Canadian New Grad to USA?

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Hello,

I am a Canadian new graduate RN (BScN) who has a job offer to obtain employment in the United States, specifically Florida on a Cardiac PCU unit full time. I am curious as to if anyone has any advice or tips in pursuing this career opportunity, and if you would recommend starting my practice in the USA over Canada?

Thank you.

If you're moving next summer you have lots of time I think! I got my initial license through Minnesota and am currently endorsing! I think most Canadian universities meet the requirements! The worst part for me was passing the NCLEX haha! I expedited my visa screen which I 100% recommend because it was so fast! I got a job without having a SSN or state license but I'm a new grad and they were super understanding!

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hi! I went to the University of Saskatchewan! I went into my advisor and we filled out the forms together! She put my curriculum on a USB stick and we sent it that way! She had done it before so she was familiar with the process!

How long did it take your documents to be received once they were sent to CGFNS?

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best thing for you to do is when you have all your supporting documents to apply for your TN @buffalo/Niagara border and receive your TN go to the SSN office in buffalo in apply for it that's actually what i did

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Okay so in order to obtain the TN Visa you need the following items:

-Your Bachelor's Degree

-Visa Screen

-US State License

-Passport or Nexus Card

-TN Petition Job letter from your employer indicating your job description, salary, length of employment and info about the hospital itself. Your TN is valid for 3 years. Your recruiter will give you this.

-$56 USD cash to purchase the TN but I brought $60 USD cash to be on the safe side.

I got my TN Visa at the border crossing. You can only get your TN Visa no more than 2 weeks to your start date. You either get it at the border crossing or designated airports (Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver and Calgary I've heard issues TN Visas).

Now depending on the state you're getting your nursing license you may need a SSN prior to getting your license. The state I applied didn't require a SSN. I'm not sure how Florida works so you would need to contact the Florida BON.

Now with getting your Visa Screen you need to go with CFGNS. You would need to pay $540 USD for this. You need these documents:

-Valid Picture of yourself you can upload this on the website

-High School Diploma you can scan or send them a copy. I lost my diploma so I had to have the school board send my transcript on my behalf. I had FedEx send my documents to them. Now if you graduated high school more than 10 years ago you don't need to do this and will be exempt.

-University Transcript Validation- Your school has to send it on your behalf however with my school I had to send them a summary of my clinicals and what I did. It took my school 6 weeks to send my credentials.

-Verification of Nursing license: Have the nursing board of your province send a verification of nursing license and with they will send your NCLEX Score. I'm licensed in Ontario and they are notorious for being slow so this took 6 weeks to be processed.

-I went to school in Ontario so I got exempt from writing the English exam.

When CGFNS receives your documents it takes an additional 15-20 business days to process your documents as received.

Once you get your TN visa you can apply and get your SSN.

It's a long tedious process. Give yourself 4-6 months to get your Visa Screen. State license it took me 2 months. Feel free to ask me any questions.

At what point did CGFNS exempt you from the English Exam? They recieved my transcript today, but it still states that they are waiting for a passing score for my English examination, I went to school in Saskatchewan and took classes all in Englsih w/ fully English textbooks.

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Specializes in Critical Care.

It takes another 8 weeks or so from that date forward for them to say your account is up for review. Once the status changes to up "for review", it takes another week or two and it should say whether you're certified or not. Once certified, it took another week for them to mail my certificate. Someone must be home to accept the certificate.

To answer your question, I don't think they change the exempt status until your status says it is up for review - so 8 weeks from when all the required documents were received.

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Specializes in Psych, Corrections, Med-Surg, Ambulatory.
At what point did CGFNS exempt you from the English Exam? They recieved my transcript today, but it still states that they are waiting for a passing score for my English examination, I went to school in Saskatchewan and took classes all in Englsih w/ fully English textbooks.

I, too, went to school in Saskatchewan. Back in 1987 (before the earth's crust cooled) the Oregon BON advised me that I could take NCLEX in a neighbouring state that doesn't require CGFNS, get their license, then get licensed by endorsement in Oregon.

I think Canada wasn't using NCLEX back then; can't remember the name of the licensing exam I took in Alberta. So I did have to write it in the States. I went to Idaho to write, got an Idaho nursing license, then sent it in to the Oregon board to get an Oregon license. It saved an expensive step not having to write the CGFNS. I don't know it that is an option for you.

Good luck.

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Specializes in Critical Care.

I think Canada wasn't using NCLEX back then; can't remember the name of the licensing exam I took in Alberta. So I did have to write it in the States. I went to Idaho to write, got an Idaho nursing license, then sent it in to the Oregon board to get an Oregon license. It saved an expensive step not having to write the CGFNS. I don't know it that is an option for you.

CGFNS or visa screen certificate is required to obtain your TN visa at the border/point of entry. There's no way around this now unfortunately.

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Hello,

I’m a new cad grad applying for a Florida license via endorsement directly from my cad BON. Can you tell me how you went about the required Livescan fingerprinting process?

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Specializes in Critical Care.

I don't know how you do it in Florida but in order to do the live scan in California (where I am licensed and working), you need to be in the state in order to do the live scan. I am guessing it is the same for Florida. When I got licensed for Texas, I did the finger print card which took about a month to get results. I had to go to a private notary to get fingerprinted and mailed them myself.

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Specializes in Surgical/Trauma/Neuroscience/Cardiac ICU.

Wow. I love that I came across this thread. I am a new grad RN as well with RPN experience. Ehm, my first plan was to go to other Canadian province but ended up having second thoughts.

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Specializes in Surgical/Trauma/Neuroscience/Cardiac ICU.
On 6/3/2018 at 12:33 PM, Marmaladey said:

It's a long tedious process. Give yourself 4-6 months to get your Visa Screen. State license it took me 2 months. Feel free to ask me any questions.

Definitely will need to work if it will take long time for all this process. Yikes, I might end up going to another province after all, I think, for now.

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Specializes in Surgical/Trauma/Neuroscience/Cardiac ICU.
On 7/9/2018 at 4:55 PM, kat18 said:

Thank you for your response Sieraapk, that helps a lot! I'm just really worried about whether Ryerson Universities curriculum will meet the standards required by the California BON. I'm pretty sure I'll be missing some of the placements and clinical hours that are required.What state are you endorsing from? This is all getting so stressful because of the uknown. I'll be marrying my fiance next summer and moving to California because he works there. I don't want to move somewhere I won't be able to practice as an RN. Any tips would be really helpful!

Hi. I am just reading this thread now. I will be graduating from Ryerson University as well. But I have my RN registration already. I have plans of going to the US. Did it work out OK for you? Please advice.

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