The House Immigration Subcommittee has approved the Health Professional Shortage Area Nursing Relief Act of 1997. The bill amends the Immigration and

Nationality Act to establish a nonimmigrant classification for registered nurses in health professional shortage areas. The bill sets forth admissions requirements, including a maximum five-year stay, and limits fiscal year entrants and the number of such entrants permitted to work in any one State. The legislation also requires the Secretary of Labor to compile a public list of facilities petitioning for the admission of each such nurse.

The visa will be called an H-1C and an applicant will need to show the following:

(A) he or she has obtained a full and unrestricted license to practice professional nursing in the country where the alien obtained nursing education or has received nursing education in the United States;

(B) an applicant has passed an appropriate examination, has obtained a certificate from the Commission on Graduates of Foreign Nursing Schools certifying that the alien has fulfilled the necessary requirements for the CGFNS Qualifying Examination and has passed both the Nursing and English Language Proficiency sections of the CGFNS Qualifying Examination, or has graduated from a nursing school in the United States and has a full and unrestricted license under State law to practice professional nursing in the State of intended employment; and

(C) is fully qualified and eligible under the laws (including such temporary or interim licensing requirements which authorize the nurse to be employed) governing the place of intended employment to engage in the practice of professional nursing as a registered nurse immediately upon admission to the United States and is authorized under such laws to be employed by the sponsoring facility.

The Bill, approved as H.R. 2759, will now move to the House Judiciary Committee. However, a similar provision has yet to pass in the Senate.

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