1. Openers

Dear Readers:

While the Great Recession technically ended some time ago, few would argue that it feels like we’re in a recovery. More than 9% of Americans are out of work, we’re in a budget crisis, and people are still as gloomy as they were at the beginning of the downturn. But the health care jobs sector remains a bright spot. There are still severe shortages of doctors and most other health care professionals.

Despite the well documented need for foreign health care workers, immigration processing headaches go on and on. Whether it is because of poor training or a hostile attitude, USCIS still is making it a tough environment for immigration practitioners and their clients. For example, USCIS has been challenging the H-1B cap exemption status of non-profit hospitals around the country that have never had problems before. They are generally denying H-1B petitions for highly specialized nurses claiming that they don’t require bachelors degrees for their jobs. They appear to be re-adjudicating J-1 waivers for doctors working in underserved areas after the State Department has approved the applications.

On the other hand, USCIS Director Mayorkas and others at headquarters do seem to be interested in opening more lines of communication with the public in order to improve processes. They have been holding regular stakeholder meetings on a variety of topics and the calls have been refreshingly candid and helpful. In a number of calls, issues surrounding health care workers have been discussed and we could start to see improvements in processing as a result. Next month, we’ll have the first stakeholders meeting specifically devoted to physician issues.

We also are starting to see some action on Capitol Hill regarding health care worker issues. The H-1C visa for nurses expired some time back, but the House Judiciary Committee just passed a bill reviving it. It still has a long way to go, but this is definitely encouraging. We also have seen several skilled worker bills introduced recently which would help health care workers including making more visa numbers available in both the non-immigrant and immigrant visa categories. And we’re probably going to see a J-1 waiver bill introduced soon by Senator Conrad that would extend the Conrad 30 program and also make other needed changes regarding physician immigration.

So hopefully in our next issue we’ll have some more positive news to report based on these new developments.

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In firm news, the 2011 edition of Greg Siskind’s J-1 Visa Guidebook has been published by LexisNexis. The book covers the gamut of issues faced by J-1 doctors as well as other J-1 visa holders. It can be purchased online at www.lexisnexis.com.

Several Siskind Susser lawyers have been named by Who’s Who Legal to the annual rankings of top corporate immigration lawyers around the world. Greg Siskind was named the sixth best immigration lawyer in the world, Lynn Susser and Yvette Sebelist were ranked at the top of lawyers in Tennessee and Karen Weinstock made the list for Georgia. Who’s Who Legal is the research arm of the International Bar Association and the American Bar Association’s International Section.

Greg Siskind, Yvette Sebelist and Ari Sauer are all now serving on the Board of Governors of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. The three recently attended the AILA annual meeting in San Diego, California. Elissa Taub was named to the AILA Health Care Workers Committee.

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We remind readers that we do not charge employers and recruiters of health care employees for consultations and that policy extends to individual physicians as well. Please feel free to call our office at 901-682-6455 to arrange for an appointment with me or one of my colleagues.

Kind regards,

Greg Siskind

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