The Visa Bulletin for October 2010 has been released. For additional information, please see the Visa Bulletin at the Department of State’s website.

Last month, the Department of State indicated that based on current and foreseen demand, they hope to reach the following cut-off dates by the end of the 2010 Fiscal Year:

For additional information, please see the Visa Bulletin at the Department of State’s website.

A few bad apples spoil the bunch: NPTE is suspended in Egypt, India, Pakistan, and the Philippines due to widespread fraud.

The Federation of State Boards of Physical Therapy (FSBPT or Federation) has announced that the National Physical Therapy Examination (NPTE) has been suspended for all graduates of physical therapy schools in Egypt, India, Pakistan, and the Philippines due to security breaches. The announcement was made on Sunday, July 11th, 2010. The Federation expects to have a new version of the exam available by Fall 2011.

In a press release, the Federation explained that the significant security measure is in response to compelling evidence which proves test-takers and exam preparation companies in the affected countries were sharing and distributing recalled questions:

“Most notably, this includes the raid and seizure of evidence from the St. Louis Review Center in Manila, Philippines, and its alleged owners/operators, Gerard L. Martin, Roger P. Tong-An and Carlito Balita, which revealed the widespread sharing of hundreds of live test items.”

The Federation is pursuing criminal prosecution against the St. Louis Review Center, has negated scores from graduates who corruptly benefited, and has withdrawn the questions that were compromised. The ongoing investigation revealed that the sharing and distribution is wide-spread.

For candidates who were approved to take the NPTE, the Federation sent a letter outlining two options:

• Option 1 – “RECOMMENDED” – Withdrawal registration, receive a full refund, take the exam in 2011.
• Option 2 – “Proceed with Caution” – Take the exam, the Federation will analyze and review the test-takers performance, if cheating is detected the score will be invalidated.

The Federation added, “Given the extensive nature of the detected security breaches and our heightened security procedures, it is highly likely that your score will be invalidated based on the results of one or more score analyses. If you choose to test and your score is invalidated, no refund will be provided.”

For candidates who registered and paid to take the NPTE, they will be refunded and the Federation will close their registration. For candidates who registered and did not yet pay to take the NPTE, their registration will simply be closed. All candidates received letters from the Federation explaining next steps.

If you received a letter from the Federation it is important to carefully consider your options. Please contact GoffWilson for counsel or questions regarding your decision.

To briefly summarize the other changes, all preference categories that were current in the May 2010 Visa Bulletin have remained current. The only change under the EB-2 category was forward movement for China from 09/22/2005 to 11/22/2005. The EB-3 category experienced forward movement for each area of chargeability, with the exception of Mexico, which remains unavailable.

For additional information, please see the Visa Bulletin at the Department of State’s website.

Immigration Reform & Nurses

With all the buzz surrounding immigration reform, the Healthcare Blog has received several questions asking, “What’s next for registered nurses seeking permanent residency?”

The hope is that immigration reform is on the horizon; however, should this happen, it is not clear as to how this will affect Registered Nurses seeking permanent residency.  Most recently, two U.S. Senators, Lindsey Graham and Charles Schumer, met with President Obama to outline their proposal for immigration reform, which President Obama endorsed.  The proposal broke immigration reform down into four major parts: ensuring a legal workforce through implementation of biometric Social Security cards; improving the security at U.S. borders and the enforcement within the U.S.; establishing a course of action that would allow temporary foreign workers; and introducing a process by which legalization would be possible for those here illegally.  This plan would tighten rules regarding illegal immigration with the chance for forgiveness and would allow more ways for foreigners to come to the U.S. for employment. GoffWilson will keep blog readers updated as news emerges on this important and controversial topic.

The H-1B visa program is used by U.S. employers to employ foreign workers in specialty occupations that require a bachelor’s degree or its equivalent. Typically, registered nurse positions do not require Bachelor’s degrees and do not qualify for this type of visa. However, physical, occupational and speech therapist positions do typically qualify.

In addition, each year 20,000 H-1B visas are available for applicants who have an advanced degree. As of August 28th, USCIS had received 20,000 of these applications, but they continue to accept more, in case some of those applications already accepted are eventually denied, revoked or withdrawn.

Please visit the USCIS H1B FAQ page for more information.

If you or your company is interested in pursuing an H-1B visa, now is a good time to do so. Please contact GoffWilson for more information.

Stethoscope

As we noted in our March 23, 2009 blog post, the Conrad 30 program allows doctors who complete their graduate medical training programs to obtain J-1 visa waivers, on the condition of accepting employment in federally designated underserved or health professionals shortage areas (HPSAs). Each state can sponsor 30 doctors per year under the program.

For more information on this program, please contact us.

Over the past few months, H-1B petitions filed on behalf of Physical Therapists and Occupational Therapists have been denied even though the individuals possess the appropriate licenses.  USCIS was taking the position that Masters degrees were required for these positions.  This new memorandum states that if a PT or OT has a Bachelors degree and holds a valid, unrestricted license, “the beneficiary will be considered to meet the qualifications to perform services in a specialty occupation.” 

If an individual has a restricted license (some states require a mandatory supervision period before granting a full license) and the “petition is otherwise approvable” then the petition should be approved for one year, or the duration of the restricted license, whichever is longer.

If an individual is not in possession of a state license, the USCIS officer adjudicating the application must first determine the state requirements.  The memorandum states that the petition should be approved for one year if the only thing prohibiting the worker from obtaining the license is a social security card or valid immigration document and/or being physically present in the U.S.

As of June 12th there are still over 20,000 H-1B visas available.