WASHINGTON, D.C. – The resumption in hiring of Filipino nurses in the US hospitals is now possible with amendment of the American Competitiveness in the Twenty-first Century Act of 2000. The amendment provides for the recapture of 50,000 EB-3 visa (employment-based immigrant visa) numbers which were unused from fiscal years 2001 to 2004 and which will be used exclusively for the “Schedule A” occupations such as registered nurses and physical therapists.

The Philippine Ambassador to the United States expressed his appreciation to the US Congress for passing the EB-3 amendment. He commended the American Hospital Association, US recruitment agencies, the Philippine Nurses Association and the members of the Filipino Community for their concerted efforts in supporting the passage of this amendment. The Philippine Embassy in Washington, D.C. worked on the issue in coordination with the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE).

“This reopens the door for the entry into the US of our nurses who are well known for their competence and compassion as health workers,” Ambassador Del Rosario said. The envoy added that this underscores a “win-win solution in addressing the critical demand for nurses in the US, which the Philippines can readily help address”.

The EB-3 amendment was incorporated into the “The Emergency Supplemental Appropriations for Defense, the Global War on Terror, and Tsunami Relief Act, 2005,” which was signed by President Bush yesterday.

The employment-based immigrant visa (EB-3) is used mainly by US hospitals for hiring foreign-trained nurses, mostly from China, India and the Philippines. The EB-3 amendment is expected to considerably advance the cut-off priority dates for countries with pending EB-3 applications. At present, the cut-off date for China, India and the Philippines is April 2002.

Last December, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that China, India and Philippines had already exhausted the visa numbers allocated to them. As a consequence, the processing of applications from the Philippines for nursing jobs in the US was halted. This worsened the critical shortage for nurses in US hospitals.