RETROGRESSION UPDATE
The U.S. Department of State has released its Visa Bulletin for May 2008 and it showed all categories to be current except for EB2 and EB3.
However, a bit of good news came with the bulletin as the EB3 category for the Philippines reflects major movement from last month. Starting next month, those with approved immigrant petitions on or before March 1, 2006 can expect developments in their visa processing anytime soon.
The priority dates for the EB3 category, where filipino nurses belong, have progressed to March 2006 from July 2005 the previous month.
Related Link:
May 2008 Visa Bulletin
6 comments:
What does that mean? will the US embassy be conducting visa interviews already for those with approved petition of march 2, 2006?
@superman rai
Only those with approved I-140 petitions on or before March 1, 2006 will be scheduled for medical and interview by the U.S. embassy.
lyle, is it possible that late this year the scheduling for medical and US embassy interview will include the current year?
Yes, it is possible but very unlikely.
It will happen only if the dates for EB visas become CURRENT and for this to happen, the U.S. congress needs to pass a new legislation either removing the cap/limit or increasing it to more than the current backlog.
Fewer nurses seeking US jobs
By Delon Porcalla
Sunday, April 27, 2008
The number of Filipino nurses who applied to work in the US declined in the first three months of this year compared to the same period in 2007.
Data provided by Catanduanes Rep. Joseph Santiago showed that 4,686 nurses took the National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX) from January to March, against 5,076 who took the exam in the same period last year, a decrease by 390 or seven percent.
In 2007, a total of 21,499 Filipino nurses, excluding repeaters, took the NCLEX for the first time. This showed an increase by as much as 42 percent from the 15,171 Filipino nurses who took the exam in 2006.
Santiago said the 2007 figures “translate to a daily average of around 60 Filipino nurses seeking to practice in the US alone.”
Santiago has been batting for the closure of substandard Philippine nursing schools and even made public earlier a list of institutions that have performed well and below par based on the performance of their graduates in the local licensure examination.
He is also supporting the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) directive that compels every independent Philippine nursing licensure examination review center to promptly affiliate with an accredited college, or face closure.
The senior lawmaker said this move would ensure the scholastic accountability of review centers and check the spread of deficient ones, including fly-by-night operators, which have sprouted due to the high demand for nurses.
“Many young Filipinos aspire to become nurse practitioners because of the lure of lucrative overseas employment. We must protect this hope and dream by seeing to it that flunkey schools and reviewers are shut down,” he said.
Nursing has become the preferred course of a growing number of college enrollees.
The CHED’s Office of Policy, Planning, Research and Information sees almost half a million or 497,000 students taking up nursing in school year 2008-2009.
Next to nursing, the second most favored course is hotel and restaurant management, with some 134,600 projected students; followed by computer science (100,700); criminology (96,900); information technology (95,300); accountancy (89,500); business management (82,800); elementary education (67,000); English education (52,300); and electronics and communications engineering (48,200).
Possible displacement
The local recruitment industry also reported recently that at least 30,000 newly hired overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) are facing possible displacement due to delays in their deployment to job sites in the Middle East.
The Federated Association of Manpower Exporters (FAME) said many recruitment agencies deploying workers to various countries in the Middle East are unable to deploy workers immediately because of the recurring problem of outbound flight shortage.
“At least 1,000 workers are unable to leave daily and are now facing cancellation of contracts by their employers for failure to arrive at the job sites as required,” FAME vice president Jackson Gan said.
Gan said it usually takes a month for Middle East-bound workers to obtain airline bookings despite approval of their overseas employment contracts.
Recruitment leaders expressed fear that if the flight shortage would continue, thousands of workers would lose their chance to work in the Middle East and earn high salaries.
Aside from the local recruitment industry, members of the tourism industry also warned that the prevailing flight shortage would affect the arrival and departure of tourists in the country.
The recruitment and tourism sectors then called on the government to adopt new policies that would allow more foreign carriers to enter the country and transport OFWs and tourists abroad.
They also urged the government to allow foreign airlines to schedule chartered flights to and from Clark to the Middle East and provide more airline seats for OFWs until regular flights have been scheduled. - With Mayen Jaymalin
Hi Lyle,
Good day. Our priority date is October 18, 2005. Would it be possible that we can be schedule for the interview within this year? When do you think the latest retrogression be lifted? Thanks and godbless! Eda
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