Health care immigration experts warn that the number of registered nurses from the Philippines and India - major RN exporters to the United States - will drop off significantly next year, because those countries have exceeded their per-country quotas for employment-based immigrant visas or green cards. They said processing time for RN green cards could be extended by an additional two to three years. More than 50,000 nurses have left the Philippines and found employment in the U.S. in the past four years, according to a recent study by the University of the Philippines' National Institute of Health in Manila. Over time, immigrants in the U.S. from the Philippines, India and China have filed more visa petitions than those from any other country, significantly outpacing the fixed quotas. The result: Extra long waiting times will begin in January for health care and other professionals from those countries, according to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service. Health care immigration expert Bruce Morrison, chairman of the Bethesda, MD- based Morrison Public Affairs Group, predicts the visa cutbacks will reduce by two-thirds the number of Filipino nurses who are hired by U.S. hospitals and other health care organizations. The AHA is calling on Congress to examine visa policy. For more, see "Visa caps seen adding to RN staffing woes" at http://www.ahanews.com/ahanews/jsp/ahanews.jsp.