For those of you that are studying in the US under either an F-1 visa, or any other where you do not have permission to work, and will need to apply for a green card when you finish your schooling-----this is for you.
You must meet all of the requirements for immigration that a foreign-trained nurse does, the only exception that you have is that the English requirements are waived for you. You still need to submit the application and get a Visa Screen Certificate. This is offered by CGFNS and the application is available on their website, http://www.CGFNS.org. There is only one application available, whether you did your training in the US, or overseas.
You will still need to find an employer that will petition for your green card. You will still need to undergo a physical exam at a physician's office that is approved by USCIS an have verification of all titers and vaccinations. If you do not have verifiable proof of having had chicken pox, etc., you will need to have either a titer drawn, or receive the vaccination. Immigration is very strict now with this, they will no longer go on what you are verbally telling them.
Hope that this helps...............most of you will also be able to get an OPT for one year of training while your documents are being processed, but you can only receive the OPT once, especially if this is now a second career for you, and you already used your OPT status for the other.
If you are coming to the US just for the MSN, and already have a BSN from overseas, you will be required to write the English exams. You are only exempt from them if this is your initial training as a nurse, meaning ADN or BSN only.
Are you both saying that if the visa numbers has been tapped OR if EB-3 numbers (not sure which) is tapped when I am done with my NCLEX next June, are you saying that I will not be able to do AOS until they open up again? Or will they still accept new applications but won't issue new GC or visa? If not, that will make me walk the Road of Despair again. God, this country needs nurses in shovels of thousands and I am raising my hand! Plus, how do I know when the visa numbers have been exhausted to its limits?
Suzanne, yes I do know about the 60 day grace period, and I should have something lined up right after school or I will have to go hunting for some Americans--whatever package they come in for that nuptial knots in NY Chinatown;). In my remote village in Nepal under the beautiful mountains, my folks used to tell me marriages are made in heaven, every time I pass Chinatown and see that Gate to Heaven, the prophecy seems to come true
Specializes in Medical and general practice now LTC.
Hi Anna and Suzanne,
Are you both saying that if the visa numbers has been tapped OR if EB-3 numbers (not sure which) is tapped when I am done with my NCLEX next June, are you saying that I will not be able to do AOS until they open up again? Or will they still accept new applications but won't issue new GC or visa? If not, that will make me walk the Road of Despair again. God, this country needs nurses in shovels of thousands and I am raising my hand! Plus, how do I know when the visa numbers have been exhausted to its limits?
Suzanne, yes I do know about the 60 day grace period, and I should have something lined up right after school or I will have to go hunting for some Americans--whatever package they come in for that nuptial knots in NY Chinatown;). In my remote village in Nepal under the beautiful mountains, my folks used to tell me marriages are made in heaven, every time I pass Chinatown and see that Gate to Heaven, the prophecy seems to come true
What we are saying is schedule A which nurses used to be expediated through no longer exists so nurses reverted back to EB3. At the moment that category is under retrogression and no visas to allow change of status. Now things may change by the time you complete the course and the best way to keep up to date is read the visa bulletins which are released approx 15th of the month. You may have to look at another option ie keep your student visa and look to studying something else. Really we can't predict until nearer the time but keep up to date over the next several months will give you an idea whats happening
Are you both saying that if the visa numbers has been tapped OR if EB-3 numbers (not sure which) is tapped when I am done with my NCLEX next June, are you saying that I will not be able to do AOS until they open up again? Or will they still accept new applications but won't issue new GC or visa? If not, that will make me walk the Road of Despair again. God, this country needs nurses in shovels of thousands and I am raising my hand! Plus, how do I know when the visa numbers have been exhausted to its limits?
Suzanne, yes I do know about the 60 day grace period, and I should have something lined up right after school or I will have to go hunting for some Americans--whatever package they come in for that nuptial knots in NY Chinatown;). In my remote village in Nepal under the beautiful mountains, my folks used to tell me marriages are made in heaven, every time I pass Chinatown and see that Gate to Heaven, the prophecy seems to come true
Slow down and take a deep breath, for one thing, you are from Nepal. And not one of the pick countries, so your chances are much higher that you will be able to proceed next year.
But again, the US is not as short in many areas as you think. There are areas that are not even doing any petitioning at all for foreign nurses, and some areas are doing very litte.
And please do not even think of getting married to remain in the US, that is considered immigration fraud and cause for deportation.
Focus on getting thru your program first, and then go from there, not a thing can even be done until you have passed the NCLEX-RN exam, not one thing.
Any foreign student in the US must go thru the same immigration procedures that any foreign nurse that trained overseas goes thru. You do not get special privilege because you attended school in the US. Only thing that gets waived is the English exams if you are going your initial training in the US; and if you came over just for the MSN, and your other training was overseas, then the English is not waived for you and exam is required.
You need to have the Visa Screen Certificate in hand as well, that is required of you even if training in the US.
If there are no visas available when you finish and think that you are ready to work, you will not be permitted to remain and work if not under the OPT. You are given 60 days after the last day of class, and it does not matter that you cannot take your exam for three months, you will be out of status. The only thing that can keep you in status at that point is to continue to take courses in the next level after your degree to keep the F-1 status. And then possibly get you the CPT while you are in school.
Nothing else can be done, no matter what gets promised to you.
The OPT is what you get when you finish your degree and is the year of training if you have not used it before.
The CPT is what you are under if you work up to twenty hours per week while attending school. You can speak to your school about this. There are specific requirements for it, and is handled by your school, just like the OPT is.
Thanks once again. Definitely not flirting with the immigration folks, sorry for the jokes or for my informality. My priority as per your advice would remain finishing my two semesters at NYU and then pass NCLEX. I understand that it won't be the final frontier for us international students, but as you have said so many times, that is the most-travelled path or the path for us. I will definitely remain faithful to the forum even in the school.
could you please elaborate on the CPT you're mentioning? how is that different from OPT?
Which country were you born in? That will be my first question to you at this point. That can significantly affect what you should do, and do not remember if you ever made mention of it.
namaste!! before i start, i would like extend my gratitude to you and all the moderators for helping answer our questions and supporting the nurses from around the globe. i am an international nursing student pursing a four year nursing degree here in u.s. currently i am a senior. i will be graduating in may of 2008. i have read almost all the posts in international nursing students in the us thread and i have been able to come up with a set of plans for myself after graduation. below is my plan. i have several questions on various steps of the plan and i would be extremely grateful if you or any of the moderators could answer them for me. i am sorry that i have a lot of questions.
apply for opt before graduation (3 months before graduation)
graduate in may 2008 (reading from earlier posts, i am in the impression that vsc could be applied only after passing nclex. q: is there anything that i could apply right after graduation on my own to get things done ahead of time for green card processing)
60 days grace period after school
pass nclex as early as mid june (q: i will be graduating from maine. could you recommend me any states where nclex results/rn license are processed earliest. could you let me know any states that do not accept transfer of license or may require additional requirements?)
during nclex preparation, look for jobs under opt
start opt in august in a hospital that would petition for a green card.
visa screen certificate-apply asap after passing nclex ( i would only need the nclex result and school transcripts to process vsc)
(q: when do i apply for i-140 and i-148? i am not exactly sure what they mean. and how do i apply for this? is this something that my employer has to file and will they know about filing these papers? do i need to make them aware of these papers and how soon after being hired by a hospital can they file these two papers?)
apply for aos to ead once the green card processing starts. (q:but how do i apply for it? what are the processes involved in it?
most probably, i will be receiving my gc by the end of opt
few additional questions:
at what point should i hire attorney during these steps?
how would i find out when retrogression ends? let's say the retrogression would probably end in late october or november. does this mean that now there will be 50,000 new gc that would be available to apply for? but since i would be graduating in may and i know there are already so many nurses who are backlogged due to current retrogression and many graduate nurses who didn't get to apply previously, who are waiting to apply for gc as soon as it opens, is it possible that by the time i graduate as a new nurse, i could potentially end up in a new retrogression? the important question is how do i avoid this kind of situation? if there is no retrogression, how soon my employer should start filing my papers to be on the safe side.
what would confirm that my green card processing actually started?
could you recommend any states or hospitals that, in comparison to other states or hospitals are more likely to sponsor for a green card.
does the reputation or type of hospital, its location, make a difference in green card processing if so then what would be your recommendation.
I responded to your post that you placed on the Canadian Forum.
Please check out my responses there.
There is not one thing that you can do to speed up anything for getting the green card. You have to pass the NCLEX exam, and then you have to have a written letter from the BON to be able to submit with any petition for the green card, that also takes about three weeks to get, and is only one small step in the process. And yes, you need to pass the NCLEX exam to get a VSC. And trying to do things before you graduate are not even possible. If you do not have a completed set of transcripts, they will not do anything with your application. You are trying to jump ahead when we have no idea as to what will be happening next summer. Most employers also want to see a passing score on the NCLEX before they will consider hiring a foreign nurse on the OPT. I would not even look for a job until the NCLEX is done.
Anything having to do with applying for the green card requires that an employer do that for you, you cannot start it on your own. Please take the time to read the Primer that is at the top of this forum, there is much information that you need to have.
Until you actually graduate and have a completed set of transcripts, there is not one thing that you can do as far as processing for anything in most cases. And you never select a state based on who is faster, worst thing that you can do. You need to decide first where you wish to work and then proceed from there.
And thanks for the nice note.:balloons:
And again, focus on getting thru this last year, that should be your priority.
I was reading the visa bulletin for sept but I did not fully understand what is means for eb 3 visa nos does it mean that some are availabale if your are not form china, india or the phillipines???
Specializes in Medical and general practice now LTC.
at the moment with the bulletin it indicates that is it process visas with a PD of before Aug 2002 with exceptions from China, India and Mexico there are no visas available for them. If you as a nurse have a PD that long then I would seriously be looking at why.
psherpa
10 Posts
Hi Anna and Suzanne,
Are you both saying that if the visa numbers has been tapped OR if EB-3 numbers (not sure which) is tapped when I am done with my NCLEX next June, are you saying that I will not be able to do AOS until they open up again? Or will they still accept new applications but won't issue new GC or visa? If not, that will make me walk the Road of Despair again. God, this country needs nurses in shovels of thousands and I am raising my hand! Plus, how do I know when the visa numbers have been exhausted to its limits?
Suzanne, yes I do know about the 60 day grace period, and I should have something lined up right after school or I will have to go hunting for some Americans--whatever package they come in for that nuptial knots in NY Chinatown;). In my remote village in Nepal under the beautiful mountains, my folks used to tell me marriages are made in heaven, every time I pass Chinatown and see that Gate to Heaven, the prophecy seems to come true