How can I come to the U.S. to work as a nurse?
What is the process for getting my visa approved and how long does it take?
How can Interstaff help me with the paperwork?
What is a Visa Screen Certificate?
Whom can I take to the U.S. with me?
How can I add my husband and child to my petition?
What should I do if my child turns 21 during the processing?
I want my children or husband to join me at a later date. What do I need to do?
Will my spouse be able to work in the U.S.?
I received my packet 3 in 2001 and have not turned it in. Is my case still active?
What is retrogression and how does it effect me?
Q: How can I come to the US to work as a nurse?
A: You must have a valid occupational visa to work as a nurse in the United States. InterStaff will sponsor you for an EB-3 Immigrant Visa (commonly known as a “Green Card”). With this visa, you will be allowed to enter America, along with your spouse and any unmarried children under the age of 21, as a lawful permanent resident.
Q: What is the process for getting my visa approved and how long does it take?
A: It is very difficult to give you a firm idea of how long it will take because processing times change regularly. However, you can keep the length of time to a minimum if you prepare all of your paperwork as quickly as possible and pass all of the relevant exams.
The following is a brief summary of the major steps in the process* Please note that individual circumstances differ and that these times are a general average of the cases we deal with
Q: How can Interstaff help me with the paperwork?
A: Although the process may seem complicated, InterStaff has an in-house Immigration Department which will process all the paperwork for you and your family so that you do not have to worry. All we ask is that you send us all of your paperwork in a timely manner
Q: What is a Visa Screen Certificate?
A: The Visa Screen is a certificate issued by ICHP verifying that you have passed either the CGFNS or the NCLEX, and all required English Exams.
Please note that Visa Screen Certificates expire after 5 years.
Q: Whom can I take to the United States with me?:
A: The following people can accompany you:
Please note that as a Green Card holder you will not be entitled to sponsor your parents or siblings to become permanent residents in the U.S. until after you have become resident in the U.S.
A: In order to add any dependants at the NVC stage, InterStaff will need a marriage certificate, birth certificates, and a letter from you stating that you would like your family added.
Q: What do I do if my child turns 21 during the processing?
A: Your petition has to be submitted within 3 months of the child turning 21; otherwise that child will “age-out” and will not be processed with your visa.
Q: I want my children or husband to join me at a later date. What do I need to do?
A: InterStaff will petition for you and your family. Once we prepare your DS230 forms, you will notify the NVC of the family members wish to follow you to the United States later. Once you family is ready to join you, they will need to go to their US Embassy where they will apply for their status.
Q: Will my spouse be able to work in America?
A: Yes, your spouse will be able to work without any restrictions.
Q: I received my Packet 3 in 2001 and have not turned it in. Is my case still active?
A: We must contact the NVC to see if your case has been forwarded to the appropriate Embassy. If the case has not already been forwarded, then a new Packet 3 will be issued. In some cases, the petition will have been given an “inactive status”. In this case InterStaff will write a letter to the NVC requesting that the case be re-activated. You will need to provide us with your current residential address.
Q: What is retrogression and how does it effect me?
A: Here is a brief explanation, from the CGFNS website
The U.S. State Department recently announced that beginning in January, 2005, EB-3 immigrant visas would be available only to those nurses whose visa cases had a priority date earlier than January 1, 2002. The new visa-issuance rules do not mean that visa issuance to Philippine, Indian and Chinese health care workers (primarily nurses) will stop in January. It does mean, however, that the pace of visa issuance to nurses and other health care workers from these countries will slow down substantially for a period of time. Visas will be issued to applicants whose priority date is earlier than January 1, 2002; issuance to applicants whose priority date is after January 1, 2002 will be temporarily put on hold. "Retrogression" is the technical term for this process of slowing the rate of visa issuance.
This change is not the result of a change in policy, or of a discretionary decision by the U.S. Government; the change is required by the numerical limits on visa issuance that have been part of U.S. immigration law for decades. CGFNS had nothing to do with this decision, and has no legal or practical ability to affect these visa issuance rules in any way.
Here is what recently happened: in the fall of 2004, the State Department and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) discovered that USCIS' campaign to process and (where appropriate) approve large numbers of employment-based immigration cases (to reduce its backlogs) had been very successful. USCIS had processed and approved so many of these employment-based cases (including nurses and other health care workers) that the number of approved I-140 petitions for Philippine, Indian and Chinese citizens could not be accommodated by the number of visas currently available for issuance to persons born in those countries.
The number of visas issued to citizens of those countries therefore had to be "rationed" -- apportioned according to rules established in U.S. immigration law to ensure that no one country used a disproportionate portion of all visas available worldwide. (Other countries were not affected because the overall level of immigration to the United States is so high in each of these three countries that they have reached their numerical limit, while other countries have not.) These apportionment rules require that those I-140 petitions with earlier priority dates (normally the date of filing) shall be issued visas before those with later priority dates. The priority dates are used to create a queue, or a waiting line. As each visa is issued to a person with an earlier priority date, the next person moves forward in the waiting line.
In this case, when visas have been issued to all qualified applicants with priority dates before January 1, 2002, then the "cut-off date" will gradually be moved forward. In February or March of 2005, for example, the "cut-off date" might be moved forward (by the State Department) to February 1, 2002, so that persons with priority dates before that cut-off date would then become eligible for visas. A new "cut-off date" for the EB-3 visa category will be announced each month in the State Department's monthly Visa Bulletin.
It is not possible at this time to tell how fast the cut-off date will move (there is a small chance that it might briefly move "backward"), and thus how soon someone with a priority date later than January 1, 2002, will become eligible for issuance of an EB-3 immigrant visa is unknown. Each month, the State Department will count the number of qualified cases and the number of available visas, and will then decide at what date to set the cut-off date. The State Department Visa Bulletin can be accessed via the following link: http://travel.state.gov/visa/frvi_bulletincurrent.html.
It is also not possible at this time to tell how long this period of slowed or "rationed" immigrant visa issuance will continue. CGFNS is aware that efforts will be made in the next Congress to improve this situation by legislation. A previous Congressional effort to avoid rationing of employment-based visas to high-demand countries was successful in 2001. If Congress acts at all, however, it is unlikely that it will act before April of 2005.