Arizona doctor sees immigration bill as a hope for himself, others

Congress is debating whether to allow more foreign doctors to get into the country on temporary visas and whether to let more stay here permanently.

By Elaine Monaghan, AMNews staff. June 19, 2006.

Washington -- For months now, Alok Sharma, MD, an Indian internist practicing in underserved Arizona, has been picturing his green card, a precious paper that would finally let his wife start her medical residency and give his family permanent status 10 years after arriving in the United States.

Lately he has had an even bolder fantasy: that he could start his own practice, something he cannot even imagine now with his temporary H-1b visa, which will expire in three years.

Now this physician couple's fate is in the hands of Congress, where the Senate breathed life into their long-shelved plans last month when it approved an immigration bill that could vastly improve Dr. Sharma's chances of making America his permanent home.

The measure would exempt specialists from a cap on green cards. It also would increase from 7% to 10% the portion of green cards handed out to skilled workers from any one country, helping Indian and Chinese doctors in particular because they have had to compete with so many hi-tech workers from their homelands, said Greg Siskind, a founding partner of a Memphis, Tenn.-based immigration law firm, who has studied the bill.

"I have lived and dreamed about this for the whole of the last six months," Dr Sharma said in an interview from Somerton, Ariz., where he serves as a staff internist at Sunset Community Health Center. Lobbyists are hard at work trying to ensure that the provisions survive lawmakers' negotiations to iron out differences between the Senate and House bills. The House version focuses on stemming the flow of illegal crossings rather than helping legal immigrants stay.