Originally Posted by retronurse23
So it's near to impossible to work in the US as of now? Well that sucks because many of the nurses here, including me have passed the NCLEX and many other foreign examination which have entitled us to secure a visa screen, and I also have been hired by a US hospital and promised me that they would petition for me to get an immigrant visa so as to work for them.
Well that's not fair now is it? because we have invested not only out time, money but also our effort to pass those examination.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> >
Let me repeat what I had previously written: don't think that you are entitled to a U.S. visa simply because you are a nurse. I can only imagine how you feel but that's the way it is. There are more and more Americans entering the nursing profession and Americans with inactive nursing licenses are rejoining the profession because nursing has become a lucrative profession, and also because the job market for other professions has become tighter.
The Philippines is teeming with unemployed Filipino nurses. There are not enough nursing jobs in the world to absorb so many unemployed Filipino nurses. The European Union has shut down its door to foreign nurses, and as I had mentioned before, Australia and New Zealand are not big enough to absorb all of the hundreds of thousands of unemployed Filipino nurses. Australia has a population of only around 20 million and New Zealand's population is even smaller than Australia's. If the Philippines with a population of around 90 million can't employ its own unemployed Filipino nurses how can anyone expect these two mentioned countries can absorb so many unemployed Filipino nurses?
Let me mention NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement. This agreement between the U.S.A., Canada and Mexico involves trade and commerce but this treaty also makes it easier for English-speaking Canadian registered nurses to come to the U.S.A. to fill higher paying nursing jobs in U.S. hospitals. Our hospital had hired Canadian nurses on a temporary basis in the past to ease the nursing shortage in our hospital. The Canadian nurses are willing to work here in the U.S.A. for several months then they go back home to Canada with a load of American dollars in their luggage. The U.S.A. and the Philippines do not have a similar treaty. If a Filipino nurse, or any Filipino for that matter, does not have a relative based petition, then it would be very difficult for a Filipino nurse to legally come and to legally stay in the U.S.A.
The Middle Eastern countries are tightening up their nursing job markets as well. They now require hospital experience before they hire foreign nurses. This will only make the unemployment rate of Filipino nurses to become even worse as more and more Filipino nurses pass the NLE and join the ranks of the unemployed nurses in the Philippines.
The blaming game starts. We can blame many people (including the student nurses themselves who enrolled in nursing schools anyway even though there are no longer jobs for Filipino nurses out there) and many institutions in the Philippines...but the buck stops at the office of the president of the Philippines.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> >
The following member says Thank You: