Nurse Immigration to the USA News of August 2022

Hi everybody and welcome. It's Friday so it must be Connetics USA weekly show onwards and up Put everything that a global health care worker needs to know about coming to live and work in the United States. I am your host, Tanya Freedman, Chief Executive Officer of Connetics USA Nursing Recruitment Agency. And I am joined today by our esteemed panel. Christmas seller. Welcome, Chris.

Morning. How's everybody doing?

Good. Good. And I think we have Mike Hammond who will be joining us shortly.

Yeah. Mike sent an email. I think he's having just a wee bit a problem getting in.

Yeah. So we will, we will hopefully have him join us in a few minutes. If you are joining us today, the topic is our immigration, our monthly immigration Q&A. This is a session that I know nurses and healthcare workers all over the world wait for every single month, I literally have run out of money, pages and pages of questions from nurses from med techs from nurse aides from healthcare workers all around the world. So I'm gonna get started right away, Chris. So you are in the hot seat today. Let's do it. Let's do it. Okay, so if you're joining us now, please put your questions into the chat. Also put your name where you're watching from it's so fun to see everybody watching from all around the world. Immigration is a complicated topic. And it's really important to understand this process because it's very exciting, but very long, frustrating, overwhelming. Okay, so we've got Rebecca, who's saying Hye won tech corn who's saying hi, right. He K is saying please answer my question. But he can I will do my best to answer your question. And pose it to Chris and to Mike when he joins.  Chris Lasher, saying I have sent all the required documents for my visa since April CGFNS does not acknowledge receipt of my in my master's transcripts since last month after writing to them and a series of phone calls. They have now said they will verify signature and seal and should check within three weeks. Three weeks today and the school have not received an inquiry. What can I do to help? What advice do I have? Would you suggest Chris?

Yeah, I don't this isn't the legal question, of course. And it is a struggle because CGFNS is the only organization well, I shouldn't say that there's two organizations who can issue health care workers certificates. CGFNS is  the visa screen, which is what people call it. My advice is, instead of calling every two weeks, I would call every day to CGFNS. I have found that in these instances, the only thing that can be done is to continue to nag them call email et cetera. That's that's the only way you're gonna get a resolution. I think there's no magic there's no backdoor number somebody can email or call unfortunately.

Yeah, Chris I 100% agree with that. And Vasher Connetics USA are members of the CGFNS. Alliance for ethical recruitment practices. So we do have our own portal. And I know that our team will do our best to help you as much as possible. We know this can be very frustrating whether you're waiting for the CGFNS waiting, whether you're waiting from the NVC, the USCIS, we understand that they are delays and this can be very frustrating. And sometimes as Chris said, it's just you got to just continue pinging and it will happen it's just a matter of time. And color saying hi, red has question is and we get this question every month Chris, Indian nurses need to wait or what is the situation?

Yeah, it's a very sad situation for Indian nationals, frankly, not even just nursing, even if they're in other areas of employment based processing. And I'm looking at the most recent September visa bulletin. And in the EB3 is February of 2012. In the EB2 is December of 2014. Nurses generally our EB3, some other medical and healthcare occupations Tania might qualify for EB two notably physical therapists would be one that springs to mind some advanced practice nursing as well either way, you know, you're looking at a eight to 10 year backlog and the reality is it's probably unfortunately maybe even longer than that. So, the short answer is there's really not much anyone can do. That is just a product of a US immigration system. That fails a lot of people in particular Indian nationals. There are some legislative bills out there. And we talk about them most months. Right, Tanya? Yeah. First question, question. And so we talked about them. And those are the eagle and the health care worker resilience act. And so there's a few of these out there. All of which have a good amount of support in the Congress. That's a nice way to put it. Unfortunately, none of them seem to have enough support in the US Congress to get passed. And so I don't expect any resolution in 2022. At this point, the US has presidential elections, every four years, of course, President Biden defeated ex President Trump almost two years ago, the reason I bring that up is in in the two year increments, which is this November, when we don't have a presidential election, we do elect about a third of the US Senate in the entire US House of Representatives, which is the lower house. And so the makeup of Congress, often but not always changes on these two year cycles. And so, you know, I think the next period that we'll be looking for is to see what happens in this election cycle in early November of 2022. And then, the other piece of this, which is sort of related on the timeline, Tanya, is often that period between the November election and the January New Year, what is what we call the lame duck period here in the US, because you have a number of congressmen and senators who are finishing their term for the next eight weeks or so before the New Year is and yet, they know that they are not going to continue in that political world because they've been beaten in their election, or maybe they're retiring. And so sometimes we get unusual legislation passed during that period. So I guess what I'm saying is there's no real answer, there likely isn't an answer, but at least the next period of time when there might become an answer is November, December of this year.

Okay, so we'll watch out for that, Chris. And every month, we will keep asking the question, keep hoping keep praying, everybody. The one thing that I think does bode well, just as an overall statement, is that we have never seen such a huge demand for health care workers in the United States, ever. I mean, Chris, you and I've been doing this for I don't even know how many years? Have you already yours? Such a mess of demand?

No, this is I mean, that's a really good point that at this point in time in the summer of 2022, we have never I've been doing this since 1998. So just about 25 years. And I've never had as many nursing petitions at some stage of processing and I've never had hospitals and other US healthcare facilities, calling me up just begging for more US health care workers of all stripes in particular nurses. And so the, again, you know, if we're going to try and think about this optimistically, we want to be realistic. But if we're going to think a little bit optimistically, Tania, my sense is that there is a chance not a guarantee a chance in the foreseeable future, that the amount of pressure on us healthcare facilities for good, high qualified, you are overseas trained foreign trained healthcare workers is has never been greater than it is today. And that might put some pressure on the US Congress to increase some of the quotas create a nursing visa, Korean and health care visa. I don't want to promise anyone I don't want to make up but if you're not in the queue, and something like this happens, then you're going to be behind, you know, maybe 10s of 1000s of people.

Yeah, correct. So if you are joining us right now, and you are a healthcare worker around the world, it is applying to Connetics USA, Conneticsusa.com/application Even if you have not yet passed your NCLEX exam, we do have an NCLEX scholarship I'll be talking a little bit more about that at the end of this call. And it really is important as Chris said to get in the line because we don't know what's going to happen from an immigration perspective in the future but we do know that right now there's a massive demand we have you know, opportunities from Connetics USA side all over the United States. And so if you have a system in California a friend in Texas A an auntie in Florida and you know you are you want to go to see the Big Apple New York where Chris nucleus, and that's where you need to apply so that we can help you because they really is urgency to get through the process? Chris? Okay, so I'm going to start taking as many questions as I can. And we have a question and a lot of questions actually asked me about delays from I 140 approval to getting cases to the feeble. I have a question here from herb and what happens if it's been six months? I still don't have my feeble? We have a question here from Maria. I went, it was approved early this year, I still haven't got to the NVC. Lots of those kinds of questions right now, Chris, what is happening? And what are you seeing?

Yeah, well, we're so when we so? Yeah, it's a good question. And it's something we're seeing with a lot of situations. So the just to bring everybody up to speed. So the process essentially, is we file an i 140, here in the United States, and we file them at one or two different service centers, we don't have a choice where we file and it's really determined upon where you're going. Which hospital, you're going to what healthcare facility, you're going to geographically. And then that US government service center, transfers the petitions, whether it's through the textbook from the Texas service center, or any other service center, to the National Visa Center. And then the National Visa Center, as many of you are aware, puts together an opportunity for you to update some documents, pay fee bills, add spouse and children. And then the National Visa Center takes that petition and notifies your local embassy in Manila, Mumbai, Abu Dhabi, wherever around the world you are. And what we've seen in the last about three to six months is the Texas service center is taking an extraordinarily long time to notify the National Visa Center, that the I 140 has been approved. And when we talk to the USCIS, the answer theirs is their backlog because of COVID, which seems to me to be sort of a government catch all excuse whenever they don't do anything. I feel like tiny even if you and I are doing this for another 25 years, if something goes wrong and 25 they're still going to play him COVID. Right. So you know, so, so that's the bad news. The good news is it's not something Tanya and Connetics are doing, Chris and muscle aren't going to hold they're doing not something your facility is doing? Certainly not. So. It's a system wide problem. We are hearing some optimistic words out of the service center that they're starting to get these straightened out. We here at the law office, traditionally have followed up with the service center and about 90 days if it doesn't get moved. And the reason why we did it in 90 days is because the reality is 95 to 98% of the cases did get moved timely, we've now shrunk internally down to about 60 days to do our follow ups with a service center. That may help I don't want to optimistically let everybody think that but in any event, it's not about you. It's a system problem. I'm kind of optimistic that it will get straightened out here in the next few weeks and months. But I'm sure it's frustrating. It must be fresh. It's frustrating for us, I mean, our office and Tanya's office, you know, we're in this line of work, to provide opportunities for overtraining of pharmacy for nurses and other health care workers to come to the United States. We want to do that. It's how we make our living, it's in our interest to do it as quickly as possible. It's in our client's interest. It's in your interest. And so everybody's aligned on this. It's just unfortunately, the government is falling down on the job.

Yeah. And I think that's where it's confusing to many healthcare workers. Because they might say, Well, my friend, you know, it was filed at the same time or even filed after me and how come they got transferred to the National Visa Center, which is understandably very confusing.

Yeah, you're right. It's frustrating. First of all, your friend may have gone to the other service center, which doesn't seem to nearly have the problems. That's number one. Number two, what's even more frustrating is the Texas service center seems to be inconsistent. And so we will get a case that the island 40 is approved in on June first. And, and that one's still sitting there. And yet we get one on July 1, and that one goes to the National Visa Center. And it doesn't seem there does not seem to be much consistency there. Which is especially frustrating because if you're you and your friend are both in the Texas service center, and your case has been filed 30 days ahead of time and was approved 30 days ahead of time, and yet your friend's case goes on National Visa Center first that's just it's not fair is the reality.

Yeah. And so hopefully that gives a lot of clarity to people who are experiencing this issue. And it's not you. It's not the lawyers. It's not the healthcare facilities, not Connetics. And this is an issue that we've experiencing at the Texas service center. And there's a lot of efforts to resolve it. Just one thing for those who are watching Connetics nurses specifically, we work with our government affairs departments at the hospitals themselves who get their local congressmen and they senators involved. So you know, we've got the lawyers like Chris's team are following up Connetics team are following RBIs new to follow up. And then we also have the government affairs department to follow up and we definitely have seen encouraging results from that. So definitely positive movements are hopefully this is going to be an issue which is a temporary one and we're not going to see that too much going forward. Okay, and we have a question from Glendon Glendon is asking is the Utah marriage same sex marriage acceptable in the US, Chris,

was it Utah? Did

he say Utah marriage? Yeah, same sex marriage.

Yeah, no, no same sex marriage in the US under US immigration is treated like a like a like any other marriage. So yeah, you should be fine. And I guess congratulations are in order.

Congrats Clinton. Okay, Gina is tagging a lot of her friends. Thank you for doing that. Gina. If you're watching today, please tag your friends. This is our paying it forward for nurses. This is free complimentary information for you on emigrate your burning immigration questions. You have one of the best legal minds in the country today who is on and is sharing insights about various questions. We're hoping my Cameron will still be able to join us. I know he had a technical hitch. And but Chris, you are in the hot seat now. And okay, so we have a question from Aaron. Aaron. Hi, Erin. I'm from the UAE. I already received my welcome letter from the NVC when will I still be affected? If there it would be a retrogression press.

You should enter the United States before the expiry of your document, your immigrant visa I 551 that was issued. If you have that they're holding a Visa Place for you. I sometimes recommend you get in before the retrogression not because legally it shouldn't be a problem, but because occasionally officers are misinformed. So there's your answer.

Okay, thank you for that. Okay. And we have a question about passports. And I have my passport and I submitted it for the i 140 filing. And but I lost it I'm applying for replacement. Is it okay, if on the new password passport, I will change my name to my married name, or should it just read just redo it in my maiden name?

Right. So we get these kinds of questions. So it sounds like there's sort of two to two things going on here. Right. So one is the passport was last. And second. There's a name change consideration. Do I have that right? So with respect to the passport being lost, yes, you do need a passport in the United States. It doesn't matter if you get the visa approved and all of these other things. So yes, by all means, get that passport, if when you're ready to enter the United States, you have two passports or just one passport. That's okay, that won't matter. So that's the passport issue. The second issue is the name change and what we generally recommend is whatever name you start the visa process with you stay with that name throughout the process. If then once you're in the United States, you want to change your name, do it then with the only exception being you know if there's some personal religious reason why you want to change your name, and that just takes precedent for you then go ahead and do that. But you should over document and carry all of this paperwork with you when you enter the United States so you should cap carry your old passport with the maiden name your new passport, your educational documents that have your maiden name importantly your marriage certificate Importantly, the legal document whatever country you're from that acknowledges that your name has been changed, you want to over carry this documentation. If you for personal reasons, religious reasons, you the name changes as critical to who you are. It's not a huge issue for you either religiously or personally. Then we'd recommend for it then immigration takes precedence and then we would say try to keep your name the same. And then once you're in the US, it's not terribly difficult to change your name.

Okay. And if you have questions about the interview process, the container interview process, please check out on the Connetics USA website, our YouTube channel our social media, we Have a show called back to basics, which is a three part of Christmas on that show a three part very detailed description of everything that a healthcare worker needs to know about the EB three process, and specifically on the consulate in consular interview. side. So there is also a download that you can get from our website that is specifically for healthcare workers, and tells you everything that you need to know how to organize your documents, what questions you can expect. So some of the things that Chris has just gone through really important to bear in mind to be prepared when you go to your consular interview. Okay, moving on, and we have a question from Carla. Carla has just found out she's pregnant. Congratulations. She She's wondering how this will affect her application? And how will she be able to process her baby as an additional dependent? If she is if she were to be delivering in the UK while waiting for her us papers? Who expected due date is early March 2023?

Yeah, so as Tanya, so certainly congratulations in order. That's obviously exciting news. So, you know, if I don't know that, where you are in your process, but if you're going to your US visa interview anytime between now and the birth of the baby, and you enter the United States beforehand, then of course, the baby doesn't need any documentation because it's not on its own yet. And so then you can just enter the United States. That's, that's very straightforward. It sounds like the question though, is what if my interview happens in I don't know, July or something 234 months after the birth of the child, the child will need their own documentation, even if they're only a month old or something like that. And so you will need to get a passport for the child, the child will need to get an i 551, you will need to pay for the immigrant visa. It's to some degree, the fact that the child is young doesn't really change the analysis. It's really no different than any other child.

Okay, so there you go. Caller lots of good things ahead. And thank you, Chris, for answering caller's question. And we have a question here. From Alyssa. Alyssa is, is oh, let's say it's a med tech. I'm working on an H1 visa. And the question is, can a company legally sponsor me for a green card? I've been in the US for a while. I know that decision to sponsor a green card is up to the company. But at what point can they sponsor for green card? She's on an H1 visa right now.

Yeah, that one's pretty easy. They can sponsor today, anytime they want. Okay,

so there's no restrictions on that. Zero restrictions. Yeah. And we are happy to have you in the US. Yeah. Okay. All right. Let's go back to the chat. Whoa, the questions are coming fast and furious. And okay. Denise is from Turkey. Welcome Mar from Mexico. I love it. When I see from people from all over the world. It's just so fun. And Maron is saying Does the con Oh, that's an interesting question. Does the consulate scheduled interview appointments based on country of birth? In the monthly statistics shown in the State Department website, there's a PDF file against each month that shows the issues according to the place of birth, Chris?

Yeah, they do. I mean, this comes down to the visa bulletin that we talked about a little earlier, Tanya. So for instance, if you're an Indian national, you just won't get your visa appointment scheduled. If your Chinese national you probably won't get yours schedule as well. And that's just simply because those quotas have are so backlog. Again, if your priority date is earlier than the visa bulletin dates, then you will get scheduled. So that's really the only way country of birth impacts the scheduling itself.

Okay, thank you, Chris. Okay, Safwat is saying hi, Neville is saying he loves the show. Thank you. Neville. Youssef is watching from Nigeria and so forth is very frustrated with the CGFNS. Chris suffered. I think we've already answered this question. So I'm going to move on to a question that we have. From Trisha. Trisha is in do DQ for a year now, while all other nurses got interview dates. What is the best thing to do that lawyers can do? So Trish has been a DQ now for a year. Chris?

It works. What's your question? I guess I'm missing what can she do? Yeah, she should contact her attorney to find out why she's not getting scheduled. It may be you know, I guess I don't know. They're pretty rare. But yeah, I guess I'd need to know more about her case why she's not getting scheduled. But I would start with her attorney and or recruiter? And I would ask them that question. It's, there's probably a specific reason, rather than some sort of general reason.

Yeah. So Trisha, please go ahead and do that. If you've not already done. So the other thing, as I mentioned, once, you know, we understand what it is that is the issue. And they also is the avenue of going through the government affairs department at the healthcare facilities. And when they have been isolated into incidents, as well, as you know, like a bigger issue, like what we've seen the delays, moving cases from the I 140 approvals to the NVC, we definitely have seen results, positive results for that. And we have a question from Princess, what can be the reasons for denial at the USCIS? Chris,

there can be a million reasons, that's a very specific question there. Just to pick a few general concepts, though, it could be about the nurse, maybe your education is insufficient, maybe you haven't passed the NCLEX examination, it could be about your employer, maybe they are a smaller employer, and they don't have a good financial position. It could be about the notification that went to the US nurse as part of the process that you guys don't normally see you nurses don't normally see. But one of the processes that the attorneys do, is they put together notification to the US nurses, and there's some very peculiar guidelines that have to be done on those. And so maybe that notification was not done correctly. Those are at least some of the reasons, but again, there's almost a million reasons. You know, if I said to a nurse, you know, what are reasons a patient could get sick? You know, there's almost an answer, right.

I got it, Chris. Okay, so and what percentage? I mean, maybe we shouldn't even ask this question. But how often does that happen? We don't see that happen.

It doesn't happen very often. In fact, you know, one of the reasons that I didn't say that might be the most common reason Tanya, is the US government makes an error. Yeah, you know, and then we have to either reopen the case, or sometimes we decide it's just not worth the effort to reopen it. Because the US government is confused on the issue. And so if we just refile the case, we'll get maybe a more experienced officer. Yeah, so it there's really multiple, multiple reasons why it could happen. Okay. I like that sick analogy, though. I should use that more often.

Yeah. Good one, Chris. Okay. And so Mohammed from Nigeria, saying thank you for the update. Muhammad, we know that this is a very confusing, frustrating, long process. So that's where if you have your questions, please put them into the chat. I'll try to get through as many as possible. It is very, very, very stressful to go through this immigration process. And that's why we are so grateful to Chris, it looks like Mike is not going to be able to join us today. I know he had some technical hitch. But we so grateful to Chris and the immigration lawyers that specialize in healthcare that join us once a month to go through your questions and really give you hopefully some peace of mind some insight, some knowledge about how to navigate this difficult system is difficult process. Ma has a question about the timeline. How long does it take from the USCIS to get to the Department of State, Chris? Yeah, so

that's a little bit like we were talking before it comes down to that what should happen is we should see the fee bills in about a month or two. But the reality is, is right now we're seeing enormous delays for cases coming out of the Texas Service Center, where the Texas service center seems to not be communicating and moving the cases well to the National Visa Center. So you know, what we're doing internally is if we don't see that move happen within 60 days, we're following up. That's our rule of thumb we're using. Again, we used to take longer because, frankly, because it didn't we generally wasn't much of a problem. But yeah, I would say nor under normal circumstances, anything beyond 60 days or so is unusual. Okay.

Thank you, Chris. So, we have a question here from January who is saying, I'm about to get my i 140. filed this week, hopefully, how long before you think I will be in the United States?

Well, if you're an Indian national, it'll be about 12 years, unfortunately. If you're from anywhere else other than China, you know, I don't think it's unrealistic to say sometime in 2023 Probably, you know, summer fall of 2020. Three, assuming your i 140 is being filed August 19. Here. We don't really know a lot more in about 30 days when the US government releases the October visa bulletin. The reason why that one is important is because that's the US fiscal year for reasons that aren't worth worrying about recommended mature, I know why. The US fiscal year runs October 1 to September 30. It does not run January 1 to December 31. Like most things around the world, as a result of that the quotas for the next fiscal year will start October 1, that those numbers will be reflected on the visa bulletin that comes out in mid to late September. And so that first visa Bulletin of the fiscal year gives us a good indication as to what the visa bulletins are going to look like for the next 11 months. So we will be a lot smarter. Come combat date in mid September.

Okay. And that kind of relates to Ricardos question who's moving? Well, it'd be a spillover visa as to the employment based visa category for the next year.

Well, I'm sorry, I missed that one.

Will it be a spill over our visa to the employment?

Yeah, so that yeah, so that's a good question to ask. So that's sort of related to the last answer I gave i Sorry, I missed the word spillover. Yeah. So the spillover is when the US government doesn't use all of the visas in the prior fiscal year, they spill over into the subsequent fiscal year. And that's why the September visa bulletin is, is so important to us, because that will be the one that will tell us just how long or really give us an insight as to how much the spillover was.

Okay. Thank you, Chris. So stay tuned, everybody. And hopefully we'll have an answer for you on that question. In the coming weeks. And sad, sad has a question. My question is I've sent my ASCP MLS license twice. And it's not showing meets all program requirements on my dashboard for visa screen like my colleague, I thought Connetics added as agent will assist in rectifying small issues, but in vain. What helped will Connetics office and CGFNS is not efficient. So our side? It's a very specific question. And I'm not sure the specifics of your case. And I will make sure that our ally team get in touch with you to see how we can help you. And I right, is asking, oh, this is interesting. What is best to have your interview in Saudi in Riyadh, Saudi or in the Philippines, because as of now realize giving IDs in a slow pace as compared to the Philippines. Chris, what are you seeing in terms of the different consulates around the world?

Yeah. So, you know, I tend to give the same answer with this, Tanya, is that these timelines tend to tend to change quite a bit, and often with very little notification. So for instance, maybe today, Manila is moving faster than I forget where they said to Abu Dhabi, perhaps. But tomorrow, the officer who's running Manila cases might get transferred to London, England, and then all of a sudden, the Manila cases slow down. And the Abu Dhabi may get a, they may work through their backlog, and all of a sudden, they're quicker. So I think this idea of trying to pick an embassy based on their speed today is a bad decision. I also think switching your case to another embassy is almost always a bad decision. In particular, if you think you're going to get your visa faster. That's not a good idea, I think. And so my advice is wherever is going to be most convenient for you geographically, whether it's presumably overseas, you're working overseas in a place like the Gulf countries, or, or you're maybe but you maybe want to go home at some point and spend some time in the Philippines before you come to the US. Make your decision on your appointment based on that. Don't be fooled into thinking that today because Manila is a little faster than Abu Dhabi, that I should go to Manila, because by the time you get your case, the reverse could be true.

Yeah, it's so difficult to be able to predict these things, and know that nurses want to get to the US as quickly as possible. But it's so difficult to predict. So I think that's really valuable advice, Chris is really pick where it's most convenient. And stick with that. Don't try and jump around and try and, you know, navigate the system in a way that it's actually probably going to hurt you in the long term. Yeah. From a timing perspective. And Chris, Dorothy has a question. Can I add the kids of my husband from his first marriage on my petition? Yes.

Assuming that your husband Yeah, assuming that the kids are under 21

Okay. And Peter is asking, Why is adding my spouse taking long now?

Yeah, I have no idea. I don't even know what stage in the process she is. That's probably a question to direct to her attorney, or the hospital or the recruiter, they can find you for some specific reasons. It could be that you haven't given the attorney or the recruiter all the documents, it could be that the attorney has given the documents to the US government, and that they can't get it. It could be the attorneys dragging their feet. I mean, it could be almost any reason. Yeah.

So okay, so we got some clarity on that question, because there could be a lot of reasons. And okay, we have a question here from you. He has a history of absence without leave from his career as a policeman, will this have a risk in the immigration application of, of when I do my application, if it comes out of the consulate interview?

So you, you cut out a little bit the first, maybe two or three sentences, sort of what the issue was, I hear that spouses of policemen, but I wasn't sure why they felt that was significant.

Yeah. So the spouse has a history of absence without leave from his career as a policeman. Okay, so I think the nurse is worried will this come out at the consulate interview? And will that affect her case?

So the short answer is no. The longer answer is, if the absence without leave was for a significant criminal reason, perhaps, what I would suggest that this person does, Tanya, is that they email and talk to their attorney. And I would be truthful with the attorney as to sort of what happened here. Why did the spouse leave? Was it just simply, usually there's a reason was he injured on the job? did he fulfill a contract that he finished and he didn't want to continue? Or maybe even, you know, maybe he just was tired of the job and didn't want to work anymore? Or there was maybe a more significant reason, but whatever it is, this is this could be significant. So let your attorney know. My guess is it's probably not significant. But it's specific enough that I would definitely talk to the attorney who's handling the case to really get a specific answer.

Okay, thank you, Chris. And Janelle has a question. I'm a work maitake working in the US on an h1 visa. My hospital will sponsor my green card soon. At what point in the process? Can I let my visa screen expire?

Not until you get the green card, you need to have the green card in hand before you let that if not, if you don't have the green card, you unfortunately need to extend the PC screen.

Okay, thank you, Chris. Okay, so moving back to the chat. I'm like, literally, my head is spinning here. Chris was like, trying to see what we've already covered. I've got pages and pages in front of me. Okay. And I'm getting dizzy. Okay, is he? Oh, we've already answered this question. Easy. So thank you for posting that. Okay, Justine has a question. Hi, Tanya, please, if one's case was approved for expedite process, from the NVC to the to the embassy, and the CIC status says ready for interviewing scheduled at the US Consulate? How long is the embassy likely to schedule the interview? Or contact the applicant to schedule the interview?

Quickly if I followed the question, I mean, it sounds like she's very close to the finish line. Yeah. Yeah. So that's good news. Just yeah, that sounds like very good news. Yeah.

Good. Maria is asking, is there a waiting period for Caribbean nurses related to immigration? And what is the average waiting period for such So my understanding, Chris, from what you explained is that it's only Indian and Chinese born nurses that would have a delay. Not anybody born from the Caribbean, correct?

That's right. There's no problem for the Caribbean. That's right.

So there you go. Maria. And okay, RJ why some are saying that we still need to retake the request the latest police clearance from the Philippines. Even if we'd been living here in Canada since 2009. Please enlighten us about police clearances. Oh, this is a good question. Chris. We get this often. Can you clarify where people need to get the police clearances from?

So it candidly I can't and it's, unfortunately because it's been a little while since I've looked into this issue. And it is country specific thick, which is the key reason why I can't. And so each country has a different process outlined. And it's all available in the US Department of State site. But if this person is a client of our firm, go ahead and email me or email the lawyer or paralegal on it. And we'll give you a specific answer for a specific question. But I'm hesitant Tanya to speak off the cuff as to particularly even the Philippine one, I don't know off the top of my head, unfortunately.

Okay, so I was very specific, RJ go. Email, and either from the Canadian team or from the miscibility, we'll do our best to help you on the specifics of that question. And Rebecca is saying and I can apply great Anna is saying hi Connetics. And oh gee, oh, gee, I hope I've got that right is watching for Nigeria. I'm a registered nurse already had my IELTS congratulations, just apply this morning. I want to know if I'm eligible. So JG yes, if you are a registered nurse, you're definitely eligible. And congrats on getting your Isles because that can be one of the biggest hurdles in order to file an application and an i 140. Petition, you will have to pass your NCLEX exam. So please go ahead and apply and our team will see if you're eligible for the kinetic scholarship, Conneticsusa.com/application. Even if you are not eligible for the scholarship, as soon as you pass the NCLEX, let us know and we'd be happy to have you interview with one of the many clients around the United States that are looking for international nurses and healthcare workers. Okay, Chester has a question. My license endorsement in New York has been taking for ages. Yeah, we know that New York as well is very backed up. And my medical will soon expire. I was thinking if ever I will be given an immigrant visa, can I use a closer US territory or state like Puerto Rico, Hawaii, as my port of entry just to obtain the green card, exit back to the home country until I get my New York license?

Yeah, so the answer is yes. Having said that, I wouldn't do that on your own. You want to make sure you're talking to your recruiter, your attorney and your employer to make sure that everyone is on the same page on the strategy. For instance, your employer may know someone at the New York State Board of Nursing that can make sure that your nursing license gets done quicker than you think. So again, just to summarize, you can do that and in fact, Tanya you and I occasionally will recommend people do something like that. But just loop everybody and Don't. Don't do it on your own.

Yeah, always ask for expert advice. And Fiona's watching from Dubai. And please everybody see that we have a link in the chat for our EB three green card process. This is a free EB three guidebook and this is for you and tells you everything that you need to know about the EB three consular process. You can watch the videos on our website on our YouTube channel on our social media. And if you are like Alyssa who is a med tech and doing an Adjustment of Status green card we have a video as well as a guidebook for you if you're a Canadian coming on the TN visa, we have a video and a guidebook for you as well. So use this this is free information and tag your friends so that we can you know Knowledge is power. Knowledge is power. And it's really important to educate yourself and empower yourself with that knowledge. Okay, James is saying hi or wrongly saying hi. Ali is saying if anyone connect to the guys trying to make attempt at the NCLEX Yes, le go ahead to take the NCLEX really important to do that. But Jake is asking about nursing assistants. Yes, we have a Nurse Aide program. And Denise has asking about the fastest board. I think you're asking them to apply to So Denise usually we will see and nurses apply to Texas, Illinois and New York. I think Illinois, New York is a little more expensive. Illinois and Texas seem to be a little bit more expensive but faster. And okay. Oh my goodness, Chris. So many questions. Yeah. Okay. Question here from Peter. How long does it take for the actual green card to be mailed to you? I've arrived in the United States with my family and I haven't yet got my green my actual green card yet. I'm worried. You know and Peter to worry.

Yeah, we don't want Peter to worry. I mean, I've seen it take as long as about six maybe even eight weeks. That's probably the longest before we start to get concerned. Anything before that. not that unusual. Okay.

So please don't worry, Peter, you are here in the US. Let's celebrate ate that moment, and hopefully you will get that soon. And okay, Daniel has a question. Why do we sometimes receive a notice like this notice was returned to USCIS because the post office could not deliver it with this delay the I 140. Approval. Chris,

what? What wasn't able to deliver to cut out

was returned notice was returned to the USCIS because the post office could not deliver it. I don't know if it's a

I'm not sure that a very specific thing. I would definitely say to just simply your attorney should be able to answer that very quickly. That would be very difficult.

Yeah. It sounds to me like it's an i 140 approval. Daniel, I'm sorry, I we don't know on  that specifics. Joselito is asking how does the CSPA works? Is it automatic or you have to apply for it. If you're dependent is going to age out the i 140 is approved waiting for embassy interview at the Philippine Embassy appointment is difficult to get how does the CSP a what is the CSPA

shows the CSPA is the child status Protection Act. The idea here, first of all, this only really applies if you have a child who's maybe 1920, pushing 21 years old, those the only people that are that are impacted by this. And essentially, the CSPA says that first, if your child is over 21, at the time you go to your visa appointment, the child will not be issued a visa that's sort of standard immigration rules, which is why, you know, it's particularly important, Tonya that if you're thinking of coming to the US and you have a teenage child, and you expect you would like that child to come with you, then then let's get working on our NCLEX. Let's, let's get recruited by Connetics, let's get into the system, we don't want to you don't want to get close to that 21st birthday. Once the child turns 21, then the child doesn't qualify as your derivative, and there's nothing they can do about it. And they're going to have to stay back in the Philippines or wherever they are. So that's number one. But the CES, what the CSPA says is the duration that the I 140 is pending, we can sort of add to the child's age. So for argument's sake, if the I140, took four months to get approved, then the child can be 21 and four months at the time of that visa interview, specifically answering that one last point, which is don't think you're going to figure all this out yourself. This is why you have attorneys that can walk you through it. Number one, number two, in terms of the specific question, which is do you have to apply for anything you don't, but it's sometimes it's helpful to have a little short memo or brief included with the petition. If the case is confusing, and so we handle that on a case by case basis.

Okay, thank you, Chris. So, I mean, it's really a mathematical calculation, right? And not something that you can do yourself as a leader. So I'm glad you're educating yourself about that. So that's good. And but, you know, you're really going to have to consult with the, with the lawyers to try and figure out in terms of your specific case. And, Chris, we have a question from Victoria. And if I am intermarriage with a different race or nationality, do I need to register the marriage in both countries of the parties?

No, you just need a marriage that is valid or legal in the country that you got married?

Okay. And Janessa has a question. And do I have to worry if my offer letter does not bear my middle name?

I don't think so. Probably not. We'd like to yeah, probably not. And then surely don't have to worry. There's nothing legally that says you have to worry so I can answer that one definitively.

And is age declaration affidavit accepted for the I 140 and the NVC stage.

So it there's no such thing as an age declaration. There is such thing as affidavits or declarations that discuss birth. In a country where birth certificates were not common at the time that the individual was born. This also falls under the UN. And the answer to that is sometimes yes. If you were born in a country, and you were born years ago, and it was uncommon for birth certificates to be issued we can, we will put together a series of affidavits for you. Having said that that's less frequent than it was when I started out, frankly, because most countries do issue birth certificates now, and that is, you know, that's something you definitely want to address with your attorney if you if you don't have a birth certificate.

Okay. All right. So we are almost at the hour. So I think I'm going to take like one or two more questions. And gentleman is saying, once I'm in the US, can I petition for a fiancée, Visa, Chris? And how does that work?

So no, you cannot petition for a fiancée visa. So that's easy, unless you're a US citizen. Accordingly, what we will usually recommend is if you are thinking of getting married, you will want to think faster, and married before you go for your green card. If you do not go for your green card, then you will not be eligible for a fiancée visa until you're a US citizen, which will be five years, there will be another quicker way which is called filing and I 130 on behalf of your spouse, but that could take another year or two, maybe longer depending on the country. All of which again, is a long way of saying that. If you're thinking of marrying and you've been in a committed traditional dating relationship for some time, my recommendation is you may want to consider getting married and of course talk to the attorney about that because the attorney is going to want to frame the case in a way that it doesn't look like it was a fraudulent marriage, which would of course be fatal to US immigration petition.

Okay. And so that gives a lot of food for thought. And on that question for gentlemen. Rosana says, and hi ma'am. I'm from India, EB three, I submitted my DS 260 on the 22nd of June, waiting to be documentary qualified soon. My eldest son, this is about the son, my eldest son is 21 on April 23, eight months left. Is it a valid reason for requesting an expedite? If yes, when should it be done?

I sort of missed the facts in terms of an expedite, there's almost an expedite at what stage of the process I kind of missed the fact that

she is at she's waiting to be DQ. So

she can try to expedite she can not try to expedite we don't really see the expedite having that much success is the reality. So you can go ahead and try it again. I would don't do it yourself, though. This is one constant theme. I think, Tanya, that's very important, is pleased like it, we often see where cases get into trouble where the nurse thinks she's helping her own case. And what she doesn't know is that there may be something going on behind the scenes that the attorneys doing. And if the embassy gets two different requests on the same case, that actually, so let's pretend you think you want to go ahead and expedite and you're going to go out on your own and expedite the case. Meanwhile, your attorney has already been doing that. Well, once they get the second expedite, they may cancel the first expedite. And so you thought you were helping your case, and you're actually hurt your case. And so the number one thing on these kinds of situations, is please bring everybody into the loop do not think you're helping your case by going out on your own. And there's very little cost and time to including everybody in on the on the conversation. So that would be my number one piece of advice on any of these expedite type questions with your specific case, it sounds like your facts may warrant an expedite, but don't be mistaken. And to think that just because you request an expedite, they're going to move your case to the top of the stack because the reality is almost everybody would do it. Then in which case, if everybody's expedited, nobody's expedited.

Yeah. Okay. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. And Okay, two more questions. We have one from Francis. This is not actually immigration, France, I'd like to ask regarding the license endorsement, I have my USRA in from New York, then got hired from Maryland State, I believe that is one of the requirements of Maryland status, social security number. So Francis, and you will have from Connetics USA, a case specialist, who will help you to navigate that process of how to do the endorsement, especially if you need social security. And you obviously need a green card to get social security. So it can be a little bit of a dance, but we know how to help you to navigate that. And okay, so one last question here that we have from rural. All is asking, I signed a petition with an employer in the United States. And I think I made a mistake when I come to the United States. Is there any implication if I breach my commitment,

yes, this is something you should unquestionably not do. So you should not do this if you sign a contract. In your, your, and you go to a visa interview, knowing that you're not going to fulfill that contract, you are engaging in visa fraud, which could be subject to a 10 year bar from entry into the United States. This is not something to be taken lightly. You if you are early enough in the process, you may want to talk. First of all, you may want to be asking yourself, why do I think that you made a mistake? There may be some good reasons. Maybe the employer keeps not responding to you. Maybe the employer is asking you for money, or the recruiters asking you for money. Those might be good reasons. What's not a good reason is you sign the contract the employer or the recruiter put a lot of time working with you. They said you were going to work in in Chicago, you said you would work in Chicago, and now you've decided you'd rather live in Los Angeles. That's not a very good reason. But breaching the contract, from an immigration standpoint, can you rise to immigration fraud. And so we definitely do not recommend that breaching the contract, even after you enter the United States could give rise to visa fraud. And so we don't recommend that. Having said that, no one should be in a situation where they don't, you know, but it's not question of just not liking there has to be some sort of bad behavior on behalf of the employer. And at that point, you're going to want to talk to an attorney. But Tanya, I gotta be honest, this is this is something that I'm I don't think there's much subtlety to, which is that, you know, breaching these contracts, for, you know, because the employer across the street offered me another $5 an hour. That's probably a very good decision for you in the moment, but really a very bad decision for you from a legal perspective.

Yeah, thank you. I think it is something this is a very serious issue. And something not to be taken lightly as Criseyde, both from an immigration perspective, as well as from a financial perspective, because you're going to have a big breach clause that has a financial obligation that you might have to pay back to that employer, and also from just an ethical and professional perspective. So I definitely would encourage everybody to think of anything that you are signing, like as if it's a marriage commitment. And you got to think very carefully. Don't just sign something that you don't understand. You need to make sure that you understand and you've done your homework, you've done your research, that this is a good offer, that you are happy with the offer. And that the employer most times is going into this with good faith. They want to you know, change your life and bring you to the United States and help you defray some of those expenses by paying for certain things like the immigration costs. But you know, this is really something not to be taken lightly at all, and has serious immigration and financial implications. And okay, we are at the hour. Thank you so much, Chris. It was just the two of us today. And you got through it. Like a superstar. I'm so sorry to everybody who has questions I didn't get to. And we will try to get through as many questions as we can next month, when the expert legal team and or the expert legal person for today, Chris is here. And I'd like to just remind everybody about the upcoming shows. So we have our upcoming shows. And next week, we are doing a very interesting show on the cost of living in the United States. Most nurses don't most healthcare workers don't realize that they are different states have different cost of living and what the implications are of that. On September 2, we are navigating the RN employment deferred benefits in the United States how to benefits work, very confusing for many Americans so important to educate yourself about that. Number nine, that is September 9 is buying a home in the United States. This is living the American dream. On September 16, Chris and the panel we'll be back with immigration Q&A. And on the 20th we have the look forward talk show where we talk about clinical differences in the IDI as opposed to in the US as opposed to working overseas and then on the 23rd we have stateside back and we will be talking about a specific state, also the Connetics college and we have an every Monday and we have the Connetics college. So this is free information. If you are still going through the NCLEX process that I have courses on the 22nd we have Niners who will have an OE T class. On the fifth of September we have an NCLEX pass by Aspire. And on the 12th of September we have an IELTS class to switch and on the 19th we have an empty Next class with Rochelle from IPASS. And Niners will be back on the 26th talking about the difference between IELTS Oh et and PSN PTE, and Connetics initiatives. And don't forget we Connetics have a free IELTS and OT or PSN PTE scholarship for all Connetics nurses is a free review course. We have a free NCLEX scholarship for selected nurses. Our referral fee is back by popular demand until the end of this month. Watch, listen to our podcast nursing in America. And our we have a news a program a Friday show onwards and upwards. Connetics college every Monday, and we also have many allies. So thank you for joining us, everybody. Thank you for joining us, Chris. Onwards and upwards and see you next week.

Thanks everybody.