Lawsuit Filed over INS's Failure to Implement New Certification Requirements for Health Care Workers
Posted Sep 4, 1998

As many readers of The Law Office of Sheela Murthy's Immigration Law Bulletin may be aware, the 1996 immigration law includes a provision requiring a new certification procedure for certain foreign health care workers, including Nurses and Physical Therapists, among others. Particularly for these two occupations, there had been a handy, streamlined route to a green card, known as "Schedule A." The Schedule A program was enacted to relieve shortages of these health care workers, shortages which unfortunately have not yet been resolved to this day.

Formerly, those who obtained their education abroad were required to obtain certification through the Commission on Graduates of Foreign Nursing Schools (CGFNS). The new section of the law (known as section 343) appears to require a new certification program, also to be administered by CGFNS. However, the new program is a requirement even for persons who have completed their education and obtained a degree from within the United States.

CGFNS responded to the law by devising a new certification program. However, the INS has not yet issued regulations needed to implement the new section. In the meantime, all Schedule A and other immigrant petitions for nurses, physical therapists, and several other categories of health care workers (other than physicians) are on hold. This situation has been causing severe hardship to those potential immigrants, as well as to their employers.

In an August 19, 1998 news release, the American Immigration Law Foundation (AILF) announced that a lawsuit had been filed on behalf of four immigrants in the above situation, to compel INS to issue the regulations needed. The Law Office of Sheela Murthy posted information earlier this summer that CGFNS had filed its own lawsuit against INS in May 1998. We still do not have any final implementing regulations for almost 2 years now.