A 1000 non-US doctors & nurses living in USA gets chance to serve in America's military as released in news by US Pentagon senior officials. The caveat is that the health care professionals must be in US and have legal visas (H1-B or may be even H4 may be considered since its a spouse visa) and work permits (EADs).

What specialty skills Pentagon is looking for ? All nursing specialists and for doctors - neuro surgeons, family practitioners, dermatologists and some other specialties. The department is looking to focus on foreign nationals who has foreign language skills and can speak multiple languages.

Currently 29000 non US citizens are in US military who automatically gets Green card for serving in military.

Labels: Deals, Immigration, India, Nurse, Visa

To reduce nursing shortage in US, HR 5924 bill would provide 20,000 EB(employment-based) visas per year for three years for nurses. HR 5924 is introduced on April 29, 2008 and the key points that are part of the legislation -- Lifting retrogression for Schedule A workers, 20,000 visa quota, Review Schedule A I-140 cases within 30 days of receipt, A fee of $1500 from Schedule A workers will be used in US school to develop local talent and short the supply. The full bill text is available at this lcoation. Great discussions and updates on this Nurse relief visa legislation at Hammond's Law.

Other bills pending for approvals -- H.R. 5882 (Reduces Green Card Waitimes by acquiring unused past visa numbers), H.R. 6020 (Immigration benefits for immigrant soldiers and their families), HR 5950 (Medical care for immigration detainees).

Related articles by Zemanta

• 2008 October Visa Bulletin EB2, EB3 dates moved back
• Pediatric unit victim of nursing shortage: union
• Bill to reduce Greencard wait times due this week
• Britain is second most popular destination for migrants OECD says

Labels: Immigration, Immigration to the United States, Nurse, Nursing shortage, Permanent residence, United States, US, Visa

The suspense is over of what will be the cut off dates for EB2 and EB3 category in October'2008 Visa Bulletin. The October month is when the new fiscal year begins for visa number allotments. The allotments at start of year is always cheering to the numerous immigrants waiting for Greencard approvals.

The Mumbai consulate released the cut-off dates today --



Many predictions were that EB2 will slow down and EB3 changes significantly from unavailable to a much advanced date. Mumbai cut-off dates are available now and its back to square one. For EB2 dates are retrogressed to 1 April 2003 where as for EB3 it is 1 July 2001. Some pleasing news for EB3 as it changed from "Unavailable".

Unless the legislation to acquire all unused past Green card numbers is passed, the wait to become numbers current is a day dream.

Here is the link you can find October's 2008 visa bulletin from USCIS

Related articles by Zemanta

• Fewer Seek U.S. Citizenship Amid Fee Hike
• Steep Drop in Citizenship Filings

Labels: eb-2, eb-3, Fiscal year, H-1B visa, Immigration, Mumbai, United States, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, USCIS, Visa

Bank Of America is giving away free admissions for its card holders to many museums all over US. This year there are many states included in the promotion like Illinois (Chicago museums) and Michigan. The difference in this promotion is that only on first weekend and just card holders are admitted free. Earlier promotions allowed one free guest with the card holder. As per promotion looks like the cards can be anything credit cards or debit cards.

The savings are around $20 per person. It is better than searching for coupons to get such deals.

Free first weekend BOA museum admissions with dates :



Free Chicago museum admissions :

1) Art Institute of Chicago
2) Chicago history museum
3) Museum of contemporary art

Labels: Bank of America, Credit card, Debit card, free, KPMG, Museum, United States, US, Visa

This article in Gazette highlights the problems that Maryland employers facing as a result of 85000 H1-B visa cap. Getting H1-B in US is a lottery system now with so many applicants fiercely competing for meager 65,000 H1-B visas.

Students in US are some what better off in the sense that they can work on F1 visa for 29 months and apply for 20,000 H1-B visas available.

Chamber of commerce's lobbying was not working to increase the cap back to 195,000 quota of 2003.

Is H1-B effecting the salaries and jobs taken away from US workers ?

Globalization and the American IT Worker(pdf).

A number of studies have found that the H-1Bs are paid on average 15% to 33% less than comparable U.S. IT workers.Given the similarity in salary savings between offshoring and labor importation, and the fact that having the work done on-site is far more productive, it is much more cost-effective from a CEO’s point of view to hire H-1Bs than to offshore the work

Related articles

• Google executives complain about 90 denied H-1B visas [Toogle Many Googlers] [via Zemanta]
• H-1B opponents challenge Bush administration in court [via Zemanta]
• The Battle Over H-1B Visas Heats Up With Conflicting Reports [via Zemanta]

Labels: H-1B visa, Immigration, Recreation, Society and Culture, Travel, United States, US, Visa

I just received a mail notice from U.S District Court settlement administrator approved refund notice regarding the foreign transaction fees class action suit and settlement.If you have used your Visa or Mastercard or a Diners Club credit cards in another country in the past decade, you can fill out a claim for refund that you got in mail or online at http://www.ccfsettlement.com/

Several major credit card companies were successfully and recently class-actioned for charging unnecessary fees for overseas transactions. The class action law suit claim form specifically states that since our Card Company did not adequately notify card holders of the fee charged between February 1, 1996 and November 8, 2006, we are now entitled to get that fee returned to us.Consumers will share in a $336 million settlement of a lawsuit accusing several banks and credit card groups of conspiring to charge excessive fees on foreign currency transactions.This is a wonderful news for tens of thousands of cardholders, including companies whose employees travel internationally, may recover money.

The first option is a flat $25 payment in trade for forgiving all the card companies from any other claims.My case I'll probably go for this option and I wonder why don’t the credit card companies use their computer records to compute the amount of my foreign charges and relieve me and compensate the excessive fees ? Anyway good that this is unexpected extra cash in our pockets.

Like me many of you should start receiving claim forms in the mail, but if you can’t wait for yours to come, you can download a claim form at http://www.ccfsettlement.com/

Updates :
1] Is this a scam ?

There has been too many rumours that this is a scam.This is NOT a scam.Please check this link.

The settlement, signed off on by U.S. District judge William H. Pauley, covers MasterCard, Visa or Diners Club credit card users who held the credit cards between Feb. 1, 1996, and the preliminary approval date. Final approval is set for November 2007.

Even MSNBC covered this on December 7 about this settlement.

Still not convinced I'd go with 25$ option as we have nothing to loose even if its a scam.

2]When will I get my refund?

After receiving the notice from the mail -- Enter the code into the website and you will receive a claim number.

The settlement website FAQ

When will I get my refund?

Refunds will be paid after the Court finally approves the settlement, and approves any award of attorneys' fees, awards to the class representatives, and allocation of the settlement fund among Settlement Damages Class members, and any appeals related to that approval are resolved. It is possible that this could take several months, or, if appeals are filed, several years. You may want to check this website from time to time for updates.

Labels: class action lawsuit, credit cards, foreign transactions, Mastercard, Visa