CGFNS PROBLEM!!!

[richterbelmont]

Hi everybody!

im an rn from mexico actually working in the US, i have been working in this country for more thant 3 years and now im fixing my migration status in this beautiful country. i was required to get a "VISA SCREEN CERTIFICATION" from CGFNS, this is one of the requirements in the process of change in migration status . in order to do this document CGFNS ask you for numerous documents: 1-the payment in full of this order, 2- the application for this document 3- signed attestation 4-a photo of the applicant 5- your secondary school diploma(optional) 6- licence validation form(from the texas BON in my case) 7-transcript validation form(from my university where i studied nursing in mexico in my case) 8-proof of passed nclex 9- passed english score for foreign nurses.

i completed all this steps mentioned above and sent all this documents to CGFNS.

everything was accepted except the "transcript validation form from my university" CGFNS received the transcript from my university in september 15/2016 and rejected it approx, on octuber 15/2016, i called them and they told me that the reason that it was rejected was because one of the signatures was not provided, but i was sure the signature was there because i check the form before it was sent by the university and everything was there, however, once i talked to them i went back to my university and they remake the form and sent it again to CGFNS on octuber 20th approx.

They took another month approx. to review the 2nd transcript and it was rejected again on November 20th/2016. I talked with another representative from CGFNS and he told me that the first transcript they received was properly signed, that what they needed was a validation of the signature of the transcript not a new one how i was been told, i asked what does that mean, and basically they wanted to know exactly who the person that had signed the transcript was...so they instructed me to talk with the director from my university and he had to write a letter explaining who he was, his charge, tittle seals etc etc.

I was really frustrated at this point because every time i talked to CGFNS they said something different. so this letter was done by my university and sent to CGFNS and they got it on november 28th/2016. i have been calling since then and they just keep saying that they have not reviewed the letter yet and that i need to wait, every time i call them they just leave "notes" to the department in charge to review this document but nothing has been done so far.

I WANT TO KNOW IF SOMEONE HAS HAD THIS PROBLEM WITH THEM AND IF THERE IS A WAY TO FIX THIS ISSUE, I DONT KNOW WHAT TO DO AND IM REALLY FRUSTRATED AND TIRED OF THE SAME RESPONSES FROM THE BAD QUALIFIED PEOPLE FROM CGFNS THAT TELLS YOU WHATEVER THEY WANT TO YOU EVERY TIME YOU CALL THEM. PLEASE HELP ME! THANKS

[Silverdragon102, BSN]

Moved to the Advice on Immigration forum

CGFNS are well known for bad service, unfortunately all you can do is wait. Average time is 2-4 months. Have you arrange for BON to verify your license in the state and have passed NCLEX?

[BonnieSc]

Both of my husband's school transcripts (diploma and BSN) were sent back to Africa for not having a valid signature and seal. I was amused because in his country they are REALLY into seals and I'm sure it was there. Neither of us has any idea what CGFNS was claiming was wrong with his transcripts. He's still in process; hopefully it's all resolved soon.

[job081985]

Hello everyone, I hope somebody can help me out. When I check my VS status online, it states Document received but not accepted”. I have been stuck at this situation for almost three months now, despite efforts of calling customer hotline to resolve this issue. The concern here is that my university has already sent my transcript to CGFNS. However, it has been rejected due to not having a VALID SIGNATURE”.

I have been informed by several representatives that they will contact the university by sending a "TRANSCRIPT VALIDATION FORM" and have also been told to get in touch with the university and follow up with them. Now, the main problem is that the university has received a letter from CGFNS and they are confused on what exactly CGFNS means with valid signature” as they have sent the documents complete with signature and stamp. It does not specify in what way the documents were lacking a valid signature. I have called CGFNS several times for the past three months, unfortunately, the representatives kept on telling me that they will send the university a different letter, one which is more detailed, that would explain the necessary steps in validating the transcripts. I also rang the university several times to confirm if they have received any letter. As of this writing, they have NOT RECEIVED ANY LETTER FROM CGFNS.

I am unsure on what to do in this situation as for every phone call that I make to the CGFNS hotline; I am being told that a request for validation will be sent to my university. I have been calling and sending e-mails several times since December but I have been told the same thing over and over again. Calling the customer hotline is kind of expensive as I live outside US and most of the representatives that I speak with are rude. The last representative who I spoke with even told me not to get involved with the verification and refrain from calling the hotline which I find confusing as this is a service that I have paid for and as an applicant, I am ensuring that the requirements are submitted within the required timeframe.

The issue here is my CGFNS is about to expire in July and I am aware that the process of reviewing the documents takes time. I would be very grateful if anyone here who underwent the same issue could give advice. Thank you very much.

[Jaycee168]

Hi everyone! I'm having the same problem with CGFNS regarding 'signature was not provided or the signature could not be authenticated'. I already contacted the school and they said the didn't receive any email yet regarding this concern and CGFNS said they email them already. It's so frustrating. I hope somebody will share how did you guys resolve this issue. Please share. I really appreciate the help. Thank you.

[job081985]

Hi Jaycee168, what it meant was that the school provided a signature for your documents, however, CGFNS does not find it valid as the signature is not in their database. CGFNS was supposed to send an e-mail to a specific person from the school who is in the CGFNS database and what they want is for that specific person to reply to them and verify that the documents were indeed from the school.

[Jaycee168]

Thank you for your response. I already contacted the school and they said they didn't receive any email nor postal mail. I requested the school if they can make a verification of the signatories. My problem is that, will this suffice, will the CGFNS accept the form that the school will provide? Because I think CGFNS has its own form that the school need to fill out but this is the best way I can expedite my application. They keep on saying they emailed the school already and want me to re-do everything because they said maybe the email address was wrong which I doubt because we double check everything before the school sent out my forms. This is so frustrating and time consuming. So help me God.

Hope you can advise. Thanks A lot. I truly appreciate it.

[job081985]

Hi Jaycee168, I went through the same thing and it was so frustrating.. I kept on calling both CGFNS and my university but I was not going anywhere and nothing seemed to make sense. What I did was, I kept on calling CGFNS until I was lucky enough to get through someone who was willing to help me. (I know most of them are rude and will tell you off, but you just have to keep on trying). That CGFNS representative who was kind enough to help me told me the name of the school's contact person who was already in their database (FYI: most representatives will not give you this information. Actually most of them would tell me not to call them anymore). Then, I contacted my school and asked them to let that person check her e-mail and validate to CGFNS that my documents were authentic.

Do not send another set of documents as it will just give you the same outcome, it will still be rejected as the signature given is not on their database.

BTW, just to ensure that I am giving you the right advice.. Are you certain that the school really sent documents with signature and school stamp? Because my university had sent me e-mail copies of what they sent to CGFNS. So, I was really sure that there was nothing wrong with the documents that the university sent.

Where are you from?

[Jaycee168]

I'm from the Philippines. We also have a copy of the documents sent to CGFNS that's why I'm certain everything was stamp and signed. When I told the representative that the school didn't receive any emails from them, she said ‘MAYBE' the email address was incorrect which I doubt ‘coz I check my copy and verify the school again, it was the right email address. So she advise me to just send new forms, it's very frustrating for her to say that because its very expensive to send forms in the US. When I asked her if they can resend it again, she easily gave up and want me to re-do everything.

So now, I requested my school to make a validation of the signatories who are authorize to sign the school documents. Though I'm having doubts if the form that my school will send will suffice because I believe CGFNS have their own FORMS that needs to be filled out by the school. This is the best way I can do now in my end since they didn't receive the email. Do you think they will accept the validation of signature from the school? In your case, did they really receive the email from cgfns?

[job081985]

Hello Jaycee168! I am not sure whether they will accept it that way. In my case, one of the representatives told me the name of the person who they sent the e-mail to. I rang my university and asked them whether that person was still working for them, I asked them if they could CC my correspondence with them with that person so that she would be aware of my situation. She indeed received an e-mail from CGFNS and I requested if she could just answer the e-mail for verification. I don't know whether she needed to fill up forms or she just responded to the e-mail. The next thing I know is that my documents got verified. I know it was kind of expensive to call CGFNS from PHL, I cannot suggest for you to do what I did because it will be kind of expensive to ring them all the time. Can you not ask the school to re-send it? Have they done this before with their other students? CGFNS actually told me that they will send some forms by post. I kind of insisted for them to do both (e-mail and post) as I was running out of time, and I got lucky with the representative that I spoke with. I hope you get your documents sorted out.

[BonnieSc]

I commented above, way back in January, that both of my husband's transcripts were refused. What it took several calls for someone to explain to me is that ALL transcripts are refused as having an invalid seal/signature until the second transcript verification is received. I don't know why they can't be upfront about their verification process; it's bizarre. But if you google, you'll find a journal article CGNFS wrote about how great their process is, and it explains what the rep told me. After CGFNS receives your transcripts, unless they were sent by a school that sends a lot of graduates and they already have the registrar's signature on file, they send this signature verification email. This email doesn't have the name of the applicant on it; it just says, they're CGFNS and can the registrar verify their signature? Naturally, no one at the school pays attention to that email unless someone draws it to their attention. If I got that I would think it was spam. Not to mention that in many countries, people use their personal email addresses for business--the school email on the form is something no one ever checks. I would really like to see a copy of this email, but after several requests, that's as much information as I've gotten from them.

It's hard to know how to get the school to respond when you don't know exactly what CGFNS is asking for.

After the school didn't respond to two emails, and I tried to find other ways for CGFNS to get the information they needed but all of my suggestions were rejected (and I was informed, falsely, that "they get responses from [this country] all the time"), they said they could send a hard copy via FedEx. I don't know why they expected that to do any good, and it didn't. Anyway, we've made contact with the university in Africa and they say they found the emails and letter and will respond but it will take several weeks--despite CGFNS stating that it could be handled via email or a phone call. So I don't know what request CGFNS is making, and I'm afraid like an above poster, the university is going to resend the transcripts and it will start the whole process over. At this point we have been working with CGFNS for over a year.

CGFNS is the most opaque, manipulative agency I've ever had the displeasure of working with. If I had known, we never would have started with them but would have tried one of the other companies accepted in our state. I am an American, I speak native English, and I'm also a nurse; I can't imagine trying to go through this process if I wasn't all three. When we're done, I'm going to write a strongly worded letter to our state board of nursing asking them not to work with CGFNS anymore. I'm sure my letter won't do any good, but if enough people write, perhaps it will.

[sweetapple]

I am sorry to say that CGFNS as an organization plays games with foreign educated professionals' future and that of their/our families. CGFNS WILL ALWAYS find faults validating transcripts, expiring documents or delaying tests results of written, printed, or electronic information habitually, then disapprove official records provided to them by foreign educated schools.

CGFNS will go as far as objecting to a "full stop mark" not properly placed at the end of a sentence.

I am dealing with this frustration for years now and think it's time exposing CGFNS through the media. This attitude is not professional and sad to say lawmakers might not even be aware of CGFNS' action and behavior behind this all. An advocate is needed to take this issue to a legitimate organization to be settled since America is bigger than this and deserves better.

Too many foreign professionals are harmed victims to this unfortunately.