Expiring Visas May Force Nurses to Lose U.S. Jobs by the Thousands

Thousands of foreign nurses recruited to ease the U.S. nursing shortage will be forced to return home because federal immigration officials refuse to extend their temporary visas, a newspaper reported Sunday.

The foreign-born nurses were admitted to the United States under H-1 visas at the request of employers because of the dire need for their skills, the New York Times reported.

The Labor Department officially certified the nursing shortage, the newspaper said, and the American Nurses Assn. says about 300,000 nursing jobs are unfilled nationwide, with hospital nursing vacancies approaching 20%.

But last year, the immigration service ruled that such temporary work visas would be limited to five years, with a one-year extension possible, the newspaper said.

New York and California will be especially hard hit, the newspaper reported.

About 4,000 nurses are affected in the New York metropolitan area alone, and the first group of five-year visas involving more than 1,000 nurses statewide expires this year, the newspaper said.

In California, the number “has got to be in the ballpark with New York--maybe higher,” said Arthur A. Sponseller, vice president of the Southern California Hospital Council.

It remains to be seen how strictly immigration officials will enforce the law. But employers face sanctions for having workers who overstay their visas and who were hired after Nov. 6, 1986, and nurses in that category are expected to be let go, the newspaper said.