CGFNS chaos

[starbin]

As I had already posted, I passed the July 13th CGFNS Exam. I graduated from 2 different Nursing Schools. I did 3 years basic Nursing course and worked for 41 months then again did 2 year Bachelors degree in nursing which I passed in 2004. I requested both of my schools to send my credentials to CGFNS and they did so. CGFNS determined that my credentials met all the requirements and they allowed me to test which I passed. Now after 2 months since I took the CG exam, they have changed the status of my documents. They have written that, Nursing education from my first school does not meet the requirement and the second they received but did not accept. But in the Visa screen application status, they have written the same old things..meets all program requirement. They have written in explanation that, they have communicated with applicant about why the credentials were not acceped..but they have not mrntioned sending any correspondence to me in the correspondence column,, and I have not received one regarding this till now,they havent called me either. I wonder, why CGFNS allowed me to sit for the exam if I did not meet the requirements. . I am fed up with the inefficiency of CGFNS. This is ridiculous. CGFNS needs a lot of renovation in its system and working efficiency,,not only its physical appearance or Buildings.

[zohar_i]

I only have to agree with you. My dealing with CGFNS was pure hell, too.

Although I have always sent everything by FedEx, and so did my college,

they lost my documents. After recieving the CES report I found mistaes in it, so it had to be done again. They even sent me the visascreen certificate even before I passed any exam (CGFNS or NCLEX) - I was amazed : I called them about it, and the telephone attendant told me : hmm, I am very SURPRISED that you are so honest, a normal person would keep the certificate and wouldn't say a thing to us.

In short: now I have everything that I needed from them and I very much hope that I'll never need to deal with them again. The most horrible thing about them are their telephone attendants. They are very rude and they seem to have no clue what's going on.

I can recommend you this: always call them at the exact hour they open the phones (9 am, I think) and don't let them finish the call until you get the information you want. I've learned it by yelling at them or asking for the supervisor.

Hope it hepls.

[csadam]

Hi Starbin!

(I like your name btw, is it from Star Bin??? My name means Star in Hungarian...)

I'm happy that you have passed the NCLEX already, and wish you the best of luck with your job hunt!

Yes, I would like to get a few tips for the NCLEX via email from you if you don't mind. I will write you a pm with my email address. I heard from a few people, that they have found CGFNS Qualifying Exam a lot harder than the NCLEX-RN. I hope that I will, too! :)

Regards,

Csilla

Dear Csilla,

In fact, they didn't even need the detail from my nursing school. I just asked the representative to get the credential evaluator on phone but the representative asked me to hold phone, she came after 10 minutes and said "we are reviewing your file it will be updated tomorrow". Next day I again checked my status and every thing was taken care of.

I passed the NCLEX-RN exam in October, and now looking for a job.

All the best for your exam. It is not very tough but not very easy too. Most of the questions are critical thinking questions. I found it more easier than CGFNS. If you want to know the type of questions I got on NCLEX( I don't remember the exact questions but I can tell you the contents ) just send your e-mail address in PM.

[csadam]

Well, what can I say???

I'm not surprised at all about what you said...

Yes, CGFNS "customer service" reps are very very rude!

Lots of times I ended up crying when I hung up the phone with them.

I'm not one of those people who cry very easily, but they made me cry a few times.

I always used to call them in the morning, too, right at 9am Eastern time.

I hope too, that I will never ever have to deal with them again!!!

I only have to agree with you. My dealing with CGFNS was pure hell, too.

Although I have always sent everything by FedEx, and so did my college,

they lost my documents. After recieving the CES report I found mistaes in it, so it had to be done again. They even sent me the visascreen certificate even before I passed any exam (CGFNS or NCLEX) - I was amazed : I called them about it, and the telephone attendant told me : hmm, I am very SURPRISED that you are so honest, a normal person would keep the certificate and wouldn't say a thing to us.

In short: now I have everything that I needed from them and I very much hope that I'll never need to deal with them again. The most horrible thing about them are their telephone attendants. They are very rude and they seem to have no clue what's going on.

I can recommend you this: always call them at the exact hour they open the phones (9 am, I think) and don't let them finish the call until you get the information you want. I've learned it by yelling at them or asking for the supervisor.

Hope it hepls.

[Grace99]

Dear Csilla,

In fact, they didn't even need the detail from my nursing school. I just asked the representative to get the credential evaluator on phone but the representative asked me to hold phone, she came after 10 minutes and said "we are reviewing your file it will be updated tomorrow". Next day I again checked my status and every thing was taken care of.

I passed the NCLEX-RN exam in October, and now looking for a job.

All the best for your exam. It is not very tough but not very easy too. Most of the questions are critical thinking questions. I found it more easier than CGFNS. If you want to know the type of questions I got on NCLEX( I don't remember the exact questions but I can tell you the contents ) just send your e-mail address in PM.

Hi there,

I know your posting was in 2005 but I'm experiencing similar problems with CGFNS. I emailed Suzanne and others but I haven't heard from them yet. I would appreciate if you could give me some advice.

I have been applying for visascreen certification, not too long ago -about 2 months now. I got everything mailed to them and they have already received my documents including my nursing school transcript, nursing board license, AZ nursing board unauthorized license (no SNN yet), NCLEX result, high school transcripts....all those they asked for. I even wrote the IELTS eventhough I'm exempted (I'm Canadian Chinese and trained in English for my BSN).

What they have been waiting for is my general nursing mental health record that I did with a separate private institute (Psychiatric nursing wasn't included in my general nursing program at that time). The problem is, that the educator of my mental health course has already passed away for years and that private institute is no longer existing. There is no way for me to get a course record directly from the institute. Fortunately, I recalled that my Canadian nursing board is still keeping my mental health course record in my file, so I asked my nursing board to send a copy to CGFNS and they did it. Guess it's not good enough for the website is still saying 'awaiting for my mental health document'.

This is frustrating and there is no way in getting my mental health record from an institute that is no longer servicing. However, the course record from my nursing board is valid since I've been working in Canada for 18 years and is recognized by AZBN on and NCLEX as well.

Sorry for the lengthy email, could you give me some suggestions please? I called CGFNS asking for the credential evaluator but I was bypassed by the operator -he said my application will be evaluated soon and obviously it's just a norm of rejecting my call. Is there any other ways I can do? some members said contacting an attorney, do you think it's workable?? What about contacting a recruiter, since they basically got everything they asked for? By the way, I got a job offered already, they are just waiting for the visascreen!!! Very frustrated......

I appreciate your help and others' as well :bowingpur

Looking forward to hearing from you all soon..........

[5cats]

Not sure when that report was sent, but it can take many weeks until you see a received on the website, they are normally way behind sorting their mail. You might just need to be patient.

5cats

[suzanne4, RN]

Not sure if they have received the document from the Canadian board. How long ago was that sent? If there were issues with your file, then you cannot even go from when you sent in your initial documents to them, it nol longer matters.

And with the thousands of pieces of mail that they receive each week, one needs to allow at least two weeks for the information to get to your file and then it is going to need to be reviewed. And they are going to need to review the documents from the facility.

Expect it to take at least a month or two from the time that the documents are complete since you did not do all in the same program.

But you are not having any chaos or issues with them. You were asked to submit additional documentation and you did.

Where did you attend nursing school? In Canada or in China? If in China, even if it were in English, you would still be required to have the English exams.

[Grace99]

Sorry to her about your struggles with CGFNS.

I was also in the same boat few months ago. Now I have alredy received my CGFNS certificate and visa screen certificate. I would find out the changes or mistakes made to my account immediately because I used to check it everyday and sometimes twice a day. Just to make sure that everything is ok. And I would call them immediately if there is any confusion.

They had sent a questionnaire with my certificates asking for feed back about the CGFNS services. I have only one good thing to say about them. My visa screen certificate was issued within one week after they received my English results. They sent my CGFNS certificate a week later.

few nurses are planning to take CGFNS to the court . They deserve it.

Hello Starbin,

Thanks for your sharing, I think as an applicant for VSC, I'm experiencing similar problems with CGFNS.

I have sent all my documents, transcript, school records, including my NCLEX, IELTS results to them since Dec, 2008. On the website, it kept saying my application is 'ready for review'. However, I haven't seen any action at all from them showing that they have started to review my application. I have called CGFNS several times, waited >30 minutes listening to that classical music on the answering machine. The answer I got from them was I need to wait patiently for they have a long wait list of applicants.

Not that I don't have patience or I don't want to wait, I have waited for two months and I just don't know what other requirements they want from me.

I understand the persons I talked with on the phone could be just the operators only. My question is, that how I can talk to a supervisor so as I can ask him/her thoroughly. Would it be better if I arrange a personal interview with CGFNS in Philadelphia so as I can ask him/her face to face??

Hope you'll help me out soon!!

Thank you in advance :bowingpur

Grace99

[Silverdragon102, BSN]

I don't think arranging a personal interview is possible. I know my file never changed from ready for review until they issued VSC then it changed to issued. If I remember rightly you are in Canada so I don't think you have long to wait but average is 2-4 months for most people

[5cats]

Talking to a supervisor only makes sense if they exceed the processing time, what they haven't yet. And even then the operator will flag up your file, so supervisor is rarely necessary.

You will have to wait. And if you ring them daily, it won't change a thing, they have many applications, you're not the only one.

5cats

[ghillbert, MSN, NP]

Its almost impossible to speak to a supervisor anyhow, they just say there's none available.

[Grace99]

Not sure when that report was sent, but it can take many weeks until you see a received on the website, they are normally way behind sorting their mail. You might just need to be patient.

5cats

This is a note to all those who have responded to my questions and emails before: 5cats, Suzanne, Siverdragon,.....and many others who have directly or indirectly answered my questions. Sorry that I can't remember all of your usernames.

After 2 months and 8 days of long-time application for VSC, I'm excited to say that 'I GOT IT! I GOT IT! I GOT IT!'. Excused me to type in upper case, but I really jumped up from disappointment and hopelessness of not knowing when CGFNS would review and assess my applications. I started to take other people's advice of not calling CGFNS by phone and waited patiently letting them to do their work at their own speed.

Thank God for lifting me up from dismay, I've been rescued!!!

Just a note to those still waiting for VSC, wish you patience to wait but don't need to wait as long as I and other people do. If I can do anything to help anybody, I'll be happy to do that. Just feel free to email allnurses.com and I'm sure other successful applications will be happy to help out too.

Once again, thanks to those who have offered me help! Without you, I would never know what and how to get the NCLEX, VSC and a TN visa. Thank you sooooooo much :bow:

Grace99

PS I'm an RN from 'Foreign country'

[Silverdragon102, BSN]

Congrats on getting sorted.