[sarah123]

Knok,

It has been noticed that there is a bill introduced by Sen. Cornyn (TX) Introduced Global Competitivess Act of 2008 in the Senate on 04/10/2008
(Please find the details)

• Last Thursday, Senator Cornyn from Texas introduced this bill , S. 2839, which has been referred for action to the Senate Judiciary Committee. The following is the outlines of the bill as prepared by the Senator:
  • H-2B Temporary Worker Program
    • Extends the H-2B Returning Worker provisions for 3 fiscal years
  • H-1B Temporary Worker Program
    • Recaptures 150,000 unused H-1B visas which will be distributed over a 3 year period
    • Imposes a H-1B recapture fee of $1,500
    • Increases H-1B visa levels from 65,000 to 115,000 for fiscal years 2009 through 2011
    • Increases the advanced degree cap for H-1B workers with masters degrees or higher from 20k to 30k for fiscal years 2009 to 2011
    • Increases the H-1B petition fee from $1,500 to $2,250
  • Employment Based Visas
    • Recaptures approximately 218,000 unused employment-based visas
    • Distributes 61,000 of the recaptured EB visas to nurses and physical therapists (and spouses and children accompanying or following to join)
    • Imposes an EB visa recapture fee of $1,500
    • Exempts health care facilities in underserved areas from paying the additional EB recapture fee

There is a proposal to Distribute 61,000 of the recaptured EB visas to nurses and physical therapists (and spouses and children accompanying or following to join)
We have seen that , for nurses and physical therapists they are trying to allocate unused visa. Why don’t they include us (pharmacist) in this. I believe in the medical profession in the US, pharmacy profession has the toughest steps to go through to become a registered Pharmacist.

To become a registered pharmacist in US, a foreign pharmacist has to go through several steps( like high score in Toefl ibt) and after that to become a permanent resident based on the EB Visa it may take up to 6 to 10 years( depends on the country of origin). They say there is an acute shortage of Pharmacists in US, then why don’t they include pharmacist also in the same category like nurses and ease the procedure to become Permanent residents.
I think if we join together we can get it done. I am sure you will have some ideas how we could get the attention from the senators/decision makers in this regard.
Sarah