psychiatric nursing in the states

Welcome to allnurses!

Yes, US RNs are trained and licensed as generalists, and you have to have completed a minimum number of hours (specified by the inidividual state's BON) of classroom and clinical education in med-surg, peds, OB, and psych in order to be eligible for licensure. Your best bet would be to contact the BON of the state to which you're planning to move and ask them what is required to get your educational transcript(s) evaluated to see if you need to make up any hours.

Also, yes, you would have to pass the US nurse licensure exam in order to get licensed, the NCLEX-RN (or NCLEX-PN, for practical nurses).

I have no idea how long the entire process would take, but I would guess it would be quite a while (esp. if you have to make up any significant amount of education).

And, of course, all of this is strictly related to nursing licensure and has nothing to do with legal authorization to be able to work in the US. Will you have a greencard or visa that will permit you to work here legally? That's a whole separate issue.

There is lots of good info in the International Nursing section of this site -- you can find it under the yellow "Region" tab at the top of the page.

Best wishes!