Renewal of H-1C Nurses Program
A Benefit for Inner-City Neighborhoods and Rural
Areas
On August 1, 2011, the House of Representatives approved H.R. 1933.
The bill provides for reauthorization for the H-1C temporary visa
program for an additional three years, allowing foreign nurses to
work in the U.S. within communities located in inner-city
neighborhoods and rural areas. By a vote of 407-17, passage of the
bill was praised by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith
(R-Texas), the bill’s sponsor, who noted that many
hospitals serving the poor have a difficult time attracting nurses.
With the passage of the bill, hospitals operating in inner-city
neighborhoods and rural areas are hopeful that the program will
assist in meeting the demand in areas where shortages for
high-quality nurses is great.
The H-1C temporary visa program, initially passed by Congress in
1999 as the "Nursing Relief for Disadvantaged Areas Act," expired in
December 2009. The Act allowed foreign nurses to stay and work in
the U.S. for a period of three years by making 500 visas available
each year.
With the recent extension of the program, an employer must meet the
following four conditions before petitioning for a foreign nurse:
- the employer must be located in a health professional shortage
area;
- the employer has to have at least 190 acute care beds;
- a certain percentage of patients are Medicare patients; and
- a certain percentage of patients are Medicaid patients.
Additionally, the program protects American nurses whereby a
hospital must make every effort to recruit U.S. citizens first; must
pay the prevailing wage; and must ensure that the number of
foreign-registered nurses employed be limited to no more than
one-third of the hospital’s nurses.
The materials contained in this newsletter or on the
Greenberg Traurig LLP website are for informational purposes only
and do not constitute legal advice. Receipt of any GT email
newsletter or browsing the GT Immigration website does not establish
an attorney-client relationship.
Copyright © 2001-2011 Greenberg Traurig All Rights Reserved.
|
