The government’s decision to pause processing of visa applications will extend wait times for health systems that rely on clinicians arriving from abroad to fill vacancies in their workforce. .
As employment-based skilled worker visa applications have reached their annual cap, the Department of State’s Consular Department has announced a temporary halt starting May 1 to process applications with applications filed after June 1, 2022.
Chris Musillo, managing partner at Musillo Unkenholt Immigration Law, a firm based in Cincinnati, said: “As a result, international nurses applying for visas will likely face double processing times for visas. usually 9 to 12 months.
“Unfortunately, that line will continue to get longer,” he said.
Bill Lowe, CEO of Chicago Methodist Senior Services, a Chicago-based skilled nursing care and rehabilitation organization, called the announcement “a real punch.”
Lowe said Chicago Methodist Senior Services, which developed an international recruitment program in 2005, has been recruiting immigrant clinicians for many years, working with an agency in the Philippines to help staff skilled nursing facility and home care program members. It also sends overseas-trained clinicians to other facilities that are in need of staff.
There are more than 150 nurses in various stages of the visa application process actively employed by the Superintendent of Chicago, all of whom are trained and have passed the National Council Licensure Examination.
Lowe said a nationwide freeze on EB-3 visas – the main category for which foreign nurses are eligible – would significantly slow the arrival of many nurses.
“It was a huge disappointment,” he said. “The government is out of sync with the situation. This is affecting everyone from hospitals to skilled nurses, to any healthcare provider who needs a nurse to provide services. We are in dire need of nurses.”
According to a report by McKinsey, by early 2025, it is estimated that the United States will have a shortage of between 200,000 and 450,000 nurses.
In 2021, immigrant clinicians living in the United States make up more than 18 percent of all healthcare workers, according to a Migration Policy Institute analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data. Of the 546,000 registered nurse immigrants, 27% are from the Philippines, 7% are from India, and nurses are from Mexico and Jamaica, each accounting for 5%.
In 2015, migrant health workers accounted for 17% of people in the field.
The staff shortages and hiring issues mean that facilities are more dependent on them, said Patty Jeffrey, president and chair of the management committee of the American Association of Healthcare Employers International. Now it’s time for foreign nurses to join the workforce to provide stability and long-term employment.
“We’ve never seen such a demand for this type of nurse,” Jeffrey said. “As long as I’m doing this, it’s always a supplement.”
A major problem contributing to the visa slowdown is that immigration quotas have remained unchanged for more than two decades, despite demographic and economic changes, Mr. Musillo said.
In addition, there is no special visa category for healthcare workers, meaning nurses compete with other bachelor’s degree occupations for 40,000 slots under the EB-3 pathway, he said.
“US immigration rules are not as flexible as one might hope,” Musillo said. “There is no explanation that the State Department or the Department of Homeland Security can offer, no executive order that the Biden administration can issue. This will take congressional action.
One solution proposed by a bipartisan group of senators in 2021 is the Health Care Workforce Resilience Act, which calls on the government to revoke and reallocate thousands of visas already in place. The previous grant was not used to issue licensed foreign nurses. No action has been taken on the invoice.
Jeanne Batalova, the institute’s senior policy analyst, said the Migration Policy Institute seeks to raise awareness of cumbersome licensing requirements for internationally trained healthcare workers and calls for systems health systems engage with state-level policy makers.
States could also convene a stakeholder group, as Colorado did with the Global Talent Task Force, to review barriers to medical entry for medical practitioners, Batalova said. immigration clinicians and eliminate unnecessary technical requirements. The task force made policy recommendations to the governor and general assembly on ways to better integrate and utilize the skills of foreign-trained professionals.
Another challenge to hiring foreign-trained clinicians is helping those who have immigrated to the United States enter the health care workforce,
Dr. José Ramón Fernández-Peña, founder and chief executive officer of the Welcome Back Initiative, a program created to assist immigrants, said: “To practice medicine in America, international clinicians need often have to go through expensive and time consuming re-licensing processes. health expert.
Fernández-Peña said that although a doctor can have 20 years of experience in another country, they still have to pass the US Medical Licensing Exam once in that country and register for training. residency, which is a process that can take years.
During the pandemic, the Welcome Back Initiative has helped advocate for temporary licenses that allow overseas-trained doctors to practice on a limited basis and under the supervision of physicians. practice is licensed in the United States in several states, including Illinois, he said.
“Currently the temporary licenses have expired, so we are hoping to find a way to maintain those licenses or create pathways that, with adequate oversight and support, can be regained by individuals. license without having to go through four or four times. five-year residency training program again,” said Fernández-Peña.
In the post-acute space, long-term care providers are facing unprecedented challenges in competing with international nursing hospitals.
Carol Silver Elliot, president and chief executive officer of Jewish Home Family, a nonprofit nursing home organization based in Rockleigh, New Jersey, said many in the industry have seen foreign doctors leave the facility for up to $20 more per hour in the hospital..
The organization has signed several contracts with United Methodist Healthcare’s Healthcare Recruitment program to take on international nurses to integrate with the workforce and surrounding communities in a matter of weeks, Elliot said. The Jewish Home family has had a number of foreign clinicians jump jobs for hospitals that can pay higher salaries.
“Our patient acumen is increasing,” she said. “Competition for nursing staff is increasing. I wouldn’t say it’s an unmet need, but for most of us it’s a need that doesn’t stop.”
While the visa application freeze is in place, Chicago Methodist Senior Services plans to continue recruiting nurses internationally and forging relationships with agencies in Ukraine and many other countries in Africa to diversify sourcing nurses, Lowe said.
“It is difficult to think that we may be several years away from being able to deploy these nurses into the workforce,” he said. “The best strategy we have is to continue to petition the nurses, and now from multiple sources.”
