Attestation Applications by Facilities Temporarily Employing H-1C Nonimmigrant Foreign Workers as Registered Nurses; Final Rule

The Employment and Training Administration (ETA) and the Wage and Hour Division of the Department of Labor (the Department or DOL) are publishing a Final Rule to implement the Nursing Relief for Disadvantaged Areas Reauthorization Act of 2005 (NRDARA), which reauthorized the Nursing Relief for Disadvantaged Areas Act of 1999 (NRDAA), finalizing these rules for enforcement purposes. These Acts allowed certain health care facilities to file, and authorize the Department to review, approve and enforce, attestation applications to employ foreign workers as registered nurses in health professional shortage areas on a temporary basis under the H-1C visa. Facilities (hospitals meeting threshold criteria for the program) filed these forms with the Department as a condition for petitioning the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), for H-1C nurses.