International Nurse in H4 visa

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Hi,

I am an International Nurse who is in H4 visa in US (dependent visa of H1b-my husband is in H1b visa). I am preparing for my NCLEX examination from Kaplan and planning to do TOEFL after NCLEX. My CES is already is in process via CGFNS. And I'm currently staying in 'A' state and thinking of choosing 'B' state as licensure state and get the license of 'A' state by doing endorsement from 'B' state. The reason is that I don't want to wait and give Qualifying exam for CGFNS which happens only like 3/4 times a year. Do you think this is the best solution to avoid Qualifying exam and not waste time? Also, after passing NCLEX exam, can I start looking for job while I'm still in H4 visa- or do I have to change the visa type before I look for job?

Your help is greatly appreciated!

kanchula

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Specializes in Medical and general practice now LTC.

As a H4 there is no way currently that you can change your visa enabling you to work. Retrogression has been ongoing since Oct 2006 and affects everyone. Issue maybe that when endorsing you still have to meet state A's requirements so may still need CGFNS exam. You would be better off contacting them to see.

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H1-B visas are only good for three years and then they can be renewed one time. Not sure how long that you have been here, but there are no visas available for you to use to be able to work in the US at this time.

You would be wanting to use the AOS procedure, which is Adjustment of Status; and we do not see that opening up again for quite sometime. Also your country of birth directly affects this as well.

You can look for a job, and may even find an employer. But the issue is that the employer does not issue visas and the US does not have any available.

There is much already written on this topic, please have a good read and then come back and ask any further questions.

Best of luck to you.

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