Report Shows Visa Certifications Hitting a New High in 2023 But a Decline is Likely With U.S. Immigration Limits
PHILADELPHIA, PA / ACCESSWIRE / December 6, 2023 / In a report published today, CGFNS International revealed that in 2023, it issued its highest-ever number of occupational visa certifications to nurses and other skilled health workers seeking to migrate to the U.S., where health systems confront a staffing crisis.
The company, a non-profit that verifies credentials for immigration authorities and state licensing boards, said it issued nearly 27,000 of its VisaScreen® certificates during the government fiscal year that ended in October. That is more than twice the number of certificates CGFNS issued the previous year.
The increase continues a six-year upward trend, during which the annual number of VisaScreen®certificates has quadrupled. Over this time, U.S. health systems have increasingly scrambled to fill staff vacancies amid a longstanding nursing shortage that was aggravated by pandemic-era challenges and is projected to worsen through the end of the decade.
In the report, CGFNS stated that higher levels of nurse immigration in recent years are likely to have peaked, even as the nursing shortage widens. This is because, barring intervention, U.S. visa availability is declining to pre-pandemic levels.
