NPTE HANDBOOK

The FSBPT, which produces the US Physical Therapy Exam, has just produced an NPTE Candidate Handbook, along with a revamped Fixed Testing webpage.

The Candidate Handbook outlines the FSBPT's position on testing security and the protection of the integrity of the exam. It includes a section on recalling and sharing questions from prior exams.

The NPTE is the property of the FSBPT and is protected by contract, trade secret, and federal copyright laws. It is a violation of those laws, and thus illegal, to share any information whatsoever about any NPTE question. In particular, sharing information about a NPTE question recalled from memory or asking someone who has taken the NPTE to share such information is illegal.

The Candidate Handbook includes a helpful Frequently Asked Questions section, a Test Content Outline, and Sample Questions.

The revamped webpage streamlines the important information about the exam, including testing dates and helpful hints.

MU LAW NEW OFFICE

Musillo Unkenholt is pleased to announce that we will be moving our office. Effective Monday February 27, 2012 our new address will be:

Musillo Unkenholt, LLC

205 West Fourth Street, Suite 1200

Cincinnati, OH 45202

We are moving into the historic Cincinnati Textile Building. As a result of the move we will be clsoing our office at 2PM ET on Friday and we also expect to be closed on Monday.

Our phone number, fax number, and email addresses will remain the same. If you are in the Cincinnati area, please let us know; we would love to show off our new larger modern office!

WILL SEN. GRASSLEY KILL IRISH VISAS AND HR3012?

Sen. Grassley (R-IA) is no friend of employment-based immigration. He continues to have a very simplistic veiw about the way that modern economies are run. His myopic veiwpoint may now be the cause of the defeat of the Irish E-3 Visa Bill and of HR 3012, The Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrants Act.

Politico now reports that Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA) has been aggressively lobbying Sen. Grassley to release his "hold" on these paired bills. Sen. Grassley alone is responsible for these bills inability to become law. Sen. Brown has taken substantial efforts to get Sen. Grassley to release the hold. It is conventionally believed that passage of the Irish E-3 bill is a key part of Sen. Brown's re-election campaign.

The Irish E-3 bill would be similar to the Australian E-3 visa bill, which allows most bachelor-degree prepared workers to obtain an H-1B-like visa without many of the administrative burden incumbent in the H-1B. If the bill passes Physical Therapists, Occupational Therapists, Speech Language Pathologists, and other allied health workers with bachelors degrees who are Irish citizens would have another avenue to come to the US. Irish Permanent Residents would be ineligible for the E-3.

The Fairness For High-Skilled Immigrants Act seeks to eliminate the individual per-country numerical quotas that exist in the allocation of employment-based green cards. The per-country restrictions would be eliminated over three years.

MARCH 2012 VISA BULLETIN

The Department of State has just released the March 2012 Visa Bulletin. The March Visa Bulletin is the sixth Visa Bulletin of US Fiscal Year 2012.

This Visa Bulletin again showed much improvement in the EB-2 categories. The China and India EB-2 numbers jumped another 5 months, and now stand at May 2010. This was expected as we recently wrote. In the last three months these EB-2 numbers have improved over two years.

The EB-3 categories had much more modest gains -- a few weeks in all instances.

March 2012 Visa Bulletin
	All Other Countries	China	India	Mexico
EB-2	Current	01MAY10	01MAY10	Current
EB-3	15MAR06	01JAN05	22AUG02	15MAR06

MU LAW FEATURED AT CBA

Musillo Unkenholt LLC is proud to have two of its attorneys speaking at the Cincinnati Bar Association's Immigration Law Primer on March 8, 2012.

Maria Schneider, who serves as Chair of the CBA's Immigration Law Committee, is a Co-Coordinator of the event. Chris Musillo will be speaking on immigration issues for Subcontractors and Staffing Companies.

Attendees to the day-long event will gain 5.75 credits toward their Continuing Legal Education requirements.

SENATE SET TO MOVE ON IRISH VISA BILL

Irish-American lobbyists have been pushing for an E-3 visa bill for Irish nationals. The bill (S.1983) took a big step forward this week when Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) "hotlined" the bill, which a procedure to expedite the passage of the bill.

The Irish E-3 bill would be similar to the Australian E-3 visa bill, which allows most bachelor-degree prepared workers to obtain an H-1B-like visa without many of the administrative burden incumbent in the H-1B. If the bill passes Physical Therapists, Occupational Therapists, Speech Language Pathologists, and other allied health workers with bachelors degrees who are Irish citizens would have another avenue to come to the US. Irish Permanent Residents would be ineligible for the E-3.

The bill also now includes The Fairness For High-Skilled Immigrants Act, which seeks to eliminate the individual per-country numerical quotas that exist in the allocation of employment-based green cards. The per-country restrictions would be eliminated over three years.