With Sunday's re-inauguration of President Obama, he begins the second and last of his two terms. He has targeted Comprehensive Immigration Reform as one of his major policy initiatives. Republicans appear to be willing to cede from their traditional anti-immigration positions. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) has made immigration reform his pet cause.
The US Chamber of Commerce is
pushing for high-skilled
visa liberalization. Professional nurses and Physical Therapists have
been listed on the Department of
Labor's Schedule A since 1980. Schedule
A is limited to those occupations that the Department has
"determined there are not sufficient United States workers who are able,
willing, qualified, and available for the occupations."
In spite of this obvious shortage,
it still takes fully qualified Registered Nurses between 7-10 years to obtain
US green cards. A fully qualified nurse has passed an English
fluency examination and the relevant state's licensing examination. This is an
insane policy decision for an occupation that according to
the Occupational Outlook Handbook, is expected to
grow 26 percent to 2020, faster than the average for all occupations.
Politicians like Sen. Rubio are
beginning to turn their policy statements into textual law that should be voted
on by Congress in the next few months.
Advocacy organizations have begun to lobby politicians.
Readers of this blog who are concerned about this issue should contact Musillo
Unkenholt, so that we can put you in touch with people who have
already begun to educate Senate staffs. Change will only happen with an
effort.
Read the Musillo Unkenholt Healthcare and Immigration Law Blog at www.musillo.com or www.ilw.com. You can also visit us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.
About The Author
About The Author
Christopher T. Musillo is a partner at MusilloUnkenholt Immigration Law. He is a graduate of Villanova University, Villanova, Pennsylvania. When not zealously representing his clients, Chris enjoys outdoor sports, listening to music, traveling and reading.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author(s) alone and should not be imputed to ILW.COM.
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