Immigration

nightingale, RN · Apr 3, 2006

A business consultant comes to mind and good Liability Insurance. Your lawyer will help in may areas in addition to immigration.

Perhaps one of the Nurses who frequents here, and has done this in another country, will care to respond.

Good luck and let us know how you are doing.

HarryHK · Apr 12, 2006

Sounds like you have a business training nurses in India. That is completely separate from the business of placing nurses here. Sounds like you are just a middleman, getting a fee for getting the nurses together with the facility or agency and that is the end of it?

What you really need the most of at this point is excellent contracts. Between you and the nurse, one that will stand up here and in India. Between you and the facility or agency. That is potentially costly if you have to start from scratch. I would suggest networking with Indian nurses who have come here under such contracts until you can obtain a copy. An employment agency contract is fairly common. Your best bet there is to call some local employment agencies (of any type) and see if they will let you have a copy of their contract. Since you won't be a direct competitor, they may just give you one. Otherwise, ask who they use for a lawyer. Either way, that will save you a lot of money over doing it from scratch (most business do just that to save on legal fees. No reason to reinvent the wheel).

You shouldn't need much in the way of insurance as a regular employment agency. Not much for insurance to cover. Incorporation is a good idea to reduce your personal exposure to a lawsuit from a disgruntled nurse. And you will need an immigration specialist. There may be non lawyers in this field that can save you money. After all, it will be routine. You can probably hire and train a staffer to do the paperwork. You should be able to learn all you need to from the appropriate agencies.

Finally, a good website costs real money. Likely just a static page with contact information is plenty. Yahoo is a good choice for a reliable host. You need a domain name anyway for your email. Doesn't sound like you need any marketing right now, you have both sides covered for a while. Then you can start small and build as you can afford it.

Everyone says you should develop a business plan. Probably a good idea for you so you have a good idea if you can be profitable and what it will take volume wise to achieve that. The agencies I know of that recruit foreign nurses are fairly large organizations and they have to be. It can take well over a year from the beginning of the process to a nurse actually employed here.