Old nurse wants to work

Moved to International for more input.

Hi and welcome to the site

First things are threads to read. Sticky called primer to working in the USA and retrogression. You will be affected and looking at several years to get a visa if lucky. The sticky Primer to working in the USA has all the information you need to apply to the board of nursing but would think about Florida for initial licensure as they have changed and will delete file after 12 months however they also require that you gain nursing experience in the BON you initially applied to so maybe a case of applying to Florida, Pass NCLEX and then apply to another state for licensure and move your NCLEX results across and then when ready to move to the US (in several years) apply back to Florida.

I really suggest a good read in this forum on current US immigration as also there are a lot of US economical issues going on. May want to consider another country

When I saw the topic of this thread, I thought the writer must be 75-80 years old. I saw you are 45 years old. I think you should edit the subject of this thread. 45 years is not old, I have many co-workers who are in their late forties are are planning to go to nursing school.
There is a whole lot to do before you will be able to eligible to work here. As Anna has pointed out, take some time to read those stickies on the top. They answer most if not all of your questions.
Since you have been out of the profession for a while, I would say take a nursing job where ever you are right now. It will help refresh your skills and knowledge (you will probably have to do some reading too, which will help for the licensing exam as well), and eqip you better for your new job abroad. Employers love to hire somebody who already has the skills than having to spend money on training somebody brand new to the field.

Just to add in to this:
You are going to need current work experience to get hired at this point in time and you cannot do that until you have taken and passed the NCLEX exam.

I would highly recommend that you read over the website for the FL BON, they have made some very restrictive changes in the past few months. They do not issue licenses without a SSN#, this is not new, but now they are only giving 12 months from the date of application to get the SSN# to them. This is impossible as it is going to be years before you would be thru immigration and in the US and ready to work. Next issue is that if you go thru another state and then endorse to FL, they are requiring two years of work experience here first before they will permit you to endorse. It is a catch-22 situation as well call it.

Best of luck to you.

45 isnt old!!!!

As everyone suggests - you need to read the stickies first - that will no doubt give you more questions!!

Welcome to the board (from not so sunny Florida at the moment lol)