing and allied health professions,and other information relating to the challenges and opportunities in theindustry. The Annual Meeting willinclude speakers such as Franklin A. Shaffer, EdD, RN, FAAN; current CEO ofCGFNS International and a representative from the Philippine Embassy in the UnitedStates. The AAIHR Annual Meeting is set for Friday November 2, 2012 in Arlington, Virginia.
FSBPT DEFERS RATE INCREASE
October 22, 2012
The FSBPT, which had announced an NPTE rate increase would take place on January 1, 2013, has delayed the implementation of the rate increase until January 1, 2014. The NPTE fee was to be increased to $400. It will now stay at $370 for one more year.
The FSBPT gave several reasons for delaying the fee increase. Most interesting was their projection that NPTE filings would decrease in the upcoming years. FSBPT predicts that the increase in NPTE volume will shrink to 3% per year. FSBPT previously expected a 5% annual increase in NPTE volume.
The FSBPT gave several reasons for delaying the fee increase. Most interesting was their projection that NPTE filings would decrease in the upcoming years. FSBPT predicts that the increase in NPTE volume will shrink to 3% per year. FSBPT previously expected a 5% annual increase in NPTE volume.
NOVEMBER 2012 VISA BULLETIN
October 12, 2012
The Department of State has just released the November 2012 Visa Bulletin. The news was a mixed bag. For EB2s (except India and China) visa numbers are current, meaning that there is immediate visa eligibility for these applicants
The India EB-2 number has remained back to September 2004. MU still believes that this is a very conservative visa number and we would expect the number to move forward in the next few months. As a point of reference, the November 2010 Visa Bulletin was May 2006 and there simply cannot be that many EB-2 immigrant visas pending from 2004-2006, in spite of a likely uptick in EB-2 conversions from EB-3 priority dates. Applicants with India EB-2 priority dates from 2004-2006 have been able to apply for their Adjustments of Status without much impediment for two years. China EB-2 moved ahead by two months.
The EB-3 numbers continue their very slow progressions. These numbers are only noteworthy by their consistency. MU Law expects this trend to continue into the future.
| November 2012 Visa Bulletin | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| All Other Countries | China | India | Philippines | |
| EB-2 | Current | 01SEP07 | 01SEP04 | Current |
| EB-3 | 22NOV06 | 15APR06 | 22OCT02 | 08AUG06 |
H-1B VISAS AND THE UNEMPLOYMENT RATE
October 8, 2012
The US Department of Labor reported on Friday that the unemployment rate fell to7.8%, which is the lowest rate since the recession started. This rate is still historicallyquite high. The unemployment rate never exceeded 8 % between 1984-2009.
Many question why the US should allow H-1B visas if many US workers are out of work. The answer is that H-1B visa usage is a microeconomic phenomenon, not amacroeconomic one.
H-1B visas are used by industriesin short supply. These industriesinclude IT, science, engineering, and healthcare. Not coincidentally, these industries are expected to havecontinued demand for future workers.
The Brookings Institute says that the occupations with the largest supplyvacancies are:
1. Computer Occupations
2. Health Diagnosing and Treating Practitioners
3. Other Management Occupations
4. Financial Specialists
5. Business Operations Specialists
6. Sales Representatives, Services
7. Engineers
8. Information and Record Clerks
9. Advertising, Marketing, Promotions, Public Relations, andSales Managers
10. Supervisors of Sales Workers
US high school students ought to be preparing for these jobs if they want to be adequately employed when they reach adulthood. Until then, Americancompanies will search around the world for talented workers to fill thesesupply shortages.
One bogeyman in the H-1B debate has always been that H-1Bworkers are only used to tamp down US wages and supplant American jobs. As we have arguedmany times in the past, there is little evidence that this is actually thecase for at least two reasons.
For one, if the H-1B program was being used to reduce wagesand displace American workers, we would see H-1B workers spread across manyindustries, instead of concentrated in just a few industries. But we don't see that. We see H-1B workers concentrated in just a few industries
Also, we would see more consistent annual H-1B usage by USemployers. The incentive to reduceworkers’ salaries is likely greater in a recessed economy, not less. However, when the economy was in its weakeststate, there were many fewer H-1B visa petitions filed by US businesses.
Critics of the H-1B system should acknowledge that the H-1Bsystem does what was designed to do. Itprovides needed workers in industries where workers are needed. It is not a macroeconomic policy, but amicroeconomic one. The nationalunemployment rate has little relevance.
PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE
October 3, 2012
Tonight is the firstof the three Presidential debates between incumbent President Obama andchallenger Mitt Romney. The conventionalwisdom is that Mr. Romney has to score some points in the debate in order toclose Mr. Obama’s increasing lead in the polls.
The debate will take place in Colorado, a state that hasseen very highlevels of immigration in recent years. Mitt Romney has endorsed President Obama’s Deferred Action for ChildhoodArrivals (DACA). DACA allows foreignnationals who entered the US prior to their 16th birthday to obtainworking and traveling authorization, provided that they do not have a felony conviction(or three misdemeanors) and are high school graduates or armed forces veteran. President Obama recently said that thefailure to pass positive immigration legislation may have been the biggestfailing of his first term in office.
Readers of this blog will be keen to see if the Presidentialcandidates discuss employment-based immigration. House Republicans and Democrats have offered competingversions of a similar STEM visa bill. The STEM bill allows foreign-national graduates to have their greencards on a fast-track.
There is a deal to be made between Democrats and Republicansduring the upcoming lame duck session. The technology industry continues to put pressure on Congress to passthe bill, which is generally popular with the public. If one of the candidates can show leadershipon this issue and raise it during the debate, it may foreshadow a serious andcredible candidate on immigration.
AILA TELECONFERENCE ON 3RD PARTY PLACEMENT
October 1, 2012
MU'sChris Musillo has been selected as the Discussion Leader on Thursday's AILATeleconference, Third Party-Site Placement: Hs and Ls. AILA members can registeron AILA’s website. The Teleconferencewill focus on the legal issues incumbent in staffing company businesses:Healthcare staffing, IT staffing, and Hospitalist organizations.
Date: Thursday, October4, 2012 @ 2:00 pm (EDT)
Title: ThirdParty-Site Placement: Hs and Ls
This panel will discusshow to deal with situations where an H-1B or L-1 sponsor places a beneficiaryat a third party location. The panel will discuss the key issues in third partysite placement including how to determine if the beneficiary is actually anemployee of the sponsoring entity sufficient for H-1B or L-1 approval.Panelists will also discuss practical ways to demonstrate the employer-employeerelationship in the petition and recent trends by USCIS and FDNS.
What Is Third Party Site Placement? CommonDefinition and Every Day Examples
Is the Third Party Site Placement ScenarioContemplated/Mentioned in the H and L Regulations and How Do Hs and Ls Differ?
The 2010 Third Party Site Placement NeufeldMemorandum with 2012 Q&A Update
The Employer-Employee Relationship: How Does thePetitioner Establish Control? Evidence, Support Letter, Any Magic Language?
The LCA, Confirming Third Party Placement, andFDNS Treatment: Preparing for Site Visits!
Faculty:
Christopher T. Musillo(dl), Cincinnati, OH
Elahe Najfabadi, LosAngeles, CA
Nataliya Rymer,Philadelphia, PA
IS THE NURSING SHORTAGE COMING BACK ?
September 25, 2012
In discussions with clients and friends of MU Law, we have begun tohear that there are nursing shortages in certain disciplines and in certaingeographical pockets around the US. The shortages appear to be in some specialized disciplines (as opposed toMedical-Surgery) and in rural areas in the west and south. We have even seen reports of nursingshortages in less common areas like Massachusetts and West Virginia.
A reported in FierceHealthcare’s newsletter, nursingrepresented the biggest increase (40 percent) in job openings from Q1 to Q2,2012. The Occupational Outlook Handbookcontinually reports that nursing will be among the occupations in shortestsupply for this decade. Nonetheless, foreign-trained RN numbers continue to plummet. And it remains to beseen if anyone in Congress will show any leadership on this increasinglyimportant issue.
STEM VISA BILL INTRODUCED
September 17, 2012
The long-awaited STEMvisa bill has been introduced into the House of Representatives by powerfulHouse Judiciary Chair Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX). Versions of the STEM visa bill have been pushedin the past, but this one might be the best effort for enactment.
The STEM visa bill eliminates the 55,000 visa lottery andreserves these visas for graduates of US Masters Programs in STEM occupations. STEM occupations include Sciences,Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. The STEM visa bill includes language that limits its usage by someon-line only and for-profit colleges. The bill is expected to have wide support frommany Congressman and Senators. AlthoughPresident Obama has not commented on the bill, the conventional wisdom is thathe would support the bill. ChallengerMitt Romney would almost certainly support the bill. He has advocated that he would “like tostaple a green card to their diploma”.
Although allied healthcare occupations are not listed in thecurrent version of the bill, the bill would help allied occupations by essentiallyincreasing employment-based green card numbers by about 25%. Also, legislators could add healthcare occupationsto the bill prior to enactment or even after enactment.
The biggest holdup to bill is the Congressionalcalendar. The calendar only has a fewmore legislative days between now and the Presidential election on November 6,2012. There may be an active “lame duck”legislative period. The lame duck periodis the period between the elections and the introduction of the new Congressand President in January 2013.
UPDATE (9/18/2012 11:00 AM ET): The Hill is reporting that Sen. Schumer (D-NY) will be introducing a related, although not identical, bill in the Senate. The report also indicates that Rep. Smith's bill may not only be introduced but passed this week.