Sponsors (18)
Official title: To enhance our Nation's nurse and physician workforce by recapturing unused immigrant visas.
Introduced September 10, 2025 by Brad Schneider · Last progress September 10, 2025
The bill quickly clears green cards for tens of thousands of long‑waiting employment‑based immigrants (including targeted slots for nurses and physicians) and speeds processing for families, at the trade‑off of favoring certain occupations, adding administrative requirements, and potentially reducing or delaying visa availability for other applicants and straining agency resources.
Immigrants with older-filed employment petitions (and their eligible family members) will get green cards sooner through a recapture pool that can provide up to ~40,000 visas regardless of country caps.
Health care staffing will improve because the bill reserves dedicated immigrant visas (about 25,000 for nurses and 15,000 for physicians), easing nurse shortages and boosting physician supply in underserved areas.
Eligible petitioners and their families will face faster USCIS and State Department processing for these cases without paying premium fees, reducing delay and uncertainty for applicants.
Nationals of other countries could face reduced visa availability later because these recaptured visas bypass per‑country limits and are allocated outside ordinary country caps.
Dedicating slots to nurses and physicians favors specific occupations and may disadvantage other skilled immigrant workers still waiting in the backlog for employment‑based visas.
Expedited handling of these cases without premium fees could strain DHS and State Department capacity or divert resources, potentially slowing adjudication of unrelated applications.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Recaptures unused employment‑based visas (FY1992–FY2024) to allow up to 40,000 green cards—25,000 for nurses and 15,000 for physicians—exempt from per‑country caps with expedited processing.
Recaptures unused employment-based immigrant visas from FY1992 through FY2024 and makes up to 40,000 green cards available to employment‑based beneficiaries whose petitions are filed within three years of enactment, reserving 25,000 for professional nurses and 15,000 for physicians. The bill exempts these recaptured visas from per‑country numerical limits, requires priority‑date issuance, provides expedited processing and adjudication steps, and requires a hiring attestment that the foreign worker will not displace a U.S. worker. Family members receive visas from the recapture pool but do not count against the nurse/physician reservations.