International nursing students in the US

World Immigration

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For those of you that are studying in the US under either an F-1 visa, or any other where you do not have permission to work, and will need to apply for a green card when you finish your schooling-----this is for you.

You must meet all of the requirements for immigration that a foreign-trained nurse does, the only exception that you have is that the English requirements are waived for you. You still need to submit the application and get a Visa Screen Certificate. This is offered by CGFNS and the application is available on their website, http://www.CGFNS.org. There is only one application available, whether you did your training in the US, or overseas.

You will still need to find an employer that will petition for your green card. You will still need to undergo a physical exam at a physician's office that is approved by USCIS an have verification of all titers and vaccinations. If you do not have verifiable proof of having had chicken pox, etc., you will need to have either a titer drawn, or receive the vaccination. Immigration is very strict now with this, they will no longer go on what you are verbally telling them.

Hope that this helps...............most of you will also be able to get an OPT for one year of training while your documents are being processed, but you can only receive the OPT once, especially if this is now a second career for you, and you already used your OPT status for the other.

If you are coming to the US just for the MSN, and already have a BSN from overseas, you will be required to write the English exams. You are only exempt from them if this is your initial training as a nurse, meaning ADN or BSN only.

You just take the exam for another state, and then endorse. A very dear friend of mine is living here in CA, but she went the route of NY, took the exam on Thursday out here, and found out this monring that she passed, and now she can endorse to CA right away.

I do not mean that you need to work in another state, but you should get your license in another state, then just endorse to CA. You will have your results in two days, and not three weeks, and you can endorse right away.

Where you go for initial licensure has absolutely nothing to do with where you will work. They are completely unrelated. I hope that you are aware that you will need to get a Visa Screen Certificate as well, and this cannot be done until after you have a final set of transcripts in hand. I suggest that you make sure that you get the OPT before you graduate from your program.

Syzanne4

My friend and i are both F1 nursing students and confused about one aspect of the OPT. We want to work as externs during summer next year. That is, use 3 months of the months and continue the other 7 months after we graduate the following summer 2007. The international student office at our college told us that we can apply for OPT to work next summer, but our 12 months will be running while we are back in school during the 2nd year. Which means by the time we graduate in 2007, our 12 months OPT will have expired. In other words, we can't work on OPT for 3 months and save the other 7 mths for after graduation.

They said we can only apply after we graduate and the OPt will run for 12 consecutive months.

Can you clarify, pls? What options do we have, if any?

You just take the exam for another state, and then endorse. A very dear friend of mine is living here in CA, but she went the route of NY, took the exam on Thursday out here, and found out this monring that she passed, and now she can endorse to CA right away.

I do not mean that you need to work in another state, but you should get your license in another state, then just endorse to CA. You will have your results in two days, and not three weeks, and you can endorse right away.

Where you go for initial licensure has absolutely nothing to do with where you will work. They are completely unrelated. I hope that you are aware that you will need to get a Visa Screen Certificate as well, and this cannot be done until after you have a final set of transcripts in hand. I suggest that you make sure that you get the OPT before you graduate from your program.

With the OPT that is true, however, you can get special permission from immigration at times to work for the summer. Ask your school about it. Usually it not the norm, but it is available. Just do your homework on the topic.

Specializes in MICU.
With the OPT that is true, however, you can get special permission from immigration at times to work for the summer. Ask your school about it. Usually it not the norm, but it is available. Just do your homework on the topic.

Suzanne is absolutely correct. There's something called CPT(I'm not postive) which is similar to OPT which can be used when u are still in school, and OPT is used when u finish school. If u use three months of CPT, then u only have 9 months left for OPT. I once saw some information about that in the international student office at my previous school. U should do more research. Good luck!

BTW, thank you Suzanne for giving me advice on my question of licensure.

Eve

You are very welcome.:chuckle

If we work fulltime during the summer on OPT and continue to work 1 weekend day( after the summer) during our 2nd and final year of NS, do you know how the part-time hours are calculated?

With the OPT that is true, however, you can get special permission from immigration at times to work for the summer. Ask your school about it. Usually it not the norm, but it is available. Just do your homework on the topic.

It is based on months, not hours. If you are working during the school year, that will be part of your months. You have one calender year total.

If you do three months during the summer, then you will get the other 9 months at the end of the year, if not, those months are going to be decreased. It is not worth it in my opinion. You are going to need the time at the end, especially the way that immigration is headed.

Specializes in Internship.

Hi Im Mike Chou , studying in UAB Alabama...

I'm just fascinated with nursing 9its not boring of course, though I'm a guy!

I was just wondering what are the chances of getting a job as a nurse after graduating with a BSN-RN and an international student?

Would it possible to work as a nurse in a hospital with a working permit after graduation from university without getting a green card?

Is it possible for the hospital (my employer) to apply for me a green card ...?

Hope for your reply...asap Suzanne4

Sorry, but no. You can get a one year OPT that is good after you graduate for additional training, but anthting after that will require a green card. There are no temporary wok permits available.

The hospital is the one to do the petitioning, but it is for a green card.

Specializes in Internship.

Thanks for your reply...Suzanne. I really appreciate it!

Any success stories of Nursing International students getting jobs after graduation from Nursing school in the U,S? 

suzanne4 said:
The hospital is the one to do the petitioning, but it is for a green card.
Specializes in Internship.

Any International Students you know that got the green card after 1 year of OPT Training?

I heard from my friends saying that it would be hard to get the hospital (employer) to petition a green card for an international student (fresh grad) in a short period of time, is this true?

Do you think there might have a big possibility that International student could get the green card?

Thx for your time...hope I didn't take your time...I'm sorry

Thx ?

MikeChou-UAB said:
Thanks for your reply...Suzanne. I really appreciate it!

Any success stories of Nursing International students getting jobs after graduation from Nursing school in the U,S? 

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