2023 Summer GAPNA Newsletter Volume 42 Number 2

Increase in Immigration Fees to Affect Long-Term Care Communities

The American Health Care Center, National Center for Assisted Living, and 18 other long-term services organizations wrote a letter to the US Citizenship and Immigration Services to oppose increasing immigration fees.

About one in four direct care workers are born outside the United States. The H-1B cap registration fee will increase more than 2,000% from $10 to $215; therefore, these 20 organizations asked the government to reduce costs in other ways. There are a lot of long-term care communities that mainly depend on immigrants to care for them.

Some of their suggestions included moving to an email notification system instead of mailing receipt notices. Other ideas include allowing immigrant workers to continue work authorizations. while an extension is considered, allowing L-2 spouses to have work authorization, and expediting the immigration visa process to bring healthcare workers to the country during a shortage crisis.