HELP! I need your advice! US Citizen, prospective foreign grad!

Silverdragon102, BSN · May 1, 2008

I was born and raised in California, just finished my first year at a 4 year BSN nursing program in the Philippines. I'm starting to have second thoughts about finishing school in another country. Is it worth it in the end to be a foreign graduate? Are there more requirements to obtain a nursing license if you studied in another country even if I'm a US Citizen?
Please help! :)

If you do not have any Philippine citizenship then you will not be able to sit local boards but you will always be required in the US to meet BON requirements for foreign trained nurse which may involve CES or some other credential evaluation and anything else which is required. Only you can make the decision to whether it is worth it or not but may find you can not transfer anything you have already done if you go back to the US to train

elkpark · May 1, 2008

You will be a foreign-trained nurse for your entire career in the US, and have to meet the additional requirements for foreign-trained nurses any time you apply for licensure in any US state -- it has nothing to do with citizenship, it has to do with where you got your nursing education.

Also, there has been a lot of publicity lately about how many new nursing schools have opened up in the PI, and how many of the newer schools are offering education of very low quality. I hope that you're at a good school!

mandi_nm · May 1, 2008

I need your advice,

I have B.s degree of midwifery from Iran .I came to usa with F1 visa and i would like to study for B.S degree of nursing to become RN.My first question is ,i want to attend for one year associate degree of nursing then apply for RN after that , so how many year i need for complete my B.S in nursing after RN in regard to my B.S of midwifery.I would like also to know it is possible to apply for job and green card after taking my R.N with associate degree?or i have to be BSN RN to change my statuse?

suzanne4, RN · May 1, 2008

We do not have any visas available in the US at this time, even with training here, there is no guarantee that you will be able to remain here and be able to work.

Associate degrees are actually two years and have about a year of pre-reqs that need to be completed first. So you would be looking at three years and not two years.

Any accelerated programs are for the BSN and they do require the Bachelor's degree in another field as entry level to the program.

Your training in your country was specific only to women's health care and did not include training in all of the required areas as needed for here in the US to get licensure as an RN. You would have to have your credentials evaluated, but suspect that you will need to complete an entire program over here.

You can apply for the green card with the two year ADN, but the issue is that we are under a retrogression and do not know when it will end and that means that there are no visas available for you to adjust your status to.

Please take the time to read about the retrogression here.