2004 News
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11 OCTOBER 2004
CGFNS comments on deadline extension to obtain visa certificates
required for certain health care workers
The Commission on Graduates of Foreign Nursing Schools (CGFNS) submitted comments on the 22 July 2004, Extension of the Deadline for Certain Health Care Workers Required to Obtain Certificates to the Department of Homeland Security, prior to the 20 September 2004, comment date. Included in the comments were the following three points:
- CGFNS has no objection to the extension of the deadline from 26 July 2004 to 26 July 2005 for Mexican and Canadian health care workers in the seven specified health care occupations who have been admitted to the US on Trade NAFTA (TN) status and who were licensed and employed in the US prior to 23 September 2003, but would not support any further expansion in the scope or the deadline. CGFNS believes that the granting of the extension of the deadline to specified TN health care personnel provides an acceptable accommodation to certain health care providers, particularly those in states bordering Canada whose health care facilities are staffed by significant numbers of TN health care professionals who commute between the two countries each day.
- CGFNS statistics as of 26 July 2004, regarding the issuance of certificates to Canadian TN applicants show that fully documented applications were issued within two weeks after the final piece of documentation was received. Some opponents of the July 2004 deadline contended that CGFNS was not able to handle the volume of applications it received. Our statistics demonstrate that this was not an accurate justification for extending the July 2004 deadline and would not be a justification for any party seeking to extend the July 2005 deadline.
- There is likely to be some confusion over whether the extension applies to Clinical Laboratory Scientists (Medical Technologist) and Clinical Laboratory Technicians (Medical Technicians), since a majority of US jurisdictions do not license either of these occupations.
In its 17 September letter to the Department of Homeland Security, CGFNS also asked for clarification in three areas of the Final Rule that took effect on 23 September 2003.
- CGFNS asked for the resolution of whether certificates authorized under the Final Rule expire five years after the date of issuance, or whether they are valid indefinitely if used within five years of the date of issuance. If the certificates do expire, CGFNS also asked for clarification on the standards for renewal including review of the two-year validity rules for the English proficiency scores.
- CGFNS also pointed out in its letter to the Department of Homeland Security that the automatic exclusion of health care workers educated in Quebec from the English-language proficiency exemption in the current regulation does not reflect sound policy and that we would support the amendment of existing rules to grant language-exempt status to those educated in English in Quebec.
- Finally, CGFNS asked for clarification of the definition of a medical technologist (also known as clinical laboratory technicians) by presenting a number of similar specialist job titles who have been interpreted as not needing a VisaScreen® certificate, including, but not limited to, dental technicians, ophthalmology technologists, ultra-sound technologists, cytogenetic technologists and cytotechnologists.
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