Health Care Workers and Licensing Requirements Update
Prior to May 1998

The Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRAIRA) makes foreign-born health care workers (other than physicians) inadmissible to the U.S. unless they present credentials verifying their training, licensing, experience and English competency.

The INS still has not published regulations implementing this recent change in the law. Health care professionals in the process of applying for permanent residency cannot be approved because they have not obtained the required certification. Since the regulations have not been published by INS, no certificates can be issued by any credentialing agency.

To alleviate this problem, the INS is permitting health care workers to enter the U.S. on a temporary visa for six months which can be renewed until the regulations are published.