Bush Signs Bill to Let Foreign Nurses Stay in U.S. Longer
President Bush on Monday signed a bill giving thousands of immigrant nurses the right to apply for status as permanent residents of the United States.
The bill exempts nurses from the ceilings on visa allotments because of the nursing shortage.
It covers nurses from other countries who can prove that they have been employed in the United States for at least three years and are still working as nurses.
Previously, most immigrant nurses held visas permitting them to stay in the United States for five years, and then they had to return home.
In congressional testimony this summer, the Immigration and Naturalization Service estimated that the visas of 16,000 nurses were about to expire.
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