Thursday, April 30, 2015

Retrogression For EB3 Nurses Around The World

By Alon Calinao Dy: There is a persistent shortage of registered nurses in the United States for many years. Filipino and other foreign nurses have waited for 8 and more years to become current in their application, but these nurses are now facing difficulties not only in their ongoing application, but also to their respective employers who have abandoned them and not getting supporting documents to deploy them.

Lately, many nurses have felt disappointed when the May 2015 Visa Bulletin has taken a huge jump backwards for nurses born in the Philippines. I personally believe that this is just a temporary and a short delay among nurses, and nurses should see to it that their employers are still interested to petition them.

The truth is, many of these nurses, who have completed the necessary documents to qualify for EB3 in the United States, are disappointed and frustrated, hoping that their chosen profession to live and work in America would come true. One of the problems in gaining employment in U.S. health facilities is without supporting documents from these employers to their nurse applicants.

U.S. employers who hold many years of experience recruiting qualified RNs understand that the problem is not from the National Visa Center (NVC) alone as they could not find any U.S health facilities for themselves. This delay, although very upsetting for RNs, is one of the reasons why they tend to wonder what is going on with their employers and agents.

What scares most nurses is when they are not affected by the retrogression and they are current, but their agents don't make calls or give them any updates for their EB3 application. Who is at fault for this? Is this the fault of the nurse applicants who constantly call for the progress?

The reality is that many qualified RNs may not be able to get answers from their employers and agents who remain positive despite a very disappointing and frustrating significant delay. These nurses need to know what is really happening in their agency and so, they could move forward and find other employers who would continue working with them.

It is sad to know that international nurses receive some threats from their agents that they could terminate them anytime they want if they have found annoying calls or text messages from them. These agents are not nurses and so they could not understand the frustrating feelings other nurses who have waited for many years.

These agents might think that you are demanding a big favor for them instead of doing their work properly. But many nurses are known to be humble people as they stay positive and continue working with their present employers. But the question is, how long are you going to wait for your EB3 application?

It is important for nurses to be patient at all times. That's the way our noble profession teaches nurses around the world. But again, how long are you going to wait for your EB3 application? I know that retrogression is troubling nurses around the globe as we have been through this before. I just hope and pray that U.S employers and agents would also do their part to send qualified nurses in the United States.