HR5283-119

What This Bill Does

The Healthcare Workforce Resilience Act uses unused employment-based immigrant visas to address health workforce shortages. It increases employment-based visas by the difference between visas made available and visas actually used from fiscal years 1992 through 2024, reduced by later use of the recaptured pool. Up to 40,000 employment-based immigrants whose petitions are filed within three years of enactment may use the recaptured visas, with 25,000 reserved for professional nurses and 15,000 reserved for physicians. Accompanying or following family members receive unreserved visas from the same recaptured pool and do not count against the nurse or physician reservations. The visas are not subject to per-country numerical limits and are issued by priority date, but are available only when a visa is not otherwise immediately available under worldwide and per-country allocations. DHS and State must provide premium processing procedures without charging a premium fee, USCIS must expedite shipment of resolved consular-processing petitions to State, and State must expedite application processing. Before a professional nurse visa is issued, the petitioner must attest in the job-offer letter that hiring the alien has not displaced and will not displace a United States worker.

Who Benefits and How

Professional nurse immigrants benefit from 25,000 reserved recaptured employment-based visas that are exempt from per-country caps. Physician immigrants benefit from 15,000 reserved recaptured employment-based visas issued in priority-date order. Hospitals facing staffing shortages benefit from faster access to immigrant nurses and physicians. Immigrant family members benefit because accompanying or following family visas come from the recaptured pool without counting against the nurse or physician reservations.

Who Bears the Burden and How

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services staff must provide premium processing procedures without charging premium processing fees. State Department consular officers must expedite processing after receiving petitions from USCIS. Health care employers petitioning for nurses must attest that hiring will not displace a United States worker. Domestic nurse applicants may face more competition for positions if employers use the reserved visa pool.

Key Provisions

• Recaptures unused employment-based immigrant visas from fiscal years 1992 through 2024.
• Reserves 25,000 visas for professional nurses and 15,000 visas for physicians.
• Exempts recaptured visas from per-country numerical limits and issues them by priority date.
• Requires DHS and State premium and expedited processing without a USCIS premium fee.
• Requires nurse-petition job offers to attest that U.S. workers have not been and will not be displaced.