Management at Detroit's Henry Ford Hospital is scrambling after several Canadian nurses working in Michigan were stopped by border security, due to an apparent change to immigration policy.
Hospital officials say a nurse, who had been newly hired at Henry Ford as an "advanced practice nurse," recently applied for her nonimmigrant NAFTA Professional (TN) visa. However, on March 10 she was denied entry into the U.S., based on the Customs and Border Protection's (CBP) "new interpretation" of immigration policy, under the North American Free Trade Agreement.
The nurse was informed by the CBP that advance practice nurses are no longer recognized as registered nurses -- therefore, they do not qualify for TN visas.
Kathy Macki, vice president of human resources at the Detroit hospital, says it was a huge surprise to management and staff at the hospital, which employs around 30 advanced practice nurses.
"These [health care] providers, who have advanced training and skills, fill important positions in our hospital -- positions where we've historically had a significant shortage," she says.
Patti Kunkel, a LaSalle resident and nurse practitioner at Henry Ford Hospital, says she has yet to be turned around at the border, but was grilled by border agents about the expiry date of her visa on Wednesday.
"My very big concern with this, is I may get turned away at the border [Friday] and not be able to do my job," says Kunkel. "That will also put a lot of stress on my current team that I work with, because we are already in a critical shortage in the care of our patients."
Macki says the hospital is asking the CBP to revisit its interpretation of the immigration policies, which has "caused confusion and frustration for our Canadian employees."
"This change in policy was not announced and has yet to be put out in any written format," says Marc Topoleski, an attorney providing immigration legal counsel for Henry Ford Hospital. "So we really don't understand what the rationale was behind this policy change."
Topoleski says the hospital is working to move advanced practice nurses into another category to ensure they are able to cross the border without issue. He says the hospital has also applied to get all of its advanced practice nurses an expedited H1B1 temporary work visa.
That expedited process can take up to a couple of weeks, however, due to recent a suspension of expedited visas in the U.S., changes to hospital employee visas must be made prior to April 3. If the deadline is not met, advanced practice nurses may be out of work for up to six months, which is the time it takes to process a standard H1B1 visa.
"If that happened, it would have a drastic impact on Henry Ford's ability to provide patient care," says Topoleski.