International New Grad needs advice!

[BandidoRN]

i am a graduate from de anza college with an associate of science degree in nursing. i am from mexico, but i got all of my nursing education here in ca. i'm very excited i passed the boards.but now i am looking for a job. with this economy it's very hard to find a job if you are an american , let alone if you are not american and you need to be sponsored by a hospital. many people had told me i'll be fine, because i am bilingual , mexican & male (the minority of the minority) i will love to be able to work in ca because the high % of latino population, and i know there is a need for bilingual nurses in hospitals. but, so far (like many other new grads) i still unemployed. i know some hospitals will be willing to sponsor international new grads because the new nurse will stay in the hospital for long time vs new grads that leave after a year of experience.

so here are my questions.

do you know any hospitals that sponsor international nurses in california ?

or any respectable nursing agency?

[suzanne4, RN]

Slow down and take a deep breath. Under normal situations, the two year program does no qualify for any visa other than the green card and that requires petitioning. And there are not any green cards available now. And it would not qualify for any type of temporary work visa.

But the fact that you are a Mexican citizen is actually in your favor since you can qualify for the NAFTA TN Visa and do not need the regular sponsorship that others would need. You are going to need to get a Visa Screen Certificate as that will be needed to submit your documents for the visa.

Stay away from any agencies first of all, this is something that you can easily do on your own. San Diego area would be ideal and they have been hiring quite a bit in the past and prefer to give the jobs to those that are truly bilingual. There is no reason for a facility to have to pay $10,000 to the agency for you at this time.

The only problem is that CA has had a major economic downturn and that is causing some facilities to slow down their hiring at this time and the new grad programs are not going to start until summer once again.

Get the Visa Screen Certificate, you can do this thru CGFNS. www.CGFNS.org and check out the International Forum that we have in place here. Then let me know when you have that.

[BandidoRN]

thank you so much for your answer

i just want to clarify something,

as right now i have a brn california license, ssn, and opt.

do i need the visa screen certificate during my opt? (i don't think so) or do i need it when a hospital is willing to start the process of sponsor of a tn visa.

would you recommend me to start the visa screen certificate process during my opt or wait until i find an interested hospital?