The Commission on Graduates of Foreign Nursing Schools  (CGFNS)   and  the American Hospital Association  (AHA) have asked the CIS to delay the implementation of the forthcoming July 26, 2004 health care worker credentialing rule  (a.k.a. Visa Screen, which is CGFNS' name for the process).  The rule will extend the health care worker  certification requirement to nonimmigrants, including H-1 and TN holders.  The rule only currently applies to immigrant filers, i.e. Green Card Applicants.

The most pressing concern for the industry is that thousands of Canadian nurses (TN holders) will lose their right to work unless they take and pass either the CGFNS examination or NCLEX examination.  Since it has been many years since some nurses have taken examination, they are not expected to opt to even bother with the exam, and will likely return to Canada.

A secondary concern is that since CGFNS is expected to be flooded with Visa Screen requests that their notorious backlogs will only grow longer.  CGFNS has recently come under attack for their significant delays, mistakes and sub-par customer service.  Critics of the health care certification rule have called for an elimination of the rule by arguing that state licensing rules provide plenty of protection for American health care consumers.