Helping Our Healthcare Partners through Employment-based Immigration
Quality healthcare is central to a thriving community. Employment-based immigration plays a key role in facilitating high-quality care, particularly in communities where healthcare professionals are scarce. ImLaw helps our healthcare partners secure access to the physicians they need through the J-1 waiver and H-1B cap-exempt work visa processes.
One of our clients is a nonprofit Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC). Its practice areas include family medicine, obstetrics and gynecology, behavioral health, dental care, and onsite pharmacy services. Our partnership began in 2014.
In the fast-paced environment of the healthcare industry, we pride ourselves on timely and thorough responses. Our client stated, “Susan Im always calls me back or responds to my emails whenever I have a question. We use ImLaw for all of our immigration needs. We are a very satisfied customer.”
For years, our client utilized several professional recruiting firms to locate qualified physician candidates with very limited success. In fact, many healthcare facilities encounter difficulty recruiting physicians on a national and regional level. A severe shortage of certain healthcare professionals can lead an area to be qualified at the federal or state level as a Health Professional Shortage Area (HPSA) or Medically Underserved Area (MUA). Often, these areas also include caring for a Medically Underserved Population (MUP).
J-1 foreign physicians receiving graduate medical training in the U.S. are automatically subject to a two-year home residence requirement, which requires them to return to their home country for an aggregate of two years before applying for a U.S. work visa such as the H-1B. However, healthcare facilities located in HPSAs and MUAs can assist foreign physicians by providing a legal basis to apply for a waiver of the onerous 2-year home residence requirement.
Generally, Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) must apply for federal Health and Human Services (HHS) waivers for their J-1 physician candidates and cannot utilize the state Conrad 30 waiver program. While the federal HHS waiver program is similar to the state Conrad 30 waiver program in that physicians must agree to work for a minimum of three years in an HPSA or MUA, the most notable difference is that federal HHS waivers are not limited to a maximum of 30 waivers per fiscal year. In fact, HHS waivers are not capped at all.
For this particular client, once we obtained approval of the HHS waivers, we were then able to assist the healthcare organization to obtain H-1B cap-exempt work visa status for the physicians, avoiding the dreadful H-1B lottery and cap altogether. Upon receiving H-1B approval, the physicians were able to immediately begin employment with our client.
Are you looking for ways to expand your healthcare professional team through the power of immigration? Our attorneys bring over 60 years of immigration law experience to the table. Fill out our simple inquiry form to reach our team.