COVID-19 fight | Here's why Indian healthcare professionals stand to benefit under new US Congress proposal

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Nurses and doctors from India may get a golden chance to get permanent citizenship of United States with a new proposal in the Congress looking to to meet the stretched needs of the healthcare sector.

In an interaction with Moneycontrol, David Cantor, Head of Foreign Medical Professional Practice Group, Davies & Associates, spelt out the contours of the Healthcare Workforce Resilience Act.

"The highlights of the proposed legislation are that would provide 40,000 green cards readily available for qualified nurses and physicians. There is no cap per country," he added.

Cantor explained that the waiting period for a green card could be as high as 10 years. However, once this legislation goes through, eligible healthcare professionals could get a nod in even a month.

"The longer a healthcare professional has waited for a green card, the sooner he/she would be eligible under this route once the legislation is passed," he added.

Also Read: Live updates from the COVID-19 outbreak in India

US lawmakers want to utilise the unused green cards so that highly-skilled physicians and nurses are able to help the country fight the pandemic. Here, 25,000 nurses and 15,000 doctors of foreign origin would be eligible for a green card.

The total confirmed COVID-19 positive cases have 1.45 million in the US with 86,571 deaths reported so far.

According to the Act, the immigration visas will be issued in order of priority dates and not be constrained to the per-country limitation.

Hence, technically it is possible that 40,000 individuals of Indian origin including doctors and nurses get a permanent residency of the US to help handle the COVID-19 crisis.

"Anyone who is doing medical work related to COVID19 would get a priority in getting a green card once the proposed legislation is passed," he added.

While there are no official numbers, industry estimates suggest that 20 percent of the 2.9 million nurses in the United States are of Indian origin. Further, out of 1.5 million doctors in the United States, those of Indian origin are said to constitute about 5 percent.

On April 22, 2020, US President Donald Trump had signed an executive order halting immigration for green card seekers for 60 days. This, he said, was done to protect the jobs of American citizens laid off during the COVID-19 outbreak.

Trump had said the temporary halt on issue of green cards would ensure that Americans are the first in line for jobs when the economy re-opens.

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