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Just curious but do you have supporting data for this?
Regardless of immigration quotas, sponsoring employers have to prove that there is no US citizen or otherwise qualified resident to fill vacant positions ...
Not true.
There are loopholes in the system that the experienced labor recruiters and (more importantly) their attorneys understand.
One huge loophole are H1B renewals. The renewals don't count towards the ceiling. Neither do the paid OPT college grads. This means that H1B's only get flushed out every 6 years when the time limit for staying in H1B status ends. And even this has one year extensions in some cases.
But they play the game. Both spouses are eligible for H1B but only one takes it while the other sticks as an H4 and works in a non-paid "volunteer" for the same company. When the 6 year mark approaches, the H4 becomes the H1B and the H1B becomes the H4, thereby allowing the family to wait out their visa availability. When you have 6 years to make friends with the company president who you knew back in India or who your parent knew, the company can and will create a job opening that only that H4 qualifies for.
Another class is the L1 inter company transferee. There is no cap on that class and they're eligible to apply for a green card based on that. Also, they can stay in the U.S. up to seven years total, which for a lot of people, means they can wait out their EB2/3 visa inside the U.S. L1A's are considered executives. L1B's are just the assistants. The majority of L1B's are the daughters of executives or the children of friends of the executives who have no real skills but enter the U.S. and get a green card in a few years.
Then there are National interest waivers.
Then there are special agricultural/restaurant/vocational workers who are still choking down what used to be the old EB4/5 class from a long time ago using INA 245(i). Those are effectively not subject to numerical limitations either because those petitions were filed in the 90's and they were told months in advance about this law meaning there are thousands and thousands and thousands of petitions filed in the mad rush to meet the deadlines from April 30, 2000. Those petitions sit until someone saves the adjustment fees and the "penalty fee" of $1000 and then comes to collect them. INA 245(i) allows a lot of leeway in grandfathering in people. I mean... a lot. We're talking marriage and divorce and remarriage and all of them getting adjusted.
They are converted to EB3s.
Then there are asylees who have bogus asylum claims but because of the way B.O. wants them adjudicated, they get granted asylum and then a green card a year later which is backdated to the date of the asylum grant. No numerical limits on them either. Refugees yes. But not asylees. You get rewarded for entering the U.S. on fraudulent documents and then filing a bogus claim because you can get employment authorization while the powers that be determine how bogus your claim is. Then you refuse to leave and go see an IJ judge who grants asylum because you've made a media circus, ala BO's "Auntie" style and costing the tax payers thousands of dollars in legal fees.
It's only an act of Congress which could take it away. Like they did when all the "get free federal money to become a nurse in two years!" ads kicked in and they ended the nursing based green cards and shut out the Filipinos from immigration.
And even now, if the President want to start up MAVNI for fun, he can give kids who are still in college as non-immigrants, citizenship in one year, skipping the green card process all together. All they have to do is be smart and apply for college in an approved program, attend for a short time and get a MAVNI enlistment. And FYI: It looks like MAVNI has been re-enacted until sometime 2014.
For more information about numbers, what counts and what doesn't count towards that ceiling, you can read the INA and the Federal Register.
You can also look at the DoL website to see what specifications are required for all the labor based immigrant and non-immigrant classifications.
My point being, there are ways to get around the ceilings.
There are loopholes in the system that the experienced labor recruiters and (more importantly) their attorneys understand.
One huge loophole are H1B renewals. The renewals don't count towards the ceiling. Neither do the paid OPT college grads. This means that H1B's only get flushed out every 6 years when the time limit for staying in H1B status ends. And even this has one year extensions in some cases.
But they play the game. Both spouses are eligible for H1B but only one takes it while the other sticks as an H4 and works in a non-paid "volunteer" for the same company. When the 6 year mark approaches, the H4 becomes the H1B and the H1B becomes the H4, thereby allowing the family to wait out their visa availability. When you have 6 years to make friends with the company president who you knew back in India or who your parent knew, the company can and will create a job opening that only that H4 qualifies for.
Another class is the L1 inter company transferee. There is no cap on that class and they're eligible to apply for a green card based on that. Also, they can stay in the U.S. up to seven years total, which for a lot of people, means they can wait out their EB2/3 visa inside the U.S. L1A's are considered executives. L1B's are just the assistants. The majority of L1B's are the daughters of executives or the children of friends of the executives who have no real skills but enter the U.S. and get a green card in a few years.
Then there are National interest waivers.
Then there are special agricultural/restaurant/vocational workers who are still choking down what used to be the old EB4/5 class from a long time ago using INA 245(i). Those are effectively not subject to numerical limitations either because those petitions were filed in the 90's and they were told months in advance about this law meaning there are thousands and thousands and thousands of petitions filed in the mad rush to meet the deadlines from April 30, 2000. Those petitions sit until someone saves the adjustment fees and the "penalty fee" of $1000 and then comes to collect them. INA 245(i) allows a lot of leeway in grandfathering in people. I mean... a lot. We're talking marriage and divorce and remarriage and all of them getting adjusted.
They are converted to EB3s.
Then there are asylees who have bogus asylum claims but because of the way B.O. wants them adjudicated, they get granted asylum and then a green card a year later which is backdated to the date of the asylum grant. No numerical limits on them either. Refugees yes. But not asylees. You get rewarded for entering the U.S. on fraudulent documents and then filing a bogus claim because you can get employment authorization while the powers that be determine how bogus your claim is. Then you refuse to leave and go see an IJ judge who grants asylum because you've made a media circus, ala BO's "Auntie" style and costing the tax payers thousands of dollars in legal fees.
It's only an act of Congress which could take it away. Like they did when all the "get free federal money to become a nurse in two years!" ads kicked in and they ended the nursing based green cards and shut out the Filipinos from immigration.
And even now, if the President want to start up MAVNI for fun, he can give kids who are still in college as non-immigrants, citizenship in one year, skipping the green card process all together. All they have to do is be smart and apply for college in an approved program, attend for a short time and get a MAVNI enlistment. And FYI: It looks like MAVNI has been re-enacted until sometime 2014.
For more information about numbers, what counts and what doesn't count towards that ceiling, you can read the INA and the Federal Register.
You can also look at the DoL website to see what specifications are required for all the labor based immigrant and non-immigrant classifications.
My point being, there are ways to get around the ceilings.
Thank you for this info.
Excellent post on the subject. You obviously know what you're talking about and it explains why so many american nursing graduates can't fight jobs.
Excellent post on the subject. You obviously know what you're talking about and it explains why so many american nursing graduates can't fight jobs.
As per my knowledge, Nurses cannot work on H-1B visas, H-4 or L-1 visa. Never seen a Nurse who was an asylum seeker.
In 2004, about 50000 Green card were given to Nurses and their families and most of them came to USA from India. Maybe that explains a huge number of foreign Nurses in US these days.
Canada may be easier to get into than the U.S. They have a broad immigration policy to encourage people to move there.
Not so. You must speak English or French, and prove it. It's very difficult if you are over age 54. You need to have a skill that Canada needs. You cannot have a health condition that "causes excessive demands on health services." There are many more restrictions.
An AIDS-infected Somalian grandfather who can't speak English or even read and with no salable skills can immigrate to the US.
Not so. You must speak English or French, and prove it. It's very difficult if you are over age 54. You need to have a skill that Canada needs. You cannot have a health condition that "causes excessive demands on health services." There are many more restrictions.
An AIDS-infected Somalian grandfather who can't speak English or even read and with no salable skills can immigrate to the US.
In general it is easier to immigrate to Canada than the U.S. For one, you don't need to have a job offer, you can get approved and start looking. This might be why there are so many doctors driving taxis in Canada. The Canadian immigration system is based on a point system: you get points for knowing English and/or French, for being between the ages of 18 and 35 or 40, for having family, for having an advanced degree, for having worked in Canada in the past, etc. You are allowed to immigrate if you accumulate enough points.
Not so. You must speak English or French, and prove it. It's very difficult if you are over age 54. You need to have a skill that Canada needs. You cannot have a health condition that "causes excessive demands on health services." There are many more restrictions.
An AIDS-infected Somalian grandfather who can't speak English or even read and with no salable skills can immigrate to the US.
Don't be so high and mighty.
An AIDS-infected Somalian grandfather who can't speak English or even read and with no salable skills can immigrate to Canada as a refugee as well as to the U.S.
The Canadian immigration system is based on a point system: you get points for knowing English and/or French, for being between the ages of 18 and 35 or 40, for having family, for having an advanced degree, for having worked in Canada in the past, etc. You are allowed to immigrate if you accumulate enough points.
So therefore, my example person would not have enough points?
Quote:
Originally Posted by mrskay662000
Don't be so high and mighty.
An AIDS-infected Somalian grandfather who can't speak English or even read and with no salable skills can immigrate to Canada as a refugee as well as to the U.S.
You never know who your neighbors are.
I did not indicate my example person was a refugee.
So therefore, my example person would not have enough points?
I did not indicate my example person was a refugee.
Even if he was a European, and if AIDS had existed 100 years ago, he would not have been eligible for immigration under America's almost non-existent immigration laws at Ellis Island due to his disease and age. The bar has to be set somewhere. Now if he was someone like the OP, he could apply to work or study temporarily and gain "Canadian Experience" that will allow him to immigrate, something you can't do in the U.S.
It's the same for Americans going the other way, the first world at least in my opinion should have free and open borders between ourselves, but for some reason (probably linked to recent historic nationalism, which actually isn't even really that historic mostly just the last 100 to 200 years) we prefer to be tribal silos. For a long time, all you had to do was show up at Ellis Island, and you'd get in. Now we have a mish-mash of special interests and the faux outrage about illegal immigration.
However, there is a little bright spot of opportunity for Europeans. One that I think at least could be exploited, and that is the TAFTA (Trans-Atlantic Free Trade Agreement) that is strongly rumored to be in talks already and to be discussed openly either this year or very soon after. Pushing for labor mobility between the EU and the US could help many Europeans and Americans have mobility to move both ways and to live and work in either partner. The EU is the only partner the US has targeted for an FTA that has the ability and clout to push for something that so far the US has been resistant to add to FTAs, and that is open and free labor mobility.
What amazes me about your statement is that I know people in healthcare now who are having a hard time finding jobs. Many of them took up nursing, because they were told of the so-called "shortage".
Many american nurses have not been able to find jobs, but yet you're telling me these jobs are going to foreigners.
Amazing.
You said that the OP would be better to try and make it in the UK because the USA "is not the land of milk and honey".
Do you have any idea about the economy in the UK?
or house prices, cost of living etc?
Americans think they have it bad now, but if they bothered to look outside their bubble they would see that there are plenty of others who have it much worse.
As for nurses - a nurse in the US can easily earn a salary that has twice the purchasing power (or more) compared to in the UK ie $60,000 (for NC) compared to 23,000 GBP after 2-3 years experience.
For twice the salary the RN in NC can buy a decent home in a decent area with good schools and facilities. 46,000 GBP won't even buy you a piece of land, never mind a home.
A Nurse Practitioner earns around $90,000 compared to 33,000 GBP.
The USA employed foreign nurses because they were experienced. The US nurse training doesn't equip newly qualified RNs with the skills they need to fullfill a RN position, so the hospitals have to pay them and spend a year training them.
RNs from the UK are used to nursing with higher patient /nurse ratios, fewer support staff, less sophisticated systems and equipment and sicker patients.
The hospitals used agencies to provide nurses for them. The hospitals paid the agencies and the agencies employed the nurses.The contracts were often very tight and pay was often less than the going rate because the agencies were taking a cut. If a nurse became sick and couldn't fullfill the 40 hrs per week contract then the contract would be terminated and the nurse left high and dry with no health insurance and no wage.
Nursing in the USA is classed as a shortage occupation by the DOL and has been since the 80s
Read this Nurseweek/Healthweek|Nurses with visas. Are foreign trained nurses a solution to the nursing shortage?
Currently the wait time for a green card (RN positions don't usually qualify for a H-1B visa) is 7 years minimum after an application has been approved.
Prior to that the RN has to have all her education verified by CGFNS, get a visa screen certiifcate, pass the english proficiency exam, sit the US licensing exam and then find a job.
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