hadron....helllp!!!

NIW applicant

Registered Users (C)
Hi Hadron,
I have an approved NIW EB2 priority date March '02. I'm from india. Now that EB2 india is unavailable, does this mean that even after completing my 5 year NIW commitment this August, I will not get my GC for who knows how long? I was reading on another thread that the October bulletin is likely to show EB2 India retrogressed back to Jan '01. When will this end???????!!!!!!!
What are your thoughts?
Thanks
 
Yes that is exactly what it means unfortunately.

Even worse than that is that right now a lot of folks in the IT sector are converting their petitions from EB3 to EB2 now that PERM and 140 have been expedited (preserving their priority dates from their EB3 I140 approved petitions). In addition there are a lot of substitute labours still floating about and being used to "cut in line" albeit legitimately per current rules. With all these variables and the fact that the H1b quota was 195K for a couple of years in ? 2001-2003, many of whom are now in the green card processing stage, it is a real nighmare for EB2NIW beneficiaries at all stages.

New applicants from India CANNOT file 485 already for themselves or their spouses and therefore cannot take advantage of derivative benefits like EAD for themselves or their spouse.
Those whose petitions are pending will likely take a lot longer to adjudicate, since 140 petitions with premium processing are quite possibly likely to slow down other 140 application reviews (and I might add NIW140 are not going to be eligible for premium processing).
Finally those NIW 140 approved beneficiaries with 485 pending will have to wait forever for their turn, much like the frustration that the starter of this thread has expressed.

Please see the new thread I have started to discuss options for the few in our situation.
 
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So what should the Indian NIW-EB2 physician's strategy be?

Does that mean:

1) File NIW-EB2 140. Can one get extensions beyond 6th year of H1B based on approved NIW-EB2 I-140 (since person will be retrogresed)? And keep working for the same employer untill PD becomes current?

2) Also encourage process EB-2/PERM at the same same time (although wont be much different from option 1). Does the extension of H1B work the same in 1) and 2) ?

3) If working at an academic institution -- publish and apply for EB1 ?
 
> 3) If working at an academic institution -- publish and apply for EB1 ?

Except that retrogression is starting to kick in for EB-1 as well.

I think the fairest assessment is: You are f#_)#d.

I had a little exchange with someone from Sen Conrads staff about this, they are aware of the issue. However there is only so much they can do. The extensions for the waiver program are hard enough to hide in some military budget bill, exempting the NIWs from the country quotas (or putting them under the nurses act) would require some heavy lifting.
 
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neel271 said:
Does that mean:

1) File NIW-EB2 140. Can one get extensions beyond 6th year of H1B based on approved NIW-EB2 I-140 (since person will be retrogresed)? And keep working for the same employer untill PD becomes current?

2) Also encourage process EB-2/PERM at the same same time (although wont be much different from option 1). Does the extension of H1B work the same in 1) and 2) ?

3) If working at an academic institution -- publish and apply for EB1 ?


Up until now one of the advantages of NIW was the relative independence it offered the physician from the employer atleast after the 3 yr waiver committment for former J1s. This was in addition to the spouse EAD benefits. Clearly now this has been wiped out right now for those from India.

My understanding is that you would then have to be on a H1b and continue to extend it until you can file a 485 and with it for EAD ie once the priority date gets current from the ice ages. Therefore you get to be under the thumb of your employer until such time.

I suspect the difficulty getting our issue heard is that there is no heavy lobby for us. The AMA is in my view a pack of F$^&%$$ who simply do not give a damn about FMGs. If you doubt me try to contact them and get them to do anything pro FMGs. AHA is not as worried since their employees are nurses and PTs not docs. Still they may be more sympathetic to pushing for us than the AMA.

Absent legislation soon the situation looks bleak for NIW physicians for the next couple of years.
 
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hadron said:
> 3) If working at an academic institution -- publish and apply for EB1 ?

Except that retrogression is starting to kick in for EB-1 as well.

I think the fairest assessment is: You are f#_)#d.

I had a little exchange with someone from Sen Conrads staff about this, they are aware of the issue. However there is only so much they can do. The extensions for the waiver program are hard enough to hide in some military budget bill, exempting the NIWs from the country quotas (or putting them under the nurses act) would require some heavy lifting.


Hadron,

I always thought the Conrad J1 waiver programs had a lot of congressional support. I mean after all this is one of the few programs that gets rural areas physicians they need and also satisfies the AMA by putting FMGs where their american graduated physicians won't go. I did not think there was much resistance to this.

I guess I do not know all of the politics of this!
 
AMA-IMG Section and AMA House of Delegates passed a Resolution in June 2006!

posmd said:
Up until now one of the advantages of NIW was the relative independence it offered the physician from the employer atleast after the 3 yr waiver committment for former J1s. This was in addition to the spouse EAD benefits. Clearly now this has been wiped out right now for those from India.

My understanding is that you would then have to be on a H1b and continue to extend it until you can file a 485 and with it for EAD ie once the priority date gets current from the ice ages. Therefore you get to be under the thumb of your employer until such time.

I suspect the difficulty getting our issue heard is that there is no heavy lobby for us. The AMA is in my view a pack of F$^&%$$ who simply do not give a damn about FMGs. If you doubt me try to contact them and get them to do anything pro FMGs. AHA is not as worried since their employees are nurses and PTs not docs. Still they may be more sympathetic to pushing for us than the AMA.

Absent legislation soon the situation looks bleak for NIW physicians for the next couple of years.

Through the efforts of a few docs from India, a Resolution was passed by the IMG Section of the AMA, and subsequently by the AMA House of Delegates in June 2006! This info is posted on the website of the AMA-IMG Section (requires membership for access, I think).

Resolution 234: Expedite the Immigrant Visa Process for Physicians
Resolution 234 asked that our American Medical Association lobby Congress and
the federal government to exempt physicians with H-1B visas who fulfilled their
J-1 Visa waiver requirements from any immigration caps.
HOD Action: Adopted

I do not know if this is sufficient by itself. The original language in the draft of the Resolution that I had seen, carried the word "Immigrant Visas", far more specific. I think the IMG Section and its leadership should be pressured to take it further.

Also, the Home page of the IMG Section says
"The AMA-IMG Section is aware of the current legislative discussions regarding "green card retrogressions" for certain countries and how it may impact international medical graduates. We are monitoring this issue with our D.C. office as well as meeting with legal counsel. Please visit this page in the near future for updated information."

I am going to write to the Chair of the IMG Section, Dr. Venkat Rao ( I think his email address is venkatrao@aol.com).I urge everybody else to do it as well to push him to pursue this further with the AMA's lobbying machinery.

To my knowledge, AAPI was also very helpful to Indian doctors affected by retrogression. Now, its current President is a member of the AMA House of Delegates.

I think AMA has enough political muscle to get something included innocuously to exempt doctors from Immigration quotas - but I do not know how to build enough pressure on them from our own ethnic organizations or all doctors who are in retrogression.

Any ideas to push this further?
 
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There is a lot of resistance to exempt certain groups from the quota requirements.

Prior to the current country quotas, immigration policy was even more haphazard than it is right now. During the cold war, the military industrial complex needed engineers, as a result there were quotas for 'german engineers etc. The country quotas were supposed to do away with this type of special interest legislation. And except for the nurses quota that the hospital industry got themselves approved (in order to depress the wages of RNs), congress has been pretty reluctant to break with such a 'proven' system.
 
Please see the new thread I have started to discuss options for the few in our situation."

where is this thread? i cudnt locate it
thanks
 
to hadron

3) If working at an academic institution -- publish and apply for EB1 ?

i am doing a subspecialty fellowship training...and have 2 publications..one article authorship in a book...and would be working ( not as principal investigator though...) in an NIH funded research project,....

can i think of eb1?
eb2 looks so disappinoting at present...
please help
thanks
 
> can i think of eb1?

If you are at some sort of academic institution, there is the EB-1 OR category. It is a bit easier (only 2 out of the 10 criteria vs 3) and with good support from the institution it seems to work fairly smooth.
Talk to one of the immigration attorneys specializing in these 'premium' categories (EB-1 EA, OR, NYS-DOT-NIW). There are no hard and fast rules on all of this and a well written petition can 'guide' the service towards approving rather anemic records.

> eb2 looks so disappinoting at present...

Well, you certainly want to have a petititon cooking as soon as possible, no matter what category. If for some reason at the years end they realize that they blocked it for no good reason (like they have done in the past), there can be a sudden surge of visa#s and a window to file an I485.
 
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thank you hadron!
I did assemble a petition in eb2-niw....ofcourse with tons of help from you.
I will work on eb1or in few mnths
in case in future i have a perm/LC based petition...will i be able to carry forward either of these PDs?
Thanks/
 
> in case in future i have a perm/LC based petition...will i be
> able to carry forward either of these PDs?

In theory and on paper: Yes (Yates memo 2000 if both I140s are approved).

In reality: You are dealing with USCIS duh !
 
Niw Law Suit

I wrote to carl shusterman he says it will be few months before there is a memorandum, my attorney is suggetsiong lets give it shot, do u think its a good idea apart from cast having 2 I-140. and cost will it confuse INs I have already approved i-140 but 3 more years to go since I file it late but i have completed my 5 years otherwise any suggestions guys
 
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