Canadian Nurses Working in US

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Hi All,

I am an RN from Newfoundland. I completed my nursing education in Canada.

I have a Newfoundland, Minnesota and Arizona RN licensure (pending TN visa).

NCLEX was completed in 2013 and I have CGFNS TN Visa Screen Certificate.

Anyone who has been through this process before, please guide me.

I just had two interviews with a company in the US. Although I stated on the online application that I would need to be sponsored, both recruiters seemed surprised to hear same.

As far as I know, I need a letter of employment to give to border guard along with my CGFNS visa screen certificate. With that I should be able to get a TN Visa. I am not sure if I am oversimplifiying the process. If I am please advise.

I have been wanting to work in the US for years, but seem to hit road blocks at every turn. I thought I was ready to go, but I seem to be meeting a lot of resistance from both travel companies and hospitals regarding the entire sponsorship process.

If anyone can fill me in on this process or recommend a hospital or travel company I would be forever grateful.

Thank you for your time.

Specializes in Medical and general practice now LTC.

As a Canadian citizen you just need VSC and letter from employer detailing letter of employment and then at teh border you should get a TN visa

Thanks for the response Silverdragon102. Are you aware if the employer has any further paperwork on their end? They asked me if I needed to be sponsored. I said yes on the online application. Is writing a letter of employment all it takes to be considered "sponsoring"?

Thank you for your time.

Specializes in Medical and general practice now LTC.

There are a few threads in this forum discussing TN and they are a bit recent ie this year and they may be able to help you more than I can as I just know from what has been written here

Great. I'll look into it. Thanks again.

hi travellusting Silverdragon102 is right you have all the necessary documents all you need is the letter of employment from the hospital you will be working @ future sponsorship if that is something that you want to do you would have too find a hospital that is willing do so for you in the future if not you can just keep renewing your TN every 3yrs even that i am kind of worried seeing that it is a Temp employment and if you renew your TN 3times that looks more then just Temporary but important thing is to find a hospital that doesnt mind doing such for you in the future thats what i had to do in my situation hope this helps

I am Canadian living in Canada. Have been crossing the border every day for 19 years on a TN VISA. You take your TN Visa letter provided by your new employer, your US RN license, Visa Screen, your diploma and $56 dollars U.S. In cash. I think you need exactly $56; I have never asked them to make change. Technically, I think you are supposed to bring your Canadian RN license too. The premise is you are supposed To be licensed in your home jurisdiction to be eligible for a TN. I haven't had to show it in years, which is good because Ontario doesn't issue an official card anymore and they won't accept a computer print-out. Check with US immigration by calling the border for hours when they will process TNs. It usually isn't done ATC. I think the word "sponsor" is problematic. Employers sponsor people for green cards but I don't hear that word for TNs. Getting a hospital to sponsor an RN for a green card seems to be a thing of the past in my neck of the woods. Let me know if I can help further

Thanks to you both The_Gift and nursemaple2 for your answers.That's a huge relief.

With regard to the TN visa letter, is there a specific format they have to follow?

not necessary any format pretty a letter stating that they are offer you a job a description of your job duties and what you will be doing a start date and how long you'll be there for TN visa are good for 3 years so i am pretty sure they will put 3 years down seeing the fact you are coming from canada. my hospital just put for 3 years. the hospitals that interviewed you travelusting were they willing to write you a job offer letter?

The hospitals in my area process many Canadians and they do have standard letters. It states you are licensed in the particular state, your education, what title you will work under, what your rate of pay is. They describe your job duties. They want to know if you are hired under an RN job title, that you are doing RN job duties. The effective period (date of hire + 3 yrs).

Thanks for your responses. Don't have the job yet. They seemed quite daunted by the process when they thought they had to sponsor me, but I said I thought it was only a letter but I would check. They seemed much happier with that, but they did not give me the impression they knew what would be involved in writing the letter.

Thanks.

Were you able to get it all sorted out? I'm looking at the process too and it seems very confusing. Let us know how it goes.

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