Wants State Dept. to process faster visa applications.

By The American Bazaar Staff

NEW YORK: Ahead of President Barack Obama’s executive action on immigration reform, which he plans to detail in a national address on Thursday, New York Democrat Congresswoman from Queens, Grace Meng, has introduced legislation today that would require the State Department to speed-up the visa approval process for Indian and Pakistani physicians who are scheduled to work at hospitals in the United States.

Meng, a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, wants to remedy the difficulty that international physicians – especially doctors from India and Pakistan – have encountered in securing J-1 visas from American embassies in their countries.

The J-1 is a temporary nonimmigrant visa that international physicians use to work in U.S. medical residency programs.

The problem, primarily experienced by doctors who are set to do their residencies in the U.S., has created major dilemmas for the physicians and the American hospitals at which they’re set to work, according to a press release.

In many instances, the long delays in the issuance of visas has resulted in hospitals being forced to withdraw offers to foreign physicians who had already accepted, effectively preventing these doctors from entering the United States at all.

“The lengthy and excessive visa delays that physicians from India and Pakistan are forced to endure is unacceptable,” said Meng, in a statement. “The long waits not only impact the plans and commitments that these physicians have made to U.S. hospitals but also affect the millions of Americans who depend on these facilities for critical medical treatment, particularly in communities where there is a shortage of doctors. It is critical that this inefficient approval process be fixed, and my bill is a quick and easy way to do it.”

Under Meng’s legislation, entitled the Grant Residency for Additional Doctors (GRAD) Act of 2014, the Secretary of State would be required to designate a State Department officer or employee to facilitate the expedited review of J-1 visa applicants who are slated to travel to the U.S for graduate medical education or training.

The bill would also require that the expedited review be the sole responsibility of this officer or employee from March to June, since most residency programs begin each July.