by !80s Love Child!

Dear All,

Hey this is me again... And I really need your advice/suggestions. You may already have seen my other posts and/or previous thread introducing myself. To those who haven't, well I'm from the UK who wants to work in the US (like everybody else on here hehe).

My query is: would it be better for me to do an Associate Degree In Nursing at a Community College somewhere in California (taking international tuition costs out of the equation) than studying a three-year specialized Bachelor of Science in Adult Nursing here in the UK?

The UK's NMC and NHS have developed clever strategies to minimize floodgates, poaching and attrition of UK Trained Nurses to other countries such as the US by: (i) specializing nursing courses (ii) setting quotas to the maximum number of working hours a nurse should be allowed to do (iii) course units are differently structured to the US ones. And I was thinking if it would be a better idea if I was educated in the US at a community college for two years and train as a Registered Nurse there, then hopefully finding an employer?

Or would it be better for me to do a three-year BSc in Adult nursing + do all theory and required practice at the same time + at do least 1 year experience + pass NCLEX-RN exam + find an employer/apply for a visa and wait for centuries?

My other question is: if I can study there at a Community College through an F-1 Student Visa and eventually find an employer from a hospital that would be willing to sponsor me to stay in the US to work, would it be easy to find one? Or is it impossible - that I would NEED to go back to my home country i.e. UK after I get my ADN qualification?

How could I maximize my potential of becoming hired by an employer permanently (knowing the fact that some or most of employers couldn't be bothered to wait for years for my visa processing) after I get my ADN in the US? Has anyone been successful before by doing this?

Any information would be highly appreciated. Please help me make up my mind.

Markus.

Re: ADN In Community Colleges: A Better Option For Me?

The two year community college degree in the US actually takes at least three years to complete by the time that you finish the pre-reqs. However, it is still a two year program so it will not be accepted in your home country if you decide to return there later on.

Next part of the question: If there are no visas available in the US, attending school here will not make it easier to get one (green card) when you finish your training. It is no longer a guarantee that one will be able to remain in the US and work once they finish their training as it had been in the past.

What others have done in the past no longer apply to this situation as immigration rules have greatly changed. If you qualify for the OPT, that will give you one year of work experience, but it still will not guarantee that you will be able to remain here after that and work. You will need to continue on with your studies to maintain your student status if there are no I-485 petitions being accepted.

Please take the time to do some reading here about the retrogression.