Im a foreign educated nurse wanted to be licenced in CA. Need Help Please!!

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I'd like to apply for NCLEX RN in ca. I got married in the US now im a green card holder so I dont have any immigration issues. I need to know what I have to submit as the first graduate from my nursing school back home. I am sure that nobody from my school ever applied before. Unfortunately nobody at school speaks nor understand english so I have to give them an idea of what to do. Is there anyone who have gone through the same situation? If so, please tell me how you did it or what u did. I think board will ask for a school catalog but its not in english n it has about 100 pages... translation fee is going to be a lot. Any advice will be appreciated. Thank you for reading.

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Specializes in Vents, Telemetry, Home Care, Home infusion.

Moved to our Nurse Registration forum. Search the section for advice given here.

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What country are you coming from?

Have you asked your school's counselors or office staff if they have ever dealt with any US state's board? Have you e-mailed the CA BRN regarding your concerns?

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Hi! I went to nursing school n licensed in Japan. My school's staff said they have never done this before. My school curriculum includes PE, literature, sociology n a few other non-nursing classes. I guess those are required in order to be licensed in Japan. I'm wondering if BRN wants detail on every classes or they just want to see if I took the specific classes they are asking.

I have sent an email to CA BRN about 2 months ago regarding this. They have not answered. I have been trying to call them for a while but their line is always busy. Is there any other ways to get in touch with them?

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Ok, the one item that you need to be even considered in CA is a valid SS#. They will automatically reject any applications without providing them those numbers. You can apply into a few other states without having a SS#, but it will not be issued until you can provide the SS#.

Even if you pass any out of state licensing requirements, if you still don't have a SS#, then you will not be able to get a CA license by endorsing (transferring) the out of state license, as everyone has to meet the CA minimum standards, no matter where one gets their licenses from.

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I do have SS# and I entered the US legally and obtained my green card. I am ready to submit everything CA BRN asks for except official documents from nursing school back home. I have read some of threads about foreign educated nurse applying for NCLEX in CA... it seems really hard for foreign nurses.

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Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.

Unfortunately it is....CA has as strict concurrency requirement. I know nurses from the Philippines are having extreme difficulties with the CA BON..and that the process is very long.

I wish you the best.

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I do have SS# and I entered the US legally and obtained my green card. I am ready to submit everything CA BRN asks for except official documents from nursing school back home. I have read some of threads about foreign educated nurse applying for NCLEX in CA... it seems really hard for foreign nurses.

Well, all you can do is to submit the application with the non-refundable fees and wait to see what the CA BRN comes back with as far as more documentation needed.

-- There's still no guarantee even after paying for the translation expenses, the CA BRN will approve the application.

-- Do you know with assurance that you took ALL your clinical AND theory courses in the same exact semester?

-- Do you know if you have ALL the minimum hours or units of the various school subjects required by the CA BRN? You can find those numbers in the CA BRN website, look around, it's there. Again, this is where it's easier to submit your application and see what sticks and what doesn't and go from there.

-- Maybe contact the Japanese nursing board to ask about those getting their licenses in CA as they may have some experience in dealing with the grads and nurses there.

Keep us posted on your results so that others possibly wanting to come from Japan will benefit. Good luck!

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I forgot to ask, do you already have a Japanese nursing license? It is one of the CA BRN requirements, you don't have to be a practicing nurse, just need to provide them with the license's copy. This way, before you spend the money for the application fees, you won't lose it as they will keep the money once your application is submitted and then they ask you "where's your country's license?"

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Yes I do have nursing license in Japan. I did not take clinical and theory course in the same semester because school have their own schedule for all the classes n clinical practice at hospital. It is not our choice to decide when we want to take classes. Now I know this is going to be another problem for me.

I want to know that even if its denied by ca brn, r there still ways to become rn in California? It seems brn is rejecting foreign nurses to work in ca. I want to know there is still hope.

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Specializes in Acute Care, Rehab, Palliative.

Nope. You have to be accepted by the BRN to be an RN in California.

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Yes I do have nursing license in Japan. I did not take clinical and theory course in the same semester because school have their own schedule for all the classes n clinical practice at hospital. It is not our choice to decide when we want to take classes. Now I know this is going to be another problem for me.

I want to know that even if its denied by ca brn, r there still ways to become rn in California? It seems brn is rejecting foreign nurses to work in ca. I want to know there is still hope.

Yea, I would say based on that, your transcripts will not meet the concurrency rules. It's not the CA BRN to blame as it's been in their nursing practice act since 1987.

It's the international schools not complying, but then, the foreign schools don't care much about the what works in the States, since the concern is what's good for the country. Once in the States, it's their way or the highway (as they say).

The options to become a RN in CA is to find a CA school that's willing to accept you in their nursing program to make up the deficiencies, which are either non-existent or wait-list 2-3-4 years. Someone recently posted their friend went to a Bay Area school and got his ATT in CA. I'm still awaiting for a bit more clarification on that in another thread.

You can also apply for the LVN exam in CA, pass the exam and try to enroll in a LVN-RN program, just know you're competing with 100's-1,000's of local CA students for 40-80 spots, expect the same time on a waiting list with zero guarantees of getting in. If you have the big money, there are the private for-profit schools, where the tuition is like a down payment ($80,000 plus) on a house.

Caveat: BVPNT the licensing board for the CA LVN exam does have a CONCURRENCY rule as well, it's clearly posted on their website as one of the last items that can decline an application. It's just not being enforced at this present time, but it can happen now, soon or later or maybe never, but it's there.

So those applying for the LVN, do so quickly as one never knows when that hammer will come down.

Getting a RN license out of CA is an option, only if you plan to live, work and raise your kids there, as endorsing back into CA will mean having to meet the same concurrency rules.

There's another posting whereby a Filipina student went out of state to complete her deficiencies and was accepted by the CA BRN and got her ATT. Link: https://allnurses.com/world-nursing/received-att-california-832461.html Post your concerns and questions to her thread.

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