Aaron Blumberg Discusses Immigration Backlog Effects on Healthcare Systems with Boston Business Journal

In this article published in the Boston Business Journal, Partner Aaron Blumberg discusses the healthcare industry's workforce shortage as it relates to the backlogs and other complications that continue to slow visa processing.

With more than 5,000 nurses needed to fill vacancies in Massachusetts hospitals alone, healthcare systems are relying on temporary hires as a stopgap, resulting in increased staffing costs. International nurses who wish to work in the United States could be a potential solution, but the long and uncertain wait times for green cards and visas make it difficult for hospitals to make staffing plans around immigrant nurses.

“What we have is a system where it is almost impossible to get a nurse to the United States on a temporary work visa or a nonimmigrant visa, but it's actually relatively easy to get a nurse a green card,” says Aaron. “There's all this pent-up demand, but we see that the backlogs are not getting alleviated because there's not enough officers to adjudicate all the cases out there. So this process to get the green card for a nurse who’s overseas is a lot longer now than it was a few years ago.”

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