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The problem with the new EB3 visas

Just the other day, we've seen the US announcing that it would again open up applications for immigrant working visas or the employment-based visa category 3 beginning July 1. Many have been anxiously waiting for this because it's a step closer to their American dream.

I have to admit, I'm one of those who celebrated the announcement. Although I didn't exactly throw a party, I certainly didn't celebrate just by sitting down either. As the last of the confetti falls on my room floor, I realized that the lifting of the retrogression and the celebrations may be short-lived after all. Some predict that visas would be gone again by October, but I'm starting to fear that the party could end as early as the first week of July.

Remember what happened to the H-1B visa or the working visa? All the visas were goobled up in less than two days. The US Citizenship and Immigration Services even had to raffle off the allocations because there were simply too many applications that came in, several times more than the number of visas available.

The problem with the EB-3 visas that are being offered starting July 1 is that the visa category is not exclusively intended for nurses, in fact, some say, nurses are perhaps, in the mind of immigration officials, the last persons who would get the new visas. There are thousands of other workers, most notably scientist, information technology experts, and teachers, who are already in the U.S. just waiting for their applications to be current. So, there is a possibility that the volume of applicants for the first few days could overwhelm the scarce supply in just a matter of days or weeks.

Of course, these are all speculation at this point. Like every other nurse in the Philippines, I'm hoping for the best... but if the best turns out to be something I wasn't expecting to see, then I pray that the turnout would be better than what I had actually hoped for.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Sad, but it's the truth. No visas for nurses are available. This is a gift for the tech companies in the USA. The Ng shortage in the US is slightly abating, and the time is coming that the Ng shortage will only be a dim memory. Thousands of nurses will wander in the PI, unemployed, overworked and underpaid. Forget the July window. It is not for nurses.

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