DHS delays visa rule for foreign health workers

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security last summer extended the deadline for a controversial ruling that requires foreign healthcare workers to obtain visa certification to provide patient care in the United States.

The final rule from the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services, which is part of the DHS, was to go into effect this July. DHS delayed the requirement for another year because the shortage of healthcare professionals prompted calls to give healthcare facilities and their workers more time to get proper certification. The new deadline extension applies to healthcare workers from Canada and Mexico who were previously exempt under the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Under the rule, nurses and other healthcare workers working in the States must present a certificate from the Commission on Graduates of Foreign Nursing Schools or an equivalent independent credentialing organization to verify education, training, licensure and competency requirements. Physicians are exempt.

Most of the affected healthcare workers are registered nurses, but the new requirement also applies to occupational therapists, physical therapists, speech-language pathologists and audiologists, medical technologists, physician assistants and medical technicians.

Although healthcare workers must be licensed in the states where they practice, the new federal credentialing requirement is an added precaution. But some have questioned its necessity, especially in the face of worker shortages.

Joyce Degenhardt, a regional coordinator for the New York Public Employees Federation (PEF), understands the need for certification to ensure that workers have the training necessary to provide care, but has concerns about imposing such requirements on workers who have been working in the States for years.

“Homeland security is a priority, but so is taking care of patients,” says Degenhardt. “If you’ve been working here for 20 years, why have the requirement?”

Martha Bentley-McLachlan, a Canadian nurse who has worked in the United States since 1994, asks the same question. Bentley-McLachlan crosses the Canadian border at least three days a week to get to Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, N.Y., where she works as an oncology nurse.

Bentley-McLachlan, a PEF member, believes the requirement is a good thing for nurses who are foreign-trained, but says it shouldn’t be necessary for those trained in the States. Bentley-McLachlan graduated from nursing school at Niagara University in New York. “What more do they want?” she asks.

Still, just before the deadline was extended, Bentley-McLachlan shelled out $300 and waited six weeks for her certification. “It’s a hassle but I did it because I enjoy my job,” she says.

In the meantime, PEF, which represents a number of Canadian workers who are either certified through state boards of nursing or who have obtained a “visa screen,” has reached out to its members, informing them of the new provision and assisting them in processing their paperwork.