US Immigration for Nurses

Yay. I'm so excited. We've been having a very bad morning this morning with some technical hitches. So again, if you're just joining us now, I'm so relieved we are back. We had some technical hitches. I guess it's Friday Gremlins. And if you are joining us now, it is Friday. So it's Connetics weekly show, Onwards and Upwards, everything that a nurse needs to know about coming to live and work in the United States. I am your host, Tanya Freedman.

And I'm very relieved and grateful today to be able to speak to our panel, Denise Gavika, Paris. Denise, I don't see you. Can anybody else see Denise? No, we can see her earlier. No, she was on earlier. Okay. All right. Well, I can hear and see Chris or hopefully Denise will be able to join us. And today's topic is our expert legal panel question and answer. So I see we have a lot of questions and a lot of people that are watching from all over the world already. And we are running a little late. So we will go a little overtime. And I apologize for the delay. It seems like we had some technical hitches this morning. If you are watching today, please put in the chat your name, where you're watching from, and this is your time to ask these brilliant legal minds any questions that you have that are worrying you, bothering you in this very difficult and complicated process of coming to America.

Okay. So Jeff is saying good morning, watching from old Mississippi. Welcome. I'm glad you're in the USA. Jeff Elvin is from Fort Myers. We've got viewers watching from Jeddah, Philippines. Elvin is saying Hi. Arlene is from the beautiful island of Jamaica. Philippines, Abu Dhabi. I was just in Abu Dhabi. Everybody arrived back this week, Bahrain. Henry saying Hi. Sherimar all of our friends. Sheri Ma from Canada, from Philippines. So lots and lots of people joining us. And I see Denise is joining us now, too. I think we are over our technical hitches.

Welcome, Denise. Hi. Good morning, Tanya. How are you? I'm so relieved to hear your voice and to be able to see you. Thank you so much. I'm sorry about that. I was reading the chat and it threw me off. I'm not techy, so forgive me. Well, it was a morning of Gremlins, but we're here and we are ready for questions and we're going to jump right in. So we have a question for our expert legal minds.

Crystal is saying I have an I-140 approved in February 14, and I don't have my fee bill yet. My friend, who got her approval at more or less the same time, already has her female. I've been trying to be patient, but I'm very frustrated. Denise, this is something that we're seeing from a lot of candidates. Can you explain to everybody who's watching what's happening and what can be done about this situation? Sure. Absolutely. So we are seeing this as a recurring theme where immigration, once the I-140 is approved, they're supposed to notify the National Visa Center that the case has been approved, transfer the file. However, they do that internally. And the National Visa Center in turn, sends what's called a welcome notice, which includes a fee bill.

Typically, it's supposed to take about two and a half weeks to a month in order for that process to flow. In some cases, it does occur in two weeks. In others, it doesn't. We have seen cases where some of the fee bills are being issued in three months, three and a half months, and we've seen cases where some of the fee bills are issued in two and a half weeks. It all depends on the flow from immigration to the National Visa Center of the approval of the I-140. I think we've lost Denise.

Chris, do you want to elaborate on what Denise is saying? This is a very hot topic at the moment because there's a lot of frustration. Right. Of course a lot of nurses are frustrated, but ultimately we receive a fee bill. Okay. Mike, is this something that you're seeing at the moment, anything that can be done in your opinion, Chris? Yeah, I don't think there's much. My hope is that this shakes out this summer, but yes, as she said, we were just incredible inconsistency out of that time between the Iowa and 40. It's not a personal thing. It's not something that you're doing wrong or your attorney is doing wrong or Connetics is doing wrong. It is unfortunate reality of a US government system that's really been a lot later than a lot of other systems to get up to speed and postcode it. Okay. So I think patience is the answer, right? It's the only option. It's the only option.

Okay. Rose has got a similar question. So, Rosa, we've got that one for you. Okay. We have a question that was sent in my interview is the 28 July 2022. My dependence passport expiry is January 2023. So I applied for a renewal and it is done. Once the renewal is on process, the interview expedite was granted so suddenly because I interviewed last May 19 and the visa issued the next day, the new passport arrived only today. Is that a problem when flying to the US? Anything that can be done? The travel government website says just carry the old and the new passport. But I've read some posts that it can cause a problem. Mike, what should this viewer do in this way? It sounds like the visa stamp was issued in the old passport, but now we have a new passport. Is that how everyone would interpret that question? Okay, so I would simply travel with the old and the new. I do not think there'll be any problem. Okay, so there you go. No need to worry.

Kibboy has a question. Montreal is very slow in issuing an interview date, is it better to transfer the case to Manila? Denise? No, no, Kevin, stay where you are. Keep on track. That's going to cause an extra delay, am I right? Yeah. Unquestionably. It will never be faster to transfer it. I'm sure Montreal is slow, but as you heard from the prior question, everything is slow, in fact. But the worst thing in my opinion, you can do is to keep trying to jump out ahead, because by the time you move it from Montreal to Manila, Montreal may be faster. Manila will be slow. So there you go. Kiboi Jefferson has a question.

This is a good question. Good day. Watching from the Philippines. What is the difference in time frame between premium visa processing and regular processing? And we actually have a quiz question for everybody who's in the chat. Jefferson seems to know, but this is the common thing that people don't seem to know what premium processing is. So we have a quiz question, and the question is, what is premium processing? If you know the answer to the question, what is premium processing? Please let us know you are legalized and put the answer into the chat. Anybody know what is premium processing? Jefferson had a good question there. Before we answer this question, does anybody know what premium processing? Please put your answers into the chat. We'd love to see if you are legal wise. This is education time. No takers. Nobody is putting into the chat. What is premium processing? Oh, goodness. So it seems like we've stumped the audience.

Chris. First of all, can you tell everybody who's watching what is premium processing? And then let's ask the person. Yeah. So the green card process has essentially three components to it. It has what we sometimes call the pre-filing Department of labor stage, which consists of the prevailing wage determination and the notice posting. And if your facility or employer is new to the process, then we have to do that before we can move on to the second stage of your case. If your facility or employer regularly hires foreign nurses, then that stage probably is ongoing and is continually going, in which case we can more or less bypass that stage for you. That stage, unfortunately, can take five to seven months right now. But again, if your employer regularly hires nurses, you essentially skip that stage because it is an ongoing process. The second stage, Tanya, is called the I-140 process, and then the third stage is called the NVC or the consulate process. In that middle stage, the I-140 process, we can file it two different ways. We can file a premium processing or standard or regular processing.

If we file regular processing, depending on the time of the year in the service center and the whims of the US government, we've probably seen it go as fast as maybe four or five months at certain times. And sometimes it takes as long as ten months or even a year. And that's just for that middle stage, the I-140, if we use premium processing, it shrinks that down to 15 business days. So it gets done in under a month. And so that's what premium processing is. And that's the big advantage of it, which is it turns that middle stage from four, five to ten months down to 15 business days. Okay. So that's a very important differentiator that nurses and health care workers need to be aware of. Is your sponsor offering premium processing? And I see in the chat we had, some of our viewers got the question correct.

Merin is saying the case will be decided in two weeks. Just so it's saying 15 working days. Who else is there? Julie said expedited processing. Maxi is saying premium processing is when the I-140 documents is expedite within. She's got 15 to 20 business days. It's actually 15. So we've got a few viewers there. Well done. You are legal wise, and thank you to Chris for that explanation. I think Denise is still having some technical issues. Are you back? Yes, I'm sorry. We got some Gremlins in the mix.

And Mike, I see we have some questions about the process for medical technologist. I know many of our viewers are nurses. Can you talk a little bit about the process from an immigration perspective for a medical technologist? Sure. I'll kind of tag on what Chris said earlier with the last question with respect to there being three stages in the process and the medical technologist where the stage is different is at that first stage. So medical technologists have to go through a labor market test to determine whether there are a sufficient number of qualified, available US workers to fill the position. So every occupation except for nurses and physical therapists have to go through this process. It's called perm or labor certification.

So whether you're a doctor, whether you're a software engineer, a teacher, or a medical technologist, you're going to go through this process. And as Chris also mentioned, if you're going to work for an employer that does ongoing recruitment of segmenting technologies, then your process could be as short as six months because all the recruitment could have already previously been done. If, however, you're going to an employer that does not routinely recruit medical technologist, then you're going to be in a process that takes about a year, at least nine months, because you're going to go through a prevailing wage request. Then you're going to go through a recruitment stage where they actually do a series of activities, including newspaper ads, online postings, job orders, et cetera, with the idea being to demonstrate that we as an employer did these activities to try to recruit US workers.

There were insufficient number of US workers. We still have more openings than we have qualified workers, and therefore, your case can move forward. The rest of your immigration case is exactly like an RN exactly as Chris described it, with stage two being available for premium stage three, NVC and the consular are all identical. So it's just that first stage that changes it,  but it can't add as much as a year to your process. Okay. Thank you for that, Clarification. I know that we have a lot of medical technologists that are interested in coming to the USA. If you are interested, please go to the Connetics USA website, fill in an application, and our allied recruiter will be very happy to speak to you. We have many positions all over the United States now for medical technologists, and Mike has graciously just explained the immigration process. So a little different than for the registered nurses.

Sorry, can I have one thing about Medtechs? Yeah, go ahead. Okay, so there's some sponsor, some employers that will also what I described, there was the green card process for Medtech. Okay. There are some employers that will sponsor Medtech for an H1. Our ends are generally not eligible for an H1 One, but Med tech are an occupation that are. So depending upon the employer that's hiring you, they may be what's referred to as a cap exempt employer. They don't have to go through the H1 visa and they can do an H1 for you. And in a situation like that, you could reasonably expect depend on what concert you're at. Six weeks, eight weeks to be here in the US on a visa. Okay. So much quicker to get to the United States. One thing to add, just from a licensing perspective, obviously you need to pass the Asdpi or equivalent license as well as have passed your IELTS and Visa screen your IELTS if you are not trained in English. And we have many positions in many States, so you really can get to the US very quickly.

Chris, I have a follow-up question from Bert, who is a medical technologist. If I come on an H1 visa, how long afterwards can my employer sponsor me for an adjustment of status? Green card, as we've been talking about, there are three stages of the process. The adjustment of status is swapped out. It's the third stage of the process, and it's swapped out for the NVC stage. I sometimes say that it's almost just like the NVC stage, except your interview takes place here in the United States instead of taking place in Manila. And often the US government can waive the interview if you're here in the United States in terms of when they can start that process, they can start it immediately. But that doesn't mean your adjustment of status is going to be filed immediately. But it means that if your first stage of the process needs to begin, it can be done immediately. And if the first stage is ongoing, as we've talked about, then the second stage can begin immediately.

The third stage, which is the adjustment of status. Your date has to be current under one or both of the table A and table B on the Visa bulletin. And so, for instance, if you're an Indian National in the United States on an H1 Visa, as I think we said, Medtech. But really, any H1 visa, unfortunately, it's probably going to be ten years before your adjustment of status can be filed. Most of the other countries right now, except for China, the adjustment of status States are current, and so then follow the adjustment of status more or less immediately. And then the only other piece of this, Tanya, is a lot of employers because it's an expensive process. They may want to just wait till you're in the United States for a few months, six months, maybe even as much as a year just to make sure that they're happy with you and your work. And by the way, that you're happy with them and their work. You don't want to go through this expensive and time-consuming process with an employer if you're not happy with them and do not plan on staying with them for some time. Okay. So that sheds a lot of light on the process.

Chris, so am I right in saying that the timing of when an employer could do an adjustment of status green card for any candidate where their nationality is current on the Visa bulletin is at the discretion of the employer. So the I-140 stage is at the discretion of the employer. The I 45 stage, it's at the discretion of the employee. But if the employer is paying for it, they don't have to pay for it. So on some level, it's at the discretion of both parties, both the employer and the employee. Okay, good. All right. That's helpful. Merin has a question. This is a licensing question. So Marin, I think this might be the same. Mary and I met in the UAE last week. So if it is nice to see you watching and this question, please reach out to your Connetics key specialist and they will help you with a roadmap of how to navigate coming to live and work in California. It's a little bit of a dance, but our case specialist will be able to admire you.

Okay, so we've got Maxi from Ghana. Welcome. Welcoming. Jeanine from the Philippines, Jonathan Jasmine from the Philippines, Glenda from Abu Dhabi. I must say, Glenda, it was so fun to be in Abu Dhabi and see all of our nurses and in Dubai in the last few days. Just very hot. Okay, let's see. We have a question. A Facebook user. My question is regarding my daughter. She was before follow to join status. Then I requested to change to a company but her name was deleted in my account. I asked the lawyer and she saw Collins for the Child Protection Act. She is already 22 years old. Can I bring her to the embassy interview by requesting to add her again once I have my interview date. I requested the NVC to change her name again, but nothing happened. Please advise. Thank you for all of you and have a nice day.

Denise, do you want to take that question? Sure. So from what I'm understanding, she originally intended to file a follow to join and then decided to have her as an accompany to add her to the process. If this was done after she turned 21, Unfortunately, I don't believe that she will be able to include her in the process, but this is a very detailed question that would require further analysis of the case rather than it's a complex question. So we would have to look at the date when the fee bill was originally issued for her, and I'm not sure if it was issued for her daughter. So it would be best to discuss this issue offline because I don't want to provide a general answer during this chat. But basically, if she included her daughter and then a company to join after she turned 21, it could be an issue where her daughter would have to qualify for her own immigrant people. Okay. Thank you, Denise. So Facebook user I hope that's helpful. We need to do more of a deep dive into your personal case.

Chad Regini is saying Hi. What about nurses from India who haven't filed the I-140 petition? And Chad Regina Rajiri, I hope I'm saying that right. Has NCLEX as well. And Mike. Yeah. Well, thanks for giving me that one instead of Denise's question. Unfortunately, the priority date line for India is too long to really reasonably expect a new 1-140 filing in the EB3 category. You're probably looking at least ten years in line. And I'm not aware of any employers right now that are willing to file new I-140s for Indian nationals. So I think we're looking at if there's some legislative relief, which we've been talking about since the, I don't know, 80s long time, then there's not much opportunity right now, unfortunately. Okay. So unfortunately, that is the sad answer, but hopefully there will be some legislation relief. Chris, any updates on that front? The short answer is no, but we might have some updates a little later in the summer, but for now, there's really nothing that has changed much time. Okay. That's a question we get every month. So we're still hoping, Chris, that you'll give us a different answer in the coming weeks. It's great.

All right. Chester has a question. A lot of immigrant visa applicants are going Gaga over the CGI online interview booking even without formal announcement from the US Embassy, Manila. Is that the new way of securing an interview date? Denise, do you know anything about this? The only way that I know of securing an interview date is again paying the fee bill being documentarily qualified. The National Visa Center Coordinating with the US Consulate. The appointment the US Consulate scheduling the appointment. Attempting to try to expedite that appointment lately hasn't been easy. Once the case was documentarily qualified, meaning that the National Visa Center had all of the documents already collected and the file was complete, we would request an expedite of the appointment, and it was very successful in the beginning. But we're starting to notice a slowdown or denial of the expedite request. So the only process that I am aware of to schedule an appointment at the US Consulate is the standard procedure where the National Center coordinates with the US Consulate.

We try to ask for an expedite if necessary, and lately they haven't been approving that many expedites. However, we are seeing movements with a documentarily qualified completion of the process. So it's really on a case by case basis. The same officers are not scheduling the appointment, so you're going to have different results. So just be patient. We will reach your interview.

I keep saying this because I want everyone to be positive and we are seeing movement, but it's not. Denise, we seem to have lost you at the end there, I think. I'm sorry. There's a weather problem here, so the Internet keeps going down. I'm so sorry, Tanya. Well, it seems to be in here in California, too, and there's no weather problems. I don't know what's happening today. Hopefully next Friday will be better. Both Denise and I have had some technical Gremlins today, but we're doing the best we can. Just curious. Mike and Chris, have you heard about this CGI online interview booking system? No. Let me just share with you the kind of high level strategy of what I do. I had several people in my office have that question given to me this week. I forward them to Chris and said, hey, see what Chris knows about that. I don't know anything. So that's what I did. His customer service was a little slow. It took him like a day to get back to my team. I love your shirt, by the way, Mike. Let everybody see what it says. Live a great story. Live a great story, everybody. Let's keep our vision and our sense of humor.

If Mike was referring to you, what is your take on this online? Here's what's been happening, as I understand it. So about maybe ten days, two weeks or so ago, some nurses in the Philippines began receiving requests to electronically sign up for appointments through the EB3 category, which is the essential worker category, which is bizarre because that term really sort of hasn't been used in many years. But I think some antiquated technology on the embassy part may be causing this. I think there's one or two things going on.

So my first theory, which can never be underestimated, is that it's just simply an error on behalf of the embassy. And that may be what's going on, which is just some cases were tagged under this other worker or essential worker category, and they're being asked now to put their information into that system and sign up. So that's one theory, which is just an error. And if that happens, my guess is in a week or two, we'll stop seeing that and the whole thing will shut down and this will just be in the past. My second theory is that in the main visa bulletin, if you look closely, you'll see that there's an other worker row in the visa bulletin. And for the first time in a while, that has been retrogressed for the Philippines. And sometimes the State Department doesn't anticipate as much as they expect. And so what has happened is they've retrogressed this EB3 other worker, which is different than the EB3 regular.

And so what may have happened is that the embassy had a bunch of appointments in June and maybe in July for other workers that are now moot because that category has retrogressed. And so what may be happening is Manila. It may be stacking up appointments in that category because they have the time frames available, even though, strictly speaking, these aren't EB3 other workers. And so no matter what the answer is, we definitely recommend people can go ahead and register that way as well, at least until we get information that it's an error or for that matter, that folks are able to get their appointment and then ultimately get their immigrant visa. So it's one of two things I've got an inquiry in with the State Department just a couple of days ago. I haven't heard back from them yet, but as soon as we hear something, we'll let everybody know. Okay. Thank you for that, Chris.

And I see we have a comment here from Janelle, who's one of our amazing case specialists, also asking about this booking interview schedule because we are hearing that from a number of nurses right now for the Manila consulate. So stay tuned, everybody. This is where Mike Hammond gets his information and where the rest of us do. So we will do some investigation and come back to you on that question. Okay, let's see. I want to make sure that I give everybody a chance for their questions. Okay. Let me see here. Okay. Some of the questions that are in the chat. Thank you for your questions, everybody. We love getting your questions. I'm just trying to cover as many as we can in the limited time. And some of them are duplicate. So if I don't get to yours, please don't be offended. I'm just trying to cover as many as possible.

Okay. We have a question here from a Facebook user. I'm here in the US with a non-immigrant visa. I was hired. An adjustment of status and work authorization was filed. Is there any way to expedite my work authorization, Denise? Yes. Recently, a policy came out on May 30 where the government was allowing us to premium process employment authorization documents because of how long it has taken for most of them to be approved. And so you can request expedited service premium processing, as was previously discussed. The only drawback is that it will take about 30 days, according to the policy, for the employment authorization document to be issued anywhere between maybe two weeks to 30 days. But from what we're hearing, they're saying 30 days for the employment authorization document to be issued. Okay. Thank you, Denise. So that's good news.

So we have a question here. I have a question regarding my case. It is very clear on my approval notice. I am filed as a skilled worker E3. But during the NVC case creation, all documents show EW unskilled worker. Is there any reason for this change or is it just a clerical error on the NVC part? Is it possible to change my Visa class even if I am all set DQD more than a year ago? Unfortunately, I just saw this recently and also my employer's attorney. Not until they noticed why I still don't have my visa while my batch mates were dead. Mike, any comments on this question? Yeah. So it's likely a clerical error at the NVC because the NVC does not determine whether you're a worker or professional any of the other categories. So I would think that would be something that particularly with the retrogression occurring in the other worker category. I would think you'd want to your attorney to get that resolved at the NVC level. Okay. Thank you for that.

Binu has a question. If an NVC case was terminated two years ago, can we restart and use the same priority date? Chris, you can. You probably need to file something like an I 824 to nudge the I-140 back to the NVC service center. What I really do, though, is probably contact the attorney and see where it is in the I-140 process and why it was terminated. For instance, if the I-140 was withdrawn, then no, then you can't do that. So that's somewhat fact specific, but there may be a way to file, like I said, an I-140 to reinitiate the NVC. But sometimes and I learned this from Mike because the information goes back and forth. Sometimes it makes more sense to just file a whole new case and recapture the Iowa. Okay. Thank you, Chris. Hi. Ali has a question. I'm a new graduate nurse from Turkey preparing for the NCLEX and waiting for Att. As I don't have any experience, I want to know if you ask a certain period of bedside experience.

So, Annie, this is a good question because Connetics is a direct hire.  We have opportunities with many different employers all over the United States, and some employers will require experience and some don't. So please go to our website and apply. Our case specialists will be able to speak to you as soon as possible. And as soon as you've got your NCLEX, we will schedule you an interview with one of our employers that will consider you even if you don't have bedside experience. So please go ahead and apply. James has a question. Hi, Musselo. Would you have an idea when the NVC is going to give dates? I'm not sure what that question is. Chris couldn't give dates. Yeah. Mike is really the dating specialist. Yeah. Assuming we're talking about consular interview dates, it varies by consulate. You have some consultants that are doing scheduling interviews right away after your DQ and others that are going to take a lot longer. So we're seeing just a variety around the world as to how quickly those dates are available. Okay. Between Chris and Mike, it's kind of like a tennis match. Okay, this one's for you, Denise, and you have to feel left out. Would you recommend to try to get and this is from Julie.

Would you recommend to try and get an EB3 visa, which I think Julie is an Australian, rather than try to get an EB3 given the current delays? Denise. Yes. If the position qualifies, of course, the position has to qualify for an EB3 nonimmigrant visa if that's an option. If there's a position that's requiring a bachelor's degree or higher, it's very similar to the H1, B one, then yes, it's better to enter as a non immigrant, in my opinion. I prefer adjustment of status over consular processing because they're easier to control. But if that's not an option, if the position doesn't require a bachelor's degree or higher, then the position wouldn't qualify for any three. And your only choice would be an EB3. And just to not confuse the audience, an EB3 is permanent residence, employment based third preference category. And EB3 is a non immigrant temporary worker visa. So there's a difference. And it's specifically for Australians.

Okay. Thank you for that, Denise. So if Julie is a registered nurse, would she qualify for the EB3 visa? If a position requires a bachelor's degree and she has a bachelor's degree in nursing, then yes, but if it does not require a bachelor's degree, if it's a registered nurse position requiring an associate, then it would not qualify for any three.

Okay. Thank you. Denise Marin is asking answering my question. Hi, Tanya. Yes, I am. So it's a Marin I meet in Abu Dhabi with the cutest daughter who drew me a beautiful picture that said, I love you very dear to my heart, Marin. I'm going to keep it in my office, so thank you for that. And it was great to meet you and your family. Okay.

Ameng has a question. Hi, everyone. I have a concern. Me and my wife are currently working in Doha, Qatar. Our children ages are six, three and one in the Philippines. My question is, do we have to bring our children from the Philippines here? To Qatar embassy for Visa as well, or having their documents will be enough for the interview in the future. Mike, you're talking about having their interviews in Manila versus your interviews there in Qatar. I like to have everyone together at the same place. And you're obviously going to have a faster processing anywhere other than Manila right now. So that would be my suggestion. Okay, so there you go. Cabira is a matek with ACPI Kabira. Yes. We have many possessions for Medics. Please apply right away and we'd be happy to help you. So we have another quiz. We just want to make sure everybody's paying attention. This is our education piece. So this is a question that we get from many nurses where there's terminology that's confusing. So the question is, does anybody know what the word prevailing wage? The term prevailing wage means.

If you know what prevailing wage means, please put the answer into the chat and show legal wise, you've been learning on our show onwards and upwards. What is prevailing wage? Anybody know what that is? If you know the answer, please put your answer into the chat. Very important to educate yourself. And while everybody is thinking about that, I want to refer everybody to our international nursing agency Connetics USA website. We have some amazing guide books. One on the concierge green card process, one on the adjustment of status process, one on the tier process. So really important to educate yourself and watch some of the replays of onwards and upwards when we talk about some of these basic terms. Okay, so we've got Facebook users saying current wage. Ferdinand is saying average wage of a specific profession. Benu says the average wage Patriots similar employed worker in a specific occupation in the area of intended employment from the prevailing wage, Chris. So you cut in a little bit out, Tanya. There. So the prevailing wage is the minimum wage that the US government says that a facility or US employer has to pay the worker in that location. There's a sort of a related concept called the actual wage, which is what is the wage that is being paid to similarly experienced unemployed workers in that area. And so those are two somewhat similar concepts, but there's a slight subtle difference between the two of them. Okay, so there we go. That's your education piece and you can see if you are legal wise.

We have a question here from Anna. Can I work as a nurse in the US if I am Heppa B carrier? Denise, can I work in the United States as a nurse if I'm a Heppa B carrier? I'm sorry. Yeah. Hepatitis, I think. Oh, my gosh. I'm so sorry. Yeah. All right. So in order to obtain an immigrant visa, even after the I-140 is approved, the government has to determine if you're admissible to the United States. One of the factors that they consider is whether you have a communicable disease. Others are if you've ever committed certain types of crimes that will not allow you to be admitted to the US or if you've ever overstayed. So one of the requirements is that you not have a communicable disease. If the government concludes that you have a communicable disease and that would classify as one, then there could be a challenge in the admission process. And I hate giving this negative information. Tanya, you're throwing the worst questions at me. Sorry, Denise, but again, those are the types of cases. Those types of issues should be discussed with your attorney to analyze and determine what is the probability that it may become an issue when you go to your interview. But it is communicable disease is one of the basis for an emissibility. If the other group would like to answer as well, I would greatly appreciate it.

Mike, Chris, anything to add? Chris or Mike? He's already told someone you can't bring your kid. Now she's telling someone that can't come at all. She's the winner for the day. We're not top of that. I think Denis answers 100% correct. I don't personally know whether that particular disease classifies as that would be rendered inadmissible. But if it does, I think and it's important to know that early on, because if the ultimate answer a year from now or a year and a half, it's going to be you can't come here. Better to know now before the process is done and you've gone through all kinds of planning and emotional involvement and the same with your employer and then ultimately to not be successful. So I think Denise's point about letting the employer know as soon as possible. I think it's pretty valuable. Yeah, definitely. So please reach out to your attorney and find out specifically on your case details in that regard.

Okay. We have a question here from a Facebook user, Sandy from Qatar. At what stage of processing I can apply my dependent like a husband or kids, Chris, at any point before you get your green card issued to you by the end, before you enter the United States. Okay. We have a question here from a Facebook user. When you're given a two to one G and after you submitted the lacking documents, how long will it take the Philippines embassy to issue a visa, Mike. Yeah. Sometimes it can be fairly quick, depending on what the question is. Other times we've seen them sit honestly as much as six months, maybe. Sometimes they're going to be follow up from the 221G. They may not label it as administrative review, but they may be following up on the information you provided that can be submitted back to the USCIS and office here in the US to do some follow up directly. So that can take a while. So I think it all depends upon the issue, but most, in my opinion, are not fast. All right. That handles that question before everybody drops off our panel. Have graciously agreed to give us another 5 minutes because we did start a little late this morning. So I'm going to try in the next few minutes, get through as many questions as possible, but please don't drop off until the very end because we have an announcement. We have our NCLEX scholar who we're going to be naming. One lucky winner will receive the NCLEX exam paid by Connetics USA. Please wait until the end of the show today to find out if you are that lucky. Connetics USA nurse who's going to get their NCLEX exam paid by Connetics.

Josel has a question. How long for a nurse to be an American citizen after arriving in the US? Can I still petition my daughter even if she's more than 21 years old? Chris right. So there's a few different standards that you need to meet in order to apply for US citizenship. I'll just give a few of the basic ones here. The first one is that you've had a US green card for at least five years that allows you to apply for naturalization. So that's one. Number two, you have to have spent half of that time physically on US soil so you can't get your US green card and then spend nine months a year outside the US and only three months a year in the US. That's the second, third one. There's a few other standards as well. Like you don't have a severe criminal record. You pass English fluency exam, not exam. The English fluency test. You pass the American Civics exam, few other things like that. But in a nutshell, it's about five years now. Once you become a US citizen, once you apply for US citizenship, naturalization, that process depends on where you are in the US. Can take as quick as maybe six months, maybe as long as about a year or so. After that, you will get sworn in and you become a US citizen. At that point, you can apply for your adult child, and the processing time on that will vary. And really, we're talking about something that will happen in 2028. To try and guess what the family based visa bulletins would be in 2028 is a bit of a challenge. I'm just going to take a quick glance here. Unmarried. Let's see. Married Sons and Daughters of US Citizens is currently retrogressed for the Philippines to June of two. So that's 20 years you're looking at quite a long time, even if you get your US citizenship. But strictly speaking, to answer the question, you can file for your kids at that point. You can even file for Unmarried Sons and Daughters of Permanent Residence, even if you were a US permanent resident and you have an over 21 year old son or daughter. So the reality is, once you get here and you get your US permanent residency, I would probably contact an attorney to see what kind of processing times and what the process might be for your specific children, because again, we keep saying Filipino or Indian or whatever. It doesn't go by nationality. It actually goes by the country they were born in. And so, for instance, and we get this question a lot, hey, I'm now a Canadian citizen, but I was born in Dylan, the blank Philippines, India. Unfortunately, you don't go under Canada in the visa Bolton. You go under your original country. Okay. Thank you, Chris. That gives a great explanation. I didn't know that you could apply when you agreed card, so I learned something new today. Thank you. I'm becoming legal wise, Denise. I'm looking for a happy question for you. We want Denise to be able to get some good news. I'm saving that one for you. Thank you.

Me and my husband were hired under one facility. I'm the main dependent and my husband will be my dependent. Will it be a problem during the US Embassy interview, or do they need to know about my husband's contract as well under that facility? One more thing with regards to the fees related with my husband's process, are they going to pay for it even if he's a dependent? I think if you want to maybe answer the first part of the answer question, Denise. Sure. So there's absolutely no issue if he had his own process, it doesn't impact on yours. He can be included in your process as your dependent. As far as the fees that you would have to discuss with the lawyer and the employer, that's not part of the immigration analysis. So there you go, everybody. Denise gave good news. Diane does not need to worry about anything.

Diane, in terms of that second part of your question, yes. That is not an immigration question. You would need to speak to your Connetics USA case specialist and we would speak to the employer to see how that would pertain to your husband. Okay, Mike, let's give you the retrogression question. You asked for that one. I didn't. I asked for Denise to get personally, I think retrogression, as Chris mentioned earlier, we've already seen it in the other worker category where that has retrogressed. I think it's inevitable. As far as when is it going to happen? It's a tough question. I think. First of all, let's talk about the fact that our fiscal year ends September 30. And the way the green card program works is if they do not use or issue all of the immigrant visas by the end of the fiscal year, they are simply lost. So it's a little like a use it or lose it paid time off program. So to some degree, retrogression in September or August sounds really bad. But on the other hand, from a big picture perspective, that's good news. That means they were efficient. They used up every single visa that they possibly could. So that's not always bad news in itself. We also expect some additional trickle down this fiscal year for next fiscal year based upon unused family members, again, due to COVID and consulate closures and slowdowns. We certainly don't expect as many as we've got in the last two fiscal years, but we expect some. But I would certainly say there's going to be some retrogression more long term within the next year. That's at least my somewhat negative prediction. Chris probably has more insight. Chris or Denise, anything to add? I don't. Yeah. The reality is Mike's answer sort of implies us, which is over the last year or two, we've seen an enormous amount of Filipino B, three cases that have been filed, and historically that ultimately leads to retrogression. I agree with Mike. We're going to see some retrogression this summer. That's natural. That's the end of the fiscal year. It remains to be seen at the next fiscal year what that retrogression actually looks like. Yeah. I think people hear the word retrogression and everybody starts shaking because of what happened in the last recruitment. And I think people have a lot of post traumatic stress about that. I think the one thing that I would just add is that the situation, the macro environment in the US is just so different from that time because there is such a massive demand for nurses right now in the US. We've never seen a Connectics USA, so many positions, not just for nurses, but also for all different kinds of health care workers. So it's going to be very interesting to see what the next few months and years look like. But if you are just starting this process, please go ahead and pass. You need to do your NCLEX exam as soon as possible.

We have a success path on the Connetics USA website. It's very confusing for international nurses to know where to start. So please check out our success path on our website and that will give you all the steps in order to come as a nurse. The first step is to qualify for and to take the NCLEX exam. So if you have not already done so please apply to the Connetics USA website to see if you might be eligible for our scholarship, because only then can we prepare you for the interview and then we can start this immigration work, which is that visa framework step number three.

Okay, so we are almost at the close and I'm going to take one more questions while you're going to pull that last question, one other thing I would add is, number one, whether the retrogress is zero days or a year or two years, it sort of doesn't really matter. You still have to get your date in. So I think if you're a nurse and you're in the United States, you still want to do all those things that you talk about, which is get your NCLEX passed, et cetera. That's number one. Number two, we do a fair bit of trips to Washington, DC, and do some lobbying. And no matter if we ever get any positive legislation, we've come close a few times. Almost all of that is going to be weighed in favor of people who've been in the process longer. So the sooner you get your priority date established, might you get retrogression? Maybe in 2023. But no matter what happens, if there is positive legislation, the earlier you get your priority day, the more priority your case is going to be. And as Tanya said, Mike and I have known each other for 25 years, and I don't think either of us have ever seen a demand for nurses and allied healthcare workers stronger than it's been in the last year or two. And our expectation is that it's going to be stronger on a going forward basis. And all that pressure might force Congress, the US Congress, to act and put together some positive legislation. Yes, I agree with you on that. So just to clarify, are you saying then, Chris, that even if there was a retrogress, a case can be filed for the I-140? Yes. Your I-140 is filed. That establishes your priority day. And then you just don't move to the NVC stage, that third stage that we've been talking about today. You do not move to that third stage until your priority date becomes current. But it's that essentially gets your ticket into the line, into the queue. Okay. Yeah. So everybody watching. Very important for you to understand that a lot of people might think that you can't be filed for the I-140 if there is a retrogression. So there's hope. And I think there's still a lot of demand. I know there's a lot of demand in the US, so there really is a great opportunity right now to get your intakes, get your IELTS, get your Visa screen, and hopefully come to America and live your American dream. Okay. We're going to take one last question for each of the past.

I have a question here from Jennifer. Jennifer is asking how long will I have to wait for the release of Visa if I got a DS 5535? How it works? And will it take a year to get resolved? I am a nurse. I'm going to give that one to Mike. Oh, I wanted to give that to Denise. I have no clue. I didn't know either. So that's why I'm asking the experts. I believe it's a background check. It's not anything to worry about. It's just an extra layer of background check. That's all it is. But it's easily resolved within maybe a month or two. Okay. Denise gave some good news, everybody. Yay. I think that Jennifer will be very happy to hear that. Okay, I have a question here from Lalita. Mike, what is the time when I need to do my police clearances? Well, what type of police clearances are going to be done or what records you're going to have to produce are going to be based upon what countries you've lived in and worked in. And that is part of the NVC process. And then as part of the US Embassy process, you're going to do the police clearances as well. It changes if you're in the US. They do it through a biometrics appointment at that final stage of the process, the adjustment of status. But everything is kind of directed as far as that and controlled by the US government as to when that's to be done and what's to be submitted. And there are countries where police records are not available. They're aware of that. There's a variety of different things, again, depending upon where you live and where you've worked. Thank you, Mike.

Last question is from Mike. I have a question for Chris. I'd like to ask, how long for a CNA applicant can obtain perm labor? Do you have currently on the works of applying for perm labor? And how long can we obtain a green card for US nurse aid? So this is a nurse aid question, Chris. Yeah. So the most important thing we want to ask is what country you were born in, because as we said, the visa Bolton controls. But for the purposes of this, let's assume it's not India, which is again ten plus years. Unfortunately, let's assume it's not China, which is also five plus years. So that one's off the table. Some of the other countries have just recently been retrogressed. That's the other worker category that we've talked about. So you want to check the visa bulletin for your country, but for nursing assistant, I think today I'd probably estimate about two years for most of the countries, maybe three years. But there's a lot of variance in that.  So don't just take this one answer and just assume it's going to be like this for the entirety of the process. Every few months, check in with your attorney to get the latest on the processing times. Okay. So there you have it, Mikhaile.

We've come to the end of the show. I apologize again for the technical hitches. Thank you so much to our panel for going a little overtime today. We know how busy you are, and we really appreciate you joining us today. And thank you to all our viewers that are watching all over the world. It's so fun to be able to share your questions with our legal experts. And we look forward to doing this again next month. Just before you leave, some information on upcoming shows. So we have our Connetics College, which is launching on Monday. And on the 6th, we have an enclosed show, the 13th, an IELTS show, the 20th, an integration show. And then Ils. And this is going to be a very exciting new development at Connetics College. We are going to have live shows every single Monday. So please put this on your calendars for those of you who are battling with the NCLEX. With the IELTS, we're going to be bringing in lots of different skills, not just NCLEX and Ils but other skills that you need to learn in order to live and work clinically as a nurse in the US. So watch out for our Connetics College starting on Mondays and then upcoming shows in June we have the Lefora talk show Clinical Differences in the US on the 7th, our Connetics showcase is Cedar Sinai. On the 10th we have state side where we're going to explore what it's like to live and work as a healthcare worker in Pennsylvania. On the 17th. On the 21st we're going to be talking about culture shock on the Lefora talk show. And on the 24 June our legal panel Q and A will be back and we're going to have a lot of fun as well as learn a lot of legal answers to your questions. Our NCLEX scholar is Drumroll. Let's put up the name of our NCLEX scholar is Nelly Ekong. Well done, Nelly. Congratulations. Connetics USA will be covering the cost of your NCLEX exam and we're very excited for you to be taking the exam. So thank you for joining us as an NCLEX scholar and we look forward to seeing you in America.

Thank you for joining us. To all the nurses or healthcare workers around the world, thank you to Denise, Chris and Mike. Onwards and upwards, everybody. Bye bye. Thanks. Tanya.