Bipartisan legislation slated to be introduced as soon as the Senate reconvenes would help address critical shortages in our nation’s healthcare workforce during the COVID-19 global pandemic.
On April 30, 2020, Senators Perdue (R-GA), Young (R-IN), Durbin (D-IL), and Coons (D-DE) announced the Healthcare Workforce Resilience Act (HWRA), which seeks to enhance the healthcare workforce during the COVID-19 global pandemic by recapturing 40,000 unused immigrant visas for doctors (15,000) and nurses (25,000) to help address the critical healthcare shortage in the United States, a weakness that has been evident during the COVID-19 national emergency.
The Healthcare Workforce Resilience Act, if enacted, would temporarily allow international physicians and nurses who are willing and able to fill healthcare staffing shortages access to unused immigrant visas and would cut their wait to permanently work in the United States down years, if not decades.
The bill would recapture unused immigrant visas under Section 106(d) of the American Competitiveness in the Twenty-first Century Act of 2000 (Public Law 106– 4 313; 8 U.S.C. 1153 note) and would:
- Authorize the recapture of 25,000 immigrant visas for professional nurses and 15,000 immigrant visas for physicians;
- Allow these visas to be issued in order of the priority date, regardless of per-country limitations;
- Issue visas for the immediate family members of these individuals (not counted toward the 40,000 limit);
- Require the Departments of Homeland Security and State to more quickly to process these applications/petitions;
- Mandate that a petitioner attest that, in hiring the professional nurse a U.S. worker, has not or will not be displaced.
If enacted, the law would benefit physicians and nurses whose immigrant visas are subject to retrogression (backlogs in the immigrant visa quotas) by making those applications immediately become current. In addition, it would also cover immigrant visa petitions (I-140s) filed on behalf of physicians and professional nurses, before the date that is 90 days after the termination of the President’s declaration of a national emergency, subject to the overall quota of 25,000 for Registered Nurses and 15,000 for Physicians.
Gunster’s Immigration Practice Group will be closely monitoring developments as the bill is introduced.
If you have any questions, please contact Gunster attorneys Sarah Tobocman, Mariana Ribeiro, Beatriz Osorio, and Maria Romero.
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This publication is for general information only. It is not legal advice, and legal counsel should be contacted before any action is taken that might be influenced by this publication.
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