The American Association of International Healthcare Recruitment and the American Hospital Association have called on US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to revise visa policies and move foreign nurses from the lowest to the highest priority processing group.

The request comes after the pandemic exacerbated hospital staffing shortages and further backlogged international nurse visas.

International nurses are typically contracted for two- to three-year assignments at a US facility, allowing for more stable staffing than the 13-week commitment of travel nurse contracts, according to an article in May’s Healthcare Staffing Report. And after their contract ends, a high percentage of international nurses then transition to full-time, permanent roles.

A letter from AHA President and CEO Richard J. Pollack asks Blinken to amend the State Department’s Immigrant Visa Prioritization guidance, issued April 30, to prioritize and expedite the visa-issuance process for foreign-trained nurses eligible for immigrant visas. 

“The AHA believes the State Department can solve the backlog of immigrant visas for eligible foreign-trained nurses by ensuring efforts are made to prioritize and expedite the visa issuance process for eligible nurses,” the letter states. “However, the State Department’s recent actions move in the opposite direction.”

This priority schedule of the Immigrant Visa Prioritization update provides four tiers, with tier one being the most prioritized and four being the least. Nurses are now considered tier four, which Pollack says includes all other immigrant visas, including employment preference and diversity visas. “This is striking, since diversity visas are distributed by lottery and other employment visas include many occupations with far less urgent needs compared to nursing,” he wrote.

The unprecedented processing delays at US embassies and consulates are certainly caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, both here and abroad, the letter states. “However, failing to prioritize these nurses with the still-limited consular staffing merely compounds the healthcare workforce challenges in the United States.”

All eligible foreign-trained nurses waiting for visas could immediately enter the United States and begin caring for patients; however, the issuance of these visas for which they have qualified already is the only remaining hurdle they face, according to Pollack.