Aussie nurses who have moved to the US

RNkiwi · Feb 19, 2005

Hi Bernadette,

I have been battling my way thru the US immigration saga for over 2 years now- hopefully it is more efficient these days. :)

CGFNS makes everyone's life hell- I used to call them regularly- mind you there are some total idiots who answer the phones there and have no idea what they are talking about. It took about 6 months for them to do my CES evaluation to sit NCLEX ( I didn't sit the CGFNS exam- applied for a state that didn't require it and then endorsed my licence into Florida once I had sat NCLEX), even though they had all my paper work I had to get "fresh" nursing school stuff from NZ to get my Visascreen.

I had to fly to Hawaii to sit NCLEX, but I believe you can sit in Hong Kong now?

The longest part of the battle was getting my application processed in Texas ( the service center area for Florida), although this seems to be much quicker now. I just checked the USCIS processing times for California- June 2004- they seem to have caught up a bit also. How long does it take for California to evaluate your nusing papers?

Now I am waiting for my interview at the Embassy in Sydney ( hospital has an appalling lawyer, he has lost papers, doesn't pay things when supposed to etc etc)- hope to be gone by May- although I seem to have been saying that for years now!!

Are you going thru a recruitment agency?

Good luck and feel free to ask me anymore questions,, although can't help much with the California side of things! :chuckle

Wendy

PS are you in Perth?

suzanne4, RN · Feb 20, 2005

CGFNS exam is not required for many of the states, now, you can get by with just the NCLEX exam. However, you need to go thru CGFNS for your Visa Screen Certificate and sorry but there is no way around that, unless you marry an American or get a spousal green card.

Hope that this helps.............