CGFNS problems

You can contact the head of customer service for them. Her name is Savonia Thorne.

This is one of the reasons that I tell most nurses that unless they are determined to work in Michigan or Illinois right off, do not go thru the exam process for CGFNS. And the reason that I suggest New York for initial licensure, though it will cost you a few hundred dollars more, is that you just fill out the applications, send in the money, and CGFNS takes care of the rest.

And this gets done on a faster basis for some reason.

Thanks Suzanne as ever, for your quick reply. I am not doing the CGFNS exam, just need CES and Visascreen from them, planning to work in Florida & they don't require CGFNS exam (thankfully). Does the same not apply for Florida as New York?

For Florida, you need to be in charge of getting your documents submitted to CGFNS, making sure that your board of nursing or nursing council does there part, as well as your school of nursing.

With New York, they have a special credentails verification that is handled by CGFNS, and one of the responsibilities of CGFNS for that is to obtain the documents for you. All you do is sign a letter that gives them permission to do so on your behalf.

OK I understand now about NY - wish I'd gone with NY instead of FL now. But CGFNS do have all my documents & my file is "ready for review" - the problem is getting them to actually REVIEW it!! I made sure I was in charge of getting my documents submitted, my school of nursing & board have been very co-operative but no such luck with CGFNS - very frustrating when everyone else is doing their job :angryfire

Not sure how often that they do their reviewing. With the holiday schedule since about the 15th, and the bad storms all over this week, don't count on anything getting done until next week at least.

How long ago was everything submitted to them?

End of October. Been showing "ready for review" for the past 3 weeks.

i called cgfns to verify if the credentials submitted in my behalf are sufficient for visascreen and to verify if a portion of my application fee may be applied to visascreen if i am going to cancel my schedule for cg exam, the man at the other end of the line who received my call was not courteous in telling that i couldnt get a refund. it was a general observation though, apparently it is not an isolated case.

i already called cgfns and they said once a test is scheduled and request for cancellation is done, 100% of the application fee will be forfeited.

I cant agree with you more on this. CGFNS is supposed to be helping Foreign nurses than giving them tough times. The main reason is their monopoly. Since they know that we dont have any other place to go, their attitude is 'Come and beg to me". Customer service is below standard and in a matter of milliseconds the rep will become angry and rude. In most of the Private Institiutions in US, the cstomer service is a prfoessionally managed service where the motto is 'Customer is the king'. They will do everything to keep a customer happy. But in the case of CGFNS, I think no-one really bothers about the quality of service they give but just intrested to make money (Well, I know it is OFFICIALY known as non-profit organisation). Since more and more people HAVE to approach CGFNS since the RN shortage is increasing day by day, its understandable that their work load is also increased. But they are taking HUGE amount as fees for ANY PROCESS, so they must add( and TRAIN) their employees...

Anyways,

In my case for CVS, the 'READY for REVIEW' was their for almost 4+ weeks.

I suggest that you place a call to Savonia Thorne just after the holidays.

Wonder if they (CGFNS) are aware, or interested for that matter, of how we all feel about the dissatisfaction of their 'service'. Surely if enough of us complain to the Head of Customer Service, they may sit up & take note? I for one am certainly going to start beating down the door after the holidays, anyone with me?