Menchu, a Filipina nurse from Secaucus, New Jersey was recognized by President Obama as a hero for rescuing 20 premature babies during the 2012 Hurricane Sandy. Menchu may not have realized the extent of her heroic deeds but her recognition by the President of the United States made us all proud of all hard working Filipino nurses. Ironically, a few weeks after giving pride to the nursing profession, senatorial candidate, Cynthia Villar made hurtful remarks about Filipino nurses. In her statement on television, she used the words “ ano lang sila, nag aalaga who wants to be room nurse”.
While Villar was not afforded an opportunity to expound on her statement, we all understood it in a derogatory way. First, to be a room nurse would require a Bachelor’s Degree in the United States specifically if the position were for an emergency room nurse or an operating room nurse. Second, to qualify for a professional working visa as a nurse under the H1B category, a nurse must have a Bachelors degree and be offered a position higher than that of a staff nurse. Such higher positions, for example, would be clinical nurses and nurse practitioners.
Associate vs. Bachelors Degree
The statement that nurses do not need Bachelors degree refers to RNs who are educated in the United States. To obtain an RN, almost all states only require an Associate Degree. This is the reason that the position of “registered staff nurse” is not a professional position in H1B worker visas. The position that is offered for an H1B visa requires as minimum a bachelors’ degree. Hence, if the position is simply for a staff nurse, the foreign educated RN will not qualify for an H1B. What would qualify an RN for an H1B visa are more complex nursing positions such as operating room nurses, clinical nurses and nurse practitioners, among others.
Although RNs are not generally qualified for the H1B professional working visas because the position only requires an associate degree, these foreign educated nurses are nonetheless eligible for a straight green card. If a U.S. employer offers a permanent full time job to a foreign graduate nurse, a petition is filed under the third preference category. Once the petition is filed and the priority date becomes current, the nurse may migrate directly with a green card status without need of being in a temporary working visa status. The downside to this, however, is that green cards under this category have a number of years of backlog.
RNs who apply for immigrant visas in the United States are processed differently from other professionals. Since nursing is still considered as a shortage occupation, the petitioning employers do not need to undergo the labor certification process. This is the process of determining availability of U.S. citizens or residents for the position before hiring a foreign national. The nurses, up to the present time, fall under the Schedule A category which means that they are pre-certified already and may file directly for immigrant visas.
A verification process takes place before an RN is petitioned. The Commission on Graduates of Foreign Nursing Schools (CGFNS) administers a qualifying exam to verify foreign nurse credentials to ensure that the nurses meet the minimum educational requirement for RN licensure. After the CGFNS, the registered nurses are required to take the English proficiency test and thereafter pass the US national nursing licensure exam or the NCLEX.
When there was no retrogression or backlog in visa petitions, Filipino nurses were migrating in the United States at an accelerated rate. In fact in 2005, additional visas of 50,000 were allocated for nurses to fill up the severe shortage. However, beginning in 2007, employment petitions for nurses underwent retrogression and severe backlogs. This resulted in many nurses waiting in line for their priority dates to become current. As of today, visas are only being issued to RN petitions that were filed on or before September 2006.
Other Health Care Providers
Senatorial candidate Cynthia Villar may indeed have confused RNs with care providers who do not need a degree. But it was her manner of referring to all nurses that subjected her to severe criticism.
There are health care providers who can be petitioned by U.S. employers without need of a bachelors degree. These are the licensed vocational nurses, the licensed practical nurses, the certified nursing aides or the ‘caregivers’. It takes longer for these types of occupations to be processed for immigrant visas. The reason for their lengthy processing is that they are not ‘pre-certified’ as shortage occupation. It takes approximately 7-8 years before these occupations receive their immigrant visas.
In the coming decade, more than 78 million baby boomers are going to retire and there is an expected shortage of health care workers to fill those positions. The baby boomers will soon need health care themselves. In preparation for this shortage, and assuming that US immigration law pertinent to foreign educated nurses remains unchanged, there will be more nurse positions required. To prepare for the future, those who are interested to enter into this profession should continue to strive to complete their education and emulate their role models such as our very own Menchu Sanchez. She is the “taga-pagalaga” but her nursing profession has gained her honor when her true nurturing character was revealed through her heroic deed during a time of crisis. Indeed, she was a “taga-pagalaga” with a heart and pride. No one may take that away from every hard working and dedicated nurse who works anywhere in the world.
(Tancinco may be reached at law@tancinco.com or at 1 888 930 0808 (US) or at 02 887 7177 or 02 721 1963 (Manila).)
