Filing the Immigrant Petition and NVC Stage Process for Nurses

Hi everybody, and welcome. We are so excited today for our new show onwards and upwards. My name is Tanya Freedman, and I'm the Chief Operating Officer of Connetics USA nursing agency. We help hospitals, nursing homes, surgery centers, rehab facilities all over the US with the nursing shortage by bringing in internationally educated nurses. And I'm joined today by my two esteemed colleagues. Denise your parents and was Miss Ella. Hi there. Hi, thank you for joining us, and Denise and well, we were introduced to Denise yesterday. But Chris, he's also going to be joining us today. And they will be telling us a little bit about themselves in a few minutes. And I just wanted to welcome everybody to our new show onwards and upwards. This is a Connetics series, a live show for global nurses. And the purpose is that you will come to the show and learn everything that you need to know about immigration, licensing, credentialing, onboarding, to come and live and work as an RN, as a nurse in the US. Today is the second day of our three day marathon. And yesterday we had a nice on and she spoke about the what is a green card, we spoke about the different processes the constant Adjustment of Status process. And for the purposes of the three day marathon, we are doing the consulate, we're talking about the consular process. Today we are going to be talking about the second steps of the process, which is the filing of the I-140petition and the NVC processing. Okay, so onwards and upwards, everybody. And Chris and Denise, do you want it? Maybe take a minute or two and just introduce yourselves?

Sure. Go ahead, Chris. If you'd like to go first. Sure. Yeah, I'm an immigration attorney here in Cincinnati, Ohio in the middle of the United States. I've been working in this area since the 1990s, actually, and I've known Tanya for much of that period of time when she was very, very young. Because we are very old now Chris Oh yeah. And I'm Denise Perez I am. I've been practicing for over 20 years. My main office location is in Miami, Florida. I am an attorney at a Kremen. It's a national law firm. And I've been working with Tanya for quite a while as well. And I don't consider us old. But, but it's been wonderful to work with Tanya and her team. And we're very excited to be here today joining you all perfect. So thank you, Chris, and Denise. And so today for the next 45 minutes to an hour, we're going to be talking about the second and third steps of the Green Card consular processing. And I encourage everybody to stay on until the very end, because we have a very exciting surprise, we have a download. So if you stay on until the end of the show, we have a download where you'll be able to download a free download about a booklet that will tell you everything that you need to know about the consular green card process. So please stay on until the end of the session.

And those people who download the free booklet between now and between 815 Tomorrow, which is the third day of the three day marathon. So by tomorrow, Friday, the 27th of August at 8:15am. Pacific Time sharp, and anybody who downloads this free booklet of the consular green card process for nurses will be eligible for a $200 gift card raffle. So please stay on till the end. And please join us tomorrow as we finish off this three Day Marathon. Okay, so let's get started. And we're going to talk now about the different steps of the of the green card. And yesterday Denise spoke about what is a green card. And she also spoke about pre filing the pre filing stage what is important for the nurse to know and about the steps for the for the hospital or the nursing home the prevailing wage and posting stages today and if anybody hasn't  seen yesterday's show, please look at the Connetics USA Facebook page and watch that show from yesterday because there's some very important information for nurses. So today we're going to be talking about the I-140filing, which is the filing of the immigrant petition. And I've got a lot of questions. I see a lot of people are putting questions in the chat. If you have questions for the this esteemed panel, please go ahead and put that into the chat. I have a lot of people who've sent me questions so we're gonna get started. And okay, so maybe we can just alternate. I'm just going to be a little dizzy because I'm going to go between Denise and Chris. And so Denise, can you explain to us in the filing of the immigrant petition people often hear add the word I-140.

What is the I-140? Okay, so the petition that's filed by the employer is known as the immigrant Petition for Alien worker. The reason why the word contains petition is because we have a petitioner, the employer is the petitioner and the nurses have beneficiary that form the immigrant Petition for Alien worker has a form number assigned to it, which is the form I dash 140. And that's the form that has to be reviewed by immigration, along with all the supporting documentation in order to determine whether or not the nurse is eligible for an immigrant visa, and whether the petitioner qualifies to sponsor the nurse for the immigrant visa. So it's basically the form that's you that so an immigrant petition for meaning worker, and the form number is the I-140. Okay, so thank you for that explanation. And for anybody who's just joining the show, now, obviously, you're going to need a lawyer in order to start this process, correct. I would highly recommend that a lawyer represent them. And actually, the lawyer represents the employer. There's a dual representation to be honest with you, but the employer is a principle client. And so typically, it's the employer that hires us to start the processing of the paperwork, and then we work with the nurse as a as a we have a joint representation responsibility to them as well. But truly the petitioner reaches out to us and then we prepare the paperwork for the nurse. Okay.

All right. So, Chris, many people have asked this question. We've had a lot of questions that have been sent into. So thank you and keep the questions coming. What is a priority date? And why is this important? So people hear this term, but really don't know what it is? Sure, yeah. So the priority date is the date that your I-140is filed, not the prevailing wage determination, which is not a nurse specific document, not when the postings are filed, not when you send all your documents to Denise or Chris or whatever attorneys working on your case. It's the day your I-140, is filed with the USCIS. A few weeks later, the lawyers received in the in the hard mail and the snail mail document from the USCIS. And it says that the day that the I-140 was received, and it actually says what when you get the approval eventually, which is the second document, it will actually list your priority date. Here's where it's important. The USCIS has a quota on the number of green cards that will issue a year. And it's probably not worth getting into the nuance of how that algorithm works, how the quota how the pieces are allocated within that quota. Frankly, I've been studying this stuff for 20 years, and I'm not entirely sure I understand all the nuances. Well, a lot of the numbers can jump back and forth between categories if a variety of things happen in any event, but here's what's important, I think for the viewers, Tanya, is every month usually around the middle of the month, the Department of State, the US Department of State issues, what's called the visa bulletin.

And the bulletin has a it's a great it's a chart, and on the top of the chart is every country in the world. Now the chart would be you know, several 100 lines wide. And so really, there's only a handful of countries that ever show up at the top of the chart. And usually the first column is the other column or what we sometimes call the rest of world. The Chinese and the Indian nationals, excuse me, natives because your credit is governed by where you were born, not country, you're a national. So if you were Filipino, and maybe you migrated and eventually became a Canadian citizen, you're still treated as a Filipino for the purposes of this visa bulletin idea, this priority date idea. In any event, the top of the chart has every country in the world. Normally the only countries that really matter for the nurses are India, China, the Philippines and then the other category on the on the vertical access is EB1, EB2, EB3, EB4 and EB5 for nurses. The EB3 matters for certain other allied health care occupations such as PTS, the EB2 may matter, you want to check with your attorney about that, but for the most part, the EB3 is going to matter.

And so what you do is you look up at the top of the country we're born in India, China, Philippines or all other countries. You look at the vertical axis, you find EB3, and there will be a gate there. If there's no date, you will sometimes often actually see the letter C with the letter C means is current. And what that means is that there is no retrogression. In other words, that category in my example, EB3 Philippines has not reached the quota for that category of EB3 Philippines and therefore, it doesn't actually matter. What your priority date is your case can move through the system from the Island, Florida to NVC to the embassy, and eventually the Green Card issuance. If there is a date there. Like for instance, India, EB three to India EB3 date right now is January 1, 2014. And so that's obviously about seven years ago. And so what that means is unless your priority date is before January 1 2014, if you are an Indian national, you cannot move to the to the NVC stage. And so you can still get your I-140 approved because that establishes the priority date. But if you're an Indian native, you're looking at about a seven, maybe almost eight year processing time, which is why it's this is particularly difficult for Indians, to name it. That's the idea of the priority date. And that's how it functions time.

Okay, so Well, first of all, I'm pleased to hear that it can be a little confusing to you and Denise, who are the experts, because but the rest of us and I know for many nurses that are watching today, it's very confusing and overwhelming. And so thank you for that clear explanation. And for everybody also, who's watching tomorrow, we're going to be doing even a deeper dive into the visa bulletin. We have Carl Shusterman, and another immigration lawyer who will be joining us. So be sure to watch tomorrow show. But Chris, so in terms of the visa bulletin, is there some way that Oh, and the priority date is there some way for nurses to check themselves, if they if they have a priority date is as been issued by the USCIS. What I mean, the visa bulletin is published around the middle of the month, maybe the second or third week of the month in September, I suspect it's going to be late. I suspect it won't be pulled into this September 20s. September is a bit of a weird month because it's the last month of the US fiscal year. The US fiscal year starts October 1, other than September, it typically comes out in the middle of the month, and it is published right on the Department of State's webpage. A number of attorneys including our office, if you go to our website, we publish it usually within a day or so of it being issued by the State Department. So it's available online. And most of the social media places you know, if you're looking for a member, for instance, someone usually publishes it within an hour of it being published by the state.

Okay, great. That's helpful. And Denise, can you give all the nurses around the world who are watching right now and we have so many people watching, which is really exciting. What are some of the documents that a nurse would need to prepare beforehand, when they when they've been offered a job and accepted a job to for the filing? Sure. So they would have to collect their academic credentials, including their diploma, their nursing degree, licenses, certifications, any documents related to their profession, their biographic documents such as their passports, copies of their passports or birth certificates, copies of the birth certificates and passports for their immediate relatives, which include spouses and minor children that they want to include in the process. Because those, they have to be mentioned on the petition to include the names of the spouses and minor children. So the main thing is for them to start collecting their academic credentials, their licenses, birth certificates, all their biographic documents, for purposes of filing the I-140.

Okay, so that's really important for any nurse to hear. Because this process is a long one, as Denise told us yesterday, the timing, it does take a while for you to be able to come to the US. So it's really important to be working with a reputable company, a reputable lawyer who's going to give you a lot of that information beforehand, just as Denise just listed out now, all of those documents and things that need just for the filing of the I-140. Some of those things can take a little bit of time to get so really important to get that done beforehand, by me for interrupting you. But they for those who previously had I 140s filed for them in the past, they should collect the approval notice of the I-140. So that we could request that they that the government preserve the priority date that has already been established previously.

Okay, so thank you for raising that because I see we've actually got some questions about that. And I know there are a lot of nurses and that were born in India that are asking questions about previous priority dates and how that works. And so and Uber has a question, I have a previous Petitioner with an how I-140 approved Is it possible to recapture Chris, can you take us through that process of recapture if somebody had a previous petition? How do they go about recapturing it and also what happens If they know that their petition was approved from years ago, but they have no documentation, what can be done? Right? Yeah, so, good question. So yeah, if you have a prior priority date, you can recapture it in a future priority date. That's important, because that allows you to leverage that old priority date. So for instance, we see this sometimes with Indian nationals who maybe had a nursing case applied 10 years ago. And as we saw in the last example, that I talked about, you know that 10 years can be the difference between your case essentially being current today, and you having to wait till the January 2014 date becomes current, the way you were captured, it's actually pretty straightforward, you include a copy of the old I-140, in the new I-140. Petition, so you have old I-140 approval notice from let's say, 2010, you include that in your 2021 petition, we usually put in a couple of paragraphs, in a supporting letter, reminding us SAS that reCAPTCHA is possible.

And then when the approval notices is granted, in 2021, it will actually even though it will say case was filed September of 2021. However, the priority date might be January of 2010, or whenever it was. So that's the easiest way is to have a copy of one of your I-140. If you don't have a copy of your own 40 My advice is the first thing you do is you get you get in contact with your old attorney who prepared the case 10 years ago, or at the very least you get in touch with your old employer. Maybe even your recruiter has a copy of it. So that that is ultimately the best evidence you have. We do see Tanya from time to time that no one seems to have a copy of it. First thing that does is it does raise the question as to whether or not your case was actually approved as an I-140. It's unfortunate, but from time to time, we will get a client Tanya a nurse, and she'll say, Oh, I had a case approved 10 years ago. And nobody seems to have a copy of it. And ultimately, it comes out that actually their case wasn't filed either. Either the nurse was sometimes mistaken. She believed that just by submitting documents, that would mean that it was final. And in other instances, unfortunately, someone misrepresented or even outright lied to her that her case was filed and approved in those situations are obviously terrible. As a last ditch effort, if nobody has any of those evidence, pieces of evidence, what we can do is we can file a Freedom of Information Act, we do this with some frequency around here. It's not a terribly difficult process. And I would say half the time we're able to uncover what it is a filing with the USCIS where we say we think this thing happened in the past? If so, can you give us an a new copy of that? I 140? And you know, I don't have any scientific numbers on it. We don't track it that closely. But my sense is roughly half of those results in the USS saying yes, here's a copy of your is. And then we just submit that in with the new I-140 filing?

Yeah, and I would agree with you in that kind of ratio, because I would say probably about half of the people that we have helped to do the FOIA the Freedom of Information Act, have come back with an answer. So that kind of fits in with what we see as well. And, Denise, we have a question from and we have a question from JC who's asking, Do I need to pass the IELTS? Well, she's asking you to recapture the priority date. But do we need to have pass the IELTS by the time you file the I-140? This is a very common question.

So no, you don't need to pass the IELTS by the time we found the I-140. But you will definitely need it at some point in time. So we highly recommend that you work on the IELTS. The Immigrant petition does not require a copy of the IELTS. Okay, so JC there you get your answer. And I would say to any nurse that is looking at coming to the US the aisle and has not been trained in English as we spoke about on yesterday's show, if you haven't seen that, please watch it. The IELTS is a record IELTS or the TOEFL are the two requirements from the CGFNS in order to get your visa screen certificate, and you cannot start the aisles sooner. The visa bulletin is current right now, for all countries except India and China and the IELTS is a prerequisite. Connetics by the way has an aisle scholarship. So if you placed with an IELTS employer, or the US employer, and we have a free IELTS course for you, and you have to get that by the time you get to the concert, so it's important to get on with that. Okay, another question that's coming up. And Chris is premium processing. What is it and how does it work?

Sure. Yeah. So as we've been talking about this morning, there's several stages to the green card process and sort of the key stages the I 140 process, that's where you If the employer is vetted, and you are vetted to make sure that the employer is a legitimate us organization that has the ability to pay us workers, the employer has notified us workers, excuse me that people employ foreign workers. And that the US workers who are on site, they're the American Nurses have been noticed, they've been giving notice they've been given notice that foreign workers will be coming in there. That way, if there's something suspicious, the US workers can inform the US government. The nurse, of course, on the I-140states, that's where they verify that you have passed the NCLEX. And in a variety of other educational documents that I-140 stage, I've seen it take anywhere from maybe the shortest in recent memory is about three or four months, I've seen them sometimes take as long as a year. And that's just the vacancies of the US I-140. teams that work on this the officers of the various service centers. And so you know, that's a long time. So the USCIS has a program called premium processing, where if $2,500 additional is included in the filing fee. Now, to give you a sense as to what the percentage is, it's only $700, which isn't so obvious a lot of money, but compared to $2,500, it's, you know, less than a third. And so if the employer pays 700 plus 2500 $3,200, then instead of it taking that four to 12 month time period, the whole thing will get done in about two weeks, maybe three weeks at the outset. So it's an enormously faster process. But it is very expensive.

Yeah, that's a big difference. So that's a question if you are a nurse, that's  interviewing with the US employers to ask is, is the employer of going to be paying for premium processing? Because it means that that second step of the process that I 140 filing, you're gonna get the answer within 15 business days, as opposed to it can be anywhere from four to how many how long did you say, Chris? Almost a year? I've seen it as long as a year. Yeah, just for that second step. So that's a whole process that's just for that second step of the process. That's a big difference. And that's why we do the show, because we really want to educate you so that you can ask the right questions when you're interviewing with a US employer. Chris, I know we spoke well, Denise spoke about this yesterday, just in terms of the timing. Can you maybe just reiterate for everybody how long the process is taking right now, from the beginning, the pre filing stage where we haven't done the prevailing wage and posting yet to the consular interview?

Yeah, so the pre filing stage, which is the prevailing wage determination, along with an extra 30 days for notice to the US worker 45 days. Unfortunately, that prevailing wage determination is currently taking, I'm seeing almost six months, I don't know what you're saying about the longer Yeah, it's getting longer and longer. A few years ago, it was only taking about 60 days. So it's gone from 60 days to 180 days, which is a jump of what's that 80 days, which is 110 days, because 120 days, which is which is really a shame. And the reason for that, Chris, sorry to jump in, but it's because there's so many US employers applying is that the reason why there's a multitude of reasons. One is, volume is up quite a bit. Two is the Department of Labor was sued about nine months ago, I think was about October or November of last year. And it resulted and we don't need to get into the details of the lawsuit. But essentially, the US Department of Labor tried to try to artificially change the prevailing wages and they lost a lawsuit and resulted in the Department of Labor having a reissue a whole slew of prevailing wage determinations, which got them behind. I think a third reason Tanya, is just Covid. They've just been understaffed for a while, like everybody has, and they're probably just not working as efficiently.

So for all of those reasons, the processing times have gone up the bad news as well is they have indicated in various question and answer sessions with the public with the American Immigration Lawyers Association, that they don't see that promising to be coming down anytime soon, which is bad because normally, government organizations will at least pay lip service to the idea that they're hoping to improve the processing times. In any event. So if it's a new employer that hasn't, you know, currently wage process, really, there is a six to seven to eight month sort of a process that has to happen before your I-140can be filed. And then again, that's not your employer's fault on your fault, not the attorneys fault. It's not your fault as the nurse it is. And it's unfortunate. In any event, so that gets filed. And then the second stage is that I-140, which again five to 12 months or just three weeks. From there we go to the National Visa Center, which I know we're going to talk about in a bit in a minute here, the National Visa Center Stage and the end See stage is about a four or five month process, if Covid didn't exist, but with Covid, existing, almost infinite complicates it. Okay. So if you were an international nurse interviewing with a US employer now, and they had just started prevailing wage, and they were offering to pay premium processing, from the time that you had, they were finding the premium price at the prevailing wage to the consulate, what would your estimate be? And please, everybody watching this is an estimate, because there are a lot of factors that go into it.

So the estimate without COVID or with COVID? Yeah, so it's without COVID. You know, if you started your case, today, and the company didn't have the prevailing wage done, it's probably about a year if you use premium processing, you know, which means this time next late summer, early fall, you should be able to United States, if the prevailing wage and all that's done that we can chop six months off that which is terrific. With COVID, the reality is the embassy is working with very thin staff, mainly, I'm talking mainly about Manila, but the story is larger, the same around the world. And so I don't, I don't think I can give them a date we're seeing we're seeing them all over the map. And we're seeing clients that have hundreds of nurses in the processing, few are getting less than a dozen interviews. And there doesn't seem to be much rhyme or reason we're asking for expedited processing and get approved, some don't it's, it's an extremely high variance. All I can say to the nurses, listening and for that matter, and employers who are listening. And this is something that a mentor attorney told me within my first year. So as an attorney, I think it's good advice, which is we want to keep an eye on those things that the government's doing, but we can only control certain things.

And so really the skill that people like Tanya and Denise and I, and hopefully your employers is we can control that we get the prevailing wage file quickly that the notice is given that the cases are properly vetted that we file maybe we take advantage of premium processing. Who works through the NVC stage fast. But no one can control how fast or slow the government moves. But we want to get you in the queue. Because what I know is you're never going to get a visa if we don't file your case. That part I can guarantee you.

Yeah, yeah, I think that's great advice. And I think that's where it's us. You're so right, Chris, because it's those things that you can control. And that's where this show onward and upward for international nurses is so important. Because that's where when you're interviewing with an employer, you should be asking, have you already done your prevailing wage and posting by the time that the interview comes, because that's going to shave a lot of time off that process, you need to know to ask about the premium processing, if you don't even know what premium processing is, that's a real problem. Because you know, that can change the timing significantly. So that's why I just love doing the show because we sharing information that is so important. And as I said yesterday, I was an immigrant myself, I know how hard this process is, and I know how overwhelming it can feel for so many global nurses all over the world. But this is your chance to educate yourself about the process. Okay, so moving on. So to finish off the I-140. Finding stage. We have another question here about RFPs. This is a question from Maria. She says, I've heard that there can be an RFP when I found my I-140. What could the reasons be? And what happens if I had premium processing on my case, Denise?

Well, they're always constantly immigration is constantly issuing requests for any given reason. All of the cases that we file are fully supported with sufficient evidence to get an approval. But sometimes the officers are not familiar with the process they're not familiar with Schedule A workers are not familiar with. In the case of nurses, for example, there's a step that's carved out that is not necessary, which is called the labor certification process. And sometimes an officer will receive the I-140., and look for an original labor certification on a scheduling nurse, which is not required. So we simply respond, educate them, tell them there's none required, even though we include them with our cover letter to begin with. And then ultimately, they'll approve the case. So many times the Request for Evidence was based on lack of knowledge by the officer, or maybe they because a lot of them are working remotely, they misplaced documents that are provided, so we just resend it, and then the cases are ultimately approved. If we request premium processing which we do 99% of the time, and an officer issues a Request for Evidence. The 15 day clock starts ticking again as of the date that we send them the response and usually with In five days of receiving our responsive prove the case.

Okay, good. Okay, so that clarifies RFPs. Chris, and has asked, Could my I-140 be denied? Sure, yeah, could be denied. Okay. And what might? What might the reasons be for something? They're  almost limitless. I mean, like Denise suggested, any good attorney is going to review everything before it gets filed. And notify either you the nurse and or the employer. If we see any risk factors. I mean, that the reasons why don't 140 can be denied are endless, and include as Denise and via just sort of lack of training on behalf of the USCIS officers. I mean, but there can be any sorts of reasons maybe there's something deficient in your background as the nurse, maybe your education isn't equivalent to a US workers, there can be something that the employer, maybe they don't have a good financial picture. Maybe the notice was not properly granted. For us workers, it's almost endless, but to just generalize is, is really we could be here for a month. Okay, so hopefully you won't have a denial. And I think that's the importance of having experienced legal counsel like Chris and Denise, who specialize in nurse recruitment, so and news recruitment and nurse immigration and can really are experts in this field. And we have a question here before we move on to the NBC processing stage. We have a question here from Dipsy deputies asking, I had a previous protection and I had a previous petition, and my children were much younger than they are now. 21 and 22, will they be able to come with me on my new petition when it's recaptured?

Denise, it depends on what stage of the process they're at. If they're 21, or 20. Now, even though they have a party data has already been established, then you can preserve it for purposes of the nurse, the children, unfortunately, would be considered aged out because they're, once they turned 21. They're no longer derivatives, immediate relatives. Well, they are immediate relatives, but they're not included in the process. So it depends on when the previous I was already was filed, there's a formula. But most of the time, unless you're at the adjustment stage of the process, or at the where you've already completed the fee bill at the consulate. Unfortunately, the age our child is independent of their parents case. Okay, so it's very specific to that specific case. Yes. And it's the child status Protection Act, right? Is that what is under?

Yes, the child status Protection Act is the act that governs aged out situations. So that's, that's unfortunate. But basically, we have to take case by case separately, because every case is different. But in general, once they turn 21, they're not included in the process. Okay, so deep that you need to speak to a lawyer about your case, so that they can look at your specifics and see if your children will be able to come through. Interestingly enough, we actually had a case recently, where it was really kind of touch and go of weather and this particular nurse would be able to have her kids come through with her. Her name was Gladys. And she went when she went for her to a concert interview. The officer told her that I think it was like two days, within two days that her child actually made it that they could come through with her and to the US. And so that would be on her EB3 green card petition. That's, yeah, that was that was a wonderful success story. And Okay, last question on the filing of the immigrant petition, Chris, is we haven't a nurse who was born in India, who's asking if she doesn't have a previous petition, and she has a passed the NCLEX and has a visa screen a valid visa screen certificate can response be sponsored for an h1 visa?

As a nurse? The answer is almost surely no. There are a few rare exceptions. But we don't see a lot of US hospitals, recruiting nurses for those exceptions. There have been two USCIS guidance memos over the last maybe 16 or 17 years. One came out a few years ago, the other one was back in maybe 2005. I may be off by a year there. And they both lay out some of the exceptions but the reality is, unfortunately, it's unlikely that you'll be able to get an h1 visa. Okay. All right. So and there we have the filing of the I-140. Petition we have some insight Tips. So I want to just share some insider tips about the filing of the immigrant petition. So one is when interviewing with a potential US employer ask if they will pay premium processing because we've learned from today's show that premium processing can make a huge difference to the timelines of the consular green card. Another insider tip, ask if the employer has completed the prevailing wage and posting Denise went through that with us yesterday on yesterday's show, if you haven't seen that, please watch it. And if they have done the prevailing wage, and posting that means immediate filing, which is another way of shaving some time off the timing of the EB3, consider green card. Another insider tip, a reputable, reputable agency or lawyer will provide you with a checklist of the required documents beforehand.

This is important because as Chris said, which was great advice. We're dealing with the government. So there's some things that we have no control of over from a timing perspective, that we can control what we do, and that's where getting information beforehand of the documents that you need can be very helpful from a timing perspective, you have some more insider tips on the filing of the immigrant petition. So the next slide is gonna be when interviewing, ask if the employer will file the I-140, before you've passed the English exam, if applicable. In other words, if you have if you live in a country where you are not trained in English, and this is important, because some employers will not allow this and some will, of course, you need the English exam and the visa screen by the time you get to the consulate. And beware of offers that don't assign you to a specific fixed location at the time the offer is issued. So if somebody says to you, oh, we have positions all over, don't worry about it. That is something to worry because you want to know where you're going to be working. And the last one is complete all sections of the I 140 form. And don't forget to sign because your form will be rejected if there's any missing information. So those are just some insider tips to help our nurses provide prepare for that second stage of the process, the filing of the I-130 petition.

Okay, so we're going to move now to the third step. And so we're going to go back to our roadmap. And so we've, we've covered the pre filing, we've covered the file, the immigrant petition, which is all those steps are the I-140, the premium processing priority dates, all of those, those things that our team has gone through with you and now we moving to the third step, which is the National Visa Center. Okay, so Denise, what is the National Visa Center and tell us about the step? I always describe the National Visa Center as the secretary responsible for scheduling the appointment at the US Consulate. Oh, I love that. I've never heard that analogy before. So basically, once the immigrant Petition for Alien work or the form I-140 is approved by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services. Immigration will notify the National Visa Center of the approval. And basically if the nurses party data is current within one to two months of the I-140. being approved, the National Visa Center will contact the attorney, the employer and the nurse to inform them that it's time to move forward with scheduling. The appointment which will require paying a fee bill will require completing a form DS dash 260 and will require the nurse to provide their biographic documents and police clearances and medicals.

So again once the I 140 is approved within one to two months, if the nurses party data's current, they will receive an email from the National Visa Center letting them know we're ready. Go ahead and pay for the female and once that the bill is paid for you will receive you will complete the DS 260 and send us the documents by courier the documents again being the medicals a police clearance thereby grab their passport, birth certificates for the principal applicant and the immediate relatives, the spouse and the minor children. Okay, so the nurse was must first pay for the fee bill for each family member including themselves and then complete a DS 260 for each family member and then submit documentation for each applicants. Then the National Visa Center will receive the documents and they'll start processing the paperwork. And then within I would say I mean it's hard to predict how long it'll take scheduled the appointment at the US Consulate. But typically within three to four months, I would say they'll be scheduled for an interview. If all goes well, because like, as Chris mentioned there, they're just backed logged right now, they, the embassies don't have enough staff to support all these interviews. But at least once the nurse receives that email, it's a good sign that the government is moving forward with scheduling there, the National Visa Center is the one that will assist them through that process.

Okay, so that gives us a great overview of the NVC processing stage. And I see Mel had a question, how many months does it take for the document qualified from the NVC? So Denise has answered your question. I'm just trying to get through as many questions as I can. And we have a question here from Charlene. And who says Hi, from Manila. Hi, Charlene. And Charlene is asking how to file for an expedite. This is a question that we are getting time and time again, there's a lot of confusion about the expedite process. And she's asking, Can I do it myself or the agency should do it for me, my priority date is June 2019, and DQ since November 10 2020. Until now, I don't have ID. And I would like to make my case to be expedited. So Chris, let's break down that question from Charlene. Can you explain to everybody who's watching? And first of all, how to go about an expedite process?

Yeah, so first thing is, we definitely do not recommend people do it on their own. We'd like to get at least get guidance from your attorney. Having said that, there's almost no reason that we wouldn't do it. So don't think that that's it just we'd like everybody to be involved in the decision making in the process. And when one party, whether it's the lawyer or the recruiter, or the nurse, or the employer takes actions that everybody else involved, it can just lead to confusion, it can especially lead to confusion, if the attorney has already started that process, or maybe it's already completed that process and then you go, it can actually delay your case on an expedite request. So that's number one. Number two, the processes pretty easy, we just have to send an email in to the embassy number three, it's hit or miss. It doesn't mean if your friend got it, and you didn't get it, that time you did something wrong, or we did something wrong or included something wrong. And frankly, if yours goes and your friends doesn't go, it doesn't mean that we did something magical either. It's  also a pretty tough process to peg as to who gets approved or not. But the basic argument is that your services would be great for the US to get in here because of the COVID crisis.

Okay, so can you also add to your answer, Chris just explained to everybody about the DQ and wish Eileen is asking about I don't have ID? I don't have I'm not sure what that question is, I've gotta be honest with you. Denise, do you have anything to add? You just basically means that the file is qualified document qualified. But the idea is, I'm assuming they're referring to just the ID of the of the process of their application or their account. But no specific ID separate and apart from the one that's assigned to them when they first received the female. Okay. And so interesting, one of the nurses, cute story, one of the nurses that we worked with, when they saw for the first time DQ said, I thought that meant Dairy Queen. It is not. And okay, so and what are some of the things that you seeing right now with the consonants because we are seeing a lot of variation? I mean, we're seeing some consulates. I know that. I saw recently that the consulate in Amman. And now in August, those that are DQ are they're looking at DQ at February 2021. And in the UAE, they're looking at March 2020. Can you talk a little bit but both of you actually about what you're seeing from the different continents all over the world, because there's a very large kind of variation on the timing of when they are starting to schedule the interviews.

It's inconsistent. It's totally inconsistent. It all depends on the number of cases they have, where I'm seeing different results with all of the different conflicts. Sometimes they're faster in Manila, and sometimes they're faster. It's just it's very unpredictable. And I think it's just based on the number of staff members that they have available to help with the process and it's just very hard to predict but um, but I do see some movements not a lot, not fast, but some movements in the scheduling of appointments. And we just pretty much have to just as Chris mentioned in the beginning, prepare as much as possible submit as much as possible from our end. So that at least there are no delays from our, or the nurses. So that when they do get to their case, they can move it along. But other than that, there's it's hard, there's no pattern to work off right now. Okay, so I agree with every everything that Denise just said. And, and again, I come back to what I said before, well, first of all, a couple of things, I guess. So number one, whatever we're seeing on August 26, it'll probably changed by all by September 5 is, so the idea of trying to game the system or to say, Oh, I'm gonna go to Oman instead of Dubai, or something in my mind is you're not understanding the process, because it can take six months to shift that piece appointment, maybe even nine months. And so in nine months, who knows what will happen. That's the first thing. And then the second thing, again, I come back to let's control we can control which is, as Denise says, you know, getting the documents in line, let's not control we can control which, which is trying to guess where the embassy appointments are going to be in a month or two or five,

okay, there are no directives where they say you must approve the case or schedule them for an appointment by such and such date, there are no policies in place that are applied across the board at all the consulates, are dealing with human beings. And as human beings, we all know, we handle cases and matters differently, some are faster than others, some make mistakes, some slow down the process, we're dealing with humans that are trying to keep up with the demand. And clearly there's high demand because of what we're all going through a pandemic is very, it affects all. So because of that, it's very hard to there's no policy that says you must get them by this date. If they send you an emergency letter, you must schedule the appointment. That's not how it works. It's basically just pretty much again, as we've been saying throughout, the best thing is for us to prepare as much as possible, so that we don't often delay from our end. Okay, so, so really being patient with the process is really important as well, that's across the board in all industries of the EU or the world, right? Yeah. And I mean, any good compelling reasons that you have are great for expedited reasons. But keep in mind, I've yet in 20 years of doing this ever find a nurse who's told me, you know, take your time, Chris, with my case. Everybody's got compelling reasons to come in. So even though you have a great reason, just keep in mind that almost everybody else who's asking for an expedite has a great reason as well.

Okay. So is there anything so when you say, you know, we have to whatever we can't control, we have to leave to the government, those things that you can control? So just kind of take us through at the NVC processing stage? What are the things that are in the nurse's control? What are the things that can be done to speed up the process, make sure they have their records in order if they have issues with their passports, where there's a name, an issue with the name with the date of birth, if they have an issue with their birth certificates, move that along now, don't wait until the I-140s file to be fixing your passport, your birth certificate, your family's birth certificate, if you know there's an issue already address it now, rather than waiting right before the interview to be trying to fix documents that take forever to be corrected now because of COVID. So what they need to do is just that what they can control, again, their biographic documents or passport, etc. work on fixing those now. And that way, you don't have to be delaying the process later when they're right when the case is ripe to be scheduled for interview.

Okay, so very good advice. Make sure that you have all of your documents ready beforehand. And that includes the fact that if you need to pass the IELTS, you need to pass the IELTS and you need to get your visa screen certificate, which also takes a few months from the CGFNS and is actually also a new agency that has been approved to do the visa screen. Chris, can you tell us a little bit about that? Yeah, there's not much to tell at this point. It's only been a few weeks, but for almost 25 years CGFNS has had on the humbly on visa screens. In fact, they even own the trademark for the term visa screen. And there's a new company or it's actually a company that's been around for a very long time. Just assembly and his organization out of Florida has recently been approved in the last maybe 30 or 60 days to also issue a competitive visa screen if you will. We have yet to actually engage with them on it, but I'm hoping in the next few months we will and hopefully that competition will be good for everybody.

Yeah, same. We also haven't had much dealings with them yet. But we're looking forward to that. And I so I have a question that was sent through to me before and I wanted to ask it, and Oh, yes. And should I pay my feeble first before taking the IELTS? So this news hasn't taken her I'll skip, should she go ahead with a feeble and pay that it's kind of like a judgment call. What's the first thing again, the first thing always is don't do anything on your own, talk to your recruiter, talk to your lawyer, talk to your employer. So this should not be a decision you're making on your own. Number one, number two, I generally want to see you have the visa screen. And I think a lot of the employers want to see you have the visa screen in hand before the employer lays out more money for your NVC fee bill. And most importantly, if you have a number of family members, it's 345 times every family members, it's pretty easy. If it's two parents and two kids, for your personal outlay to be over 1000 US dollars. And if you never get the visa screen, then you would have just wasted that money. And so there's an enormous downside. And your upside is saving maybe a few weeks if you so if you have all the elements to the visa screen, which is you've passed the NCLEX you've passed the English fluency exam and you're confident your education is appropriate. And you're confident that you don't have any encumbrance on your any foreign licenses, you'll then I'd say go ahead and pay the visa screen if all you're doing is waiting for CGFNS to do their job. But if you're missing one of those four core elements that I would say do not pay.

Yeah. And that's something that at Connetics USA, we tell our nurses as well, is we do what we call feeble hold. And that's really for your protection, we want to make sure that you've passed the in the IELTS exam. So that you don't as Chris said, waste money a little bit further down the line. And we have a question here, from Joanna. Joanna is asking at the DS 260 stage? Should I ask for the social security number? Or should I do that when I arrive in the US, Denise, I recommend that you do at the time that you complete the DSM. Okay. So that's just a small point. But very important, because when you come to the US, you're going to need a social security number. So you got to remember to check that box. Last question, I think, on the DSM to six at sorry, on the NBC stage is just about police clearances, and what are some of the mistakes that you see people make with police clearances? What are the guidelines? You can maybe share that with us?

Chris. Yeah, I mean, it's different for every country with police clearances, essentially, is you have to any anywhere that you've lived, you need a clearance letter from that country, or local police agency saying that you do not have a criminal record, essentially. And so it depends on each country around the world. You really just want to engage with your attorney and paralegal team, there's some countries that it's unnecessary, and to try and guess what those are, I don't have them committed to memory. So yeah, so I don't really have any tips other than you will need it. And so you can go ahead and interact interface with your recruiting team and your lawyer to get them. Aside, Tanya, and, Chris, if you if the nurse already is aware that they've had a prior conviction or prior issue, they should be discussing that from the big from the get go. Because it will ultimately come up at the time of the interview. So they might as well address it when we initiate the immigrant petition, so that we're aware of any issues that will be coming up down the time.

Very important. Thank you for mentioning that Denise. Okay, we have a question here. We've got so many questions in the chat. And I'm just looking at the time I'm like, Oh, my gosh, we are get running out of time. And we have a question from Tilda who's asking, and will the recent executive order signed on April 30. Great and education told I'm impressed that you know all of this and effect the migration of nurses since they've been moved to tier four in the US immigration process, Chris? Well, effect Yes. It's already been in effect for three or so months. And all it really means is that the US embassies are being recognized that they have short staffs. And so there's a tiered process as to who gets appointments at embassies and employment based visas are the fourth tier which is the lowest tier. But again, I think this just falls under a common theme that we've been talking about this morning time, which is you can't control it. So there's nothing we can do. Planning doesn't do any good. When you get your appointment and people are getting appointments, then it doesn't really matter whether you were classified as tier 123 or four.

Okay. All right, any last question. Thank you, Chris. Last question is from James and who's asking about, I live in the UAE and my family live in the Philippines. What is the follow to join process? Denise, so once your interview, you complete your interview, your family will be attached to your case through a follow to join process. So they're going to the government will process their permanent residents case, separate from yours because of your you're not together, you're not together and your process will go first. And then they will be attached to yours as a follow to join. And again, the members that are included in that process are immediate relatives, which are spouses and minor children. So there'll be added on to your immigrant visa process. So we'll obtain their own immigrant visas, not along with you, because you will get it first, but then soon thereafter.

Okay. All right. Well, listen, Denise, anything else to add that we've left out? We've covered a lot of information. And so hopefully, this is not information overload for everybody who's watching, but this is very important education. If you are looking to come to the US, is there any other advice, best practices tips about the National Visa processing stage? think we've covered pretty much at all. Yeah. But as Chris has been saying, which I totally agree with him, it's important for the nurse to partner with their attorney and with Connetics whoever they work with, to make sure that they're fully informed as to what the process entails. And also to give them certainty because they do struggle. And I don't blame them with anxiety when they compare their cases to their colleagues. And don't feel that your case is being mishandled or that the government is setting your case aside, it's just we have to go through the process, you will ultimately get there, you will ultimately get your immigrant visa, and just be positive, try to enjoy the process while you're going through it.

Be positive and enjoy the process. I love that as much as you can. And so we're going to finish off now with some insider tips about the MPC processing stage. So as our team said, apply for the social security number at the DSU 60 stage, work with a reputable agency that will provide you with a checklist of the civil documents beforehand because as Chris said, the things we cannot control, but the one thing that you can control is getting your documents in order beforehand. And one thing we didn't mention actually that's important was all civil documents must not written in English must be translated into English by certified translator. Once all the documents are collected, you must scan, save and upload them and we have some more tips for you on the embassy processing side. You will need an annex an expired valid passport valid for six months after the day you plan to enter the America. So this is important and you should actually be checking this right from the beginning of your of your EB3 green card process. Do not send any documents to the NVC by mail. Consult with your lawyer or agency about how to request an expedite service as Chris and Denise explained, and also notify the NVC of any changes for example, your address your age if you're a minor or your marital status. So just some additional NVC processing tips that I think are important for all nurses. We are at the our How did that happen?

This was fun. Thank you so much to Denise and Chris for joining us. And this was an information packed hour. I think I learned so much. So I'm hoping that nurses all over the world have learned so much as well. And we are going to be continuing tomorrow with the third day of our marathon. So tomorrow, Friday the 27th of August at 7:30am pacific time please check the time zone converter for the time in your area. And tomorrow we will be talking about the next steps of the process. So tomorrow we're going to be talking about the consular interview and welcome to America where you're going to be doing your happy dance which is what we love to see. And before we leave I wanted to remind everybody as I said at the beginning of the show, and I hope everybody has stayed on until now and because we do have a free download of everything that you need to know about the consular green card process. I saw there was one nurse who asked about the adjustment of status process. And so just remind everybody today we talking in the three day marathon about the consular process. And we will have another show about the adjustment of status process coming up. And but please stay on to the now that you can download the free guidebook, which will be entitled you to enter a raffle or have a free have a gift for a $200 Amazon card. And the deadline to download the guidebook.

So you'll be eligible for the raffle is Friday, tomorrow, August 27, at 8:15am Pacific Time shop. So please tune in tomorrow for the third day of the marathon. And where we will be sharing the winner of the $200 amazon gift card. And just before we finish, I also wanted to share our we've had a lot of questions since yesterday and of some of the Connetics initiatives. So I want to just share a little bit about some of the things that we offer at Connetics. And so we offer free I'll scholarship. This is a route review course for all Connetics USA, RNs, we also have an NCLEX scholarship. So we have a free review course for the NCLEX for selected global RNs. And please apply to our website, and our team will let you know if you are qualified for the scholarship. We also have a promotion right now, which is $1,000 referral fee, for if you send us any nurses with the NCLEX. That's promotion ends at the end of October 31 at 5pm Pacific time. So please, if you have any friends or colleagues paid for it, and refer us any of your nurses, you are eligible then for $1,000 referral fee. And if you look on our website, you can see the details of that referral fee. And we also have a direct hire nurse aid program. So if you're interested in that, please apply to our website. And there's more to follow on our show onwards and upwards. We also have a podcast nursing in America.

So tune into that where you can hear stories about and nurses who've come through to the US and our show onwards and upwards live show. And for all global nurses coming to America, we'll be continuing this, this show and we've had phenomenal and you know, everybody's really excited about it. So please continue to watch. And last but not least, I see we have a lot of questions actually in the chat about this. And just to mention that Connetics don't just bring in registered nurses. We also have allied needs. So we all have needs for medical lab technologist medical lab technicians, respiratory therapists, cardiology techs, surgical techs, sterile processing, and more. So I just wanted to make sure that everybody knows some of the Connetics initiatives that we have going on right now. So with that said, thank you so much to Denise, and thank you to Chris. It was great to have you on the show. And we look forward to many onward and upward shows going forward. And thank you to everybody who's joining us. We hope to see you tomorrow. Thank you, everybody.