French Nurse coming to work in California or D.C.

[seekinginfoforbf]

Hello All,

Any answers anyone can provide would be much appreciated. My boyfriend is a French citizen and is finishing his last year of nursing school in Bordeaux, France.

(assuming a work visa is not an issue; we are talking about marriage) how possible/easy is it for someone with a nursing degree to find work in the U.S.?

-- Is there anyone with a French nursing diploma working in California?

-- Or someone working in Washington, D.C.?

Also, what things/classes/certificates can he get in his final year that would help things move faster?

His English isn't very good and I was wondering how he could improve it while still in France?

Thanks in advance for any help anyone can provide. :)

[Silverdragon102, BSN]

Already answered some of these in your other post. There are no course that he can do that will make his application process any faster. He needs to apply once he has completed his nurse training.

Regarding English he needs to practice as much as he can, watch English moves, Join this website and practice writing in English :) Ask if any of his friends speak good English be willing to assist him in learning

Regarding finding work, depending on hospitals he may find work but as a new grad may be competing with other new grads in the same state, also hospital may prefer him to already have a US work permit as we have not seen many NY hospitals petition foreign nurses lately

[suzanne4, RN]

Even if you are going to be getting married, his English skills have to be excellent. There are many courses that he can take while he is still in France before coming here.

Be aware that new grad jobs in CA are quite tight now for even someone that trained in CA, so coming from out of the US and without experience is going to be difficult to get hired.

There are many french working in the US, but many of them also came over sometime ago; things have changed drastically in the past six months or so in terms of getting hired as a new grad. Certain locales have many more new grads that are out of school and cannot find work and this is specifically in CA. There are programs in place there to produce more graduates in anticipation of the older nurses leaving the profession or going on to other jobs, but with the drastic change in the economy, many are staying and for longer. Additional classes have been added at many of the schools with government funding. So more grads and limited new grad jobs means that someone that trained out of the US and does not have experience is going to find it much harder to get hired.

Not sure what is happening in DC right now, but CA is going to be most difficult to get hired.