Hospitals could see drop in supply of foreign nurses, experts warn.

Health care immigration experts warn that the
number of registered nurses from the Philippines
and India - major RN exporters to the United States
- will drop off significantly next year, because those
countries have exceeded their per-country quotas
for employment-based immigrant visas or green
cards. They said processing time for RN green
cards could be extended by an additional two to
three years. More than 50,000 nurses have left the
Philippines and found employment in the U.S. in the
past four years, according to a recent study by the
University of the Philippines' National Institute of
Health in Manila. Over time, immigrants in the U.S.
from the Philippines, India and China have filed
more visa petitions than those from any other
country, significantly outpacing the fixed quotas.

The result: Extra long waiting times will begin in
January for health care and other professionals
from those countries, according to the U.S.
Citizenship and Immigration Service. Health care
immigration expert Bruce Morrison, chairman of the
Bethesda, MD- based Morrison Public Affairs
Group, predicts the visa cutbacks will reduce by
two-thirds the number of Filipino nurses who are
hired by U.S. hospitals and other health care
organizations. The AHA is calling on Congress to
examine visa policy.

For more, see "Visa caps seen
adding to RN staffing woes" at
http://www.ahanews.com/ahanews/jsp/ahanews.jsp.