LeadingAge Tells Congress to Keep Nurses Coming to the U.S.

Posted on October 31, 2018 by Jodi Boyne

An amendment recently introduced in Congress could push back the admission of foreign nurses in the United States by several years. The amendment would remove the per-country cap on visas for highly skilled immigrants and instead allocate the visas on a first-come, first served basis according to how long an applicant has waited for a visa. 

Allocation of available visas would most likely go to the thousands of foreign-born engineers and other technical personnel already working in this country on a temporary basis whose visa applications have been pending for a number of years. Nurses just filing visa applications would go to the back of the line, and likely would have to wait many years to begin working in this country. 

If passed, the amendment would nullify efforts to recruit essential nursing staff abroad at a time where there is a severe and growing shortage of nurses in long-term services and supports.

The amendment was attached to the fiscal 2019 Homeland Security appropriations bill. This legislative maneuver circumvented the House committee with jurisdiction over immigration issues and prevented valid concerns about the change in visa allocations from being heard or considered.

The spending bill has not yet come to a floor vote in the House. The Senate's version of the Homeland Security appropriations does not contain this provision. T

We are urging Congress to leave this amendment out of whatever legislation is passed to fund Homeland Security for the remainder of this year. This major change in the allocation of immigrant visas needs a much more thorough review and its potential impact on the recruitment of nurses in other countries must be considered.