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.
Again, they are making offers that they cannot legally do and they have no control over.
Even if you go back to school, then you are under the student visa again, and your OPT will no longer be in existance, you will be unable to work for them full-time. With the student visa, you cannot work full-time and you must be enrolled in a school program full-time.
And we have not seen the H1-B approved for the RN in more than three years at the bedside. And as Anna has mentioned, definitely not for the role that you will be in. There are many more applicants for that visa in the first place as well, and the visas are gone in hours.
Next issue that you do have before you even start to do anything is that you must have an actual Visa Screen Certificate in hand before you could even have documents submitted for the H1-B visa, or any other visa for that matter.
You just passed the NCLEX this past week, and it takes on average one to two months to get this document. Saying that it is going to be March in just a few days, there is no way that you are going to have everything done by then. You also need to have a letter from the BON, formal letter, that you passed the NCLEX-RN and that needs to be included with your petition.
It just is not going to be as easy as you think that it is, or that they tell you that it will be. You are not working for an employer where there is no cap in the visa on top of everything else.
Suggest that you spend some time here reading about what is actually going on in the US right now in terms of visas.
And it would have been nice if you had mentioned that you had the OPT in your initial post, it would have saved much time for everyone involved. Without full information being disclosed, it is hard to give an appropriate answer to someone.
I just got my RN license and started my job with the OPT but it's just good for a year so what should I do now ,,...............
Some people told me that I have to wait for the quotas to open or should I go ahead and apply for it?????
what will be my next step???
thank you
Deepa
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, 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.
Specializes in Medical and general practice now LTC.
Hi Suzzane...
I just got my RN license and started my job with the OPT but it's just good for a year so what should I do now ,,...............
Some people told me that I have to wait for the quotas to open or should I go ahead and apply for it?????
what will be my next step???
thank you
Deepa
There is no telling if by the end of your OPT there is a window for you to file AOS, all you can apply for at the moment is I140 which will not enable you to stay in the US and work. This means if no window you will either have to return home and wait for processing or stay in the US on study
Well, they also gave me an option that if things dont work out with my visa petition they said they can keep me there as an RN still as long as I go back to school. I was wondering if I can go pursue my Master's Degree and work full time together? This is another option im looking at if the H1-visa fails.
Sorry, but they do not issue visas and you will not be able to continue to work there while you are in school. Going to school to keep your F-1 status does not permit full-time work. And you also need to get permission to be able to work even part-time with maximum of 20 hours per week.
It is not a point of things working out with your visa petition, but the fact is that there are no visas available right now, and we do not expect the AOS to open up for several years. And then add into it the country of your birth, tha determines if it will be easier for you to get a visa down the line. There are several countries where the wait is about five years even with the Master's degree.
The most important fact that you can learn here is never to go by what an employer is telling you in terms of visas and immigration as they do not issue the visa, and many have no idea of what is going on. When I hear that one has stated that an RN can continue on there full-time while they are in school tells me that they have no idea of what is truly happening and puts you at risk for being deported for violating the terms of your student visa.
If you do not have the OPT or do not qualify for it, there is not going to be any way for you to remain in the US to work once you are done with your training here. For the very few that have gone thru the BSN program and can possibly get the H1-B for a specific job, and this in not the usual, you have other issues to deal with that you may not be aware of. You cannot write the NCLEX exam until you have actually graduated from your program, and for most states, it is about four to six weeks from the last day of class. You have to pass that exam, as well as have a Visa Screen Certificate in hand before an employer can even submit your petition for that visa, and it takes about four to eight weeks to get the VSC as well. You are not permitted to remain in the US while the visa is being processed, as you will not have a current visa that will permit you to remain in the US.
The F-1 visa, or student visa, expires 60 days after the last day of classor the last day of the OPT, and that is what the D/S means that is on your I-94 in your passport. Physically impossible to be able to get the H1-B within two months of your graduation.
Even for those of you that have the OPT, chances are still slim that you will be able to remain in the US afterwards to work at this point in time, the only avenue will be for you to continue on with your studies. Your permission to work with that OPT is gone when the one year is up and it is never renewed. You start the process all over again, and have to wait until you will be able to work full-time again.
No matter what happened in the past, what ever is happening right now is what you need to deal with. And that is the fact that there is no longer any guarantee that you will be able to remain in the US and work when you are done with training and your OPT, if you have that.
Schooling here does not give you any different standing with the government here and you still have to meet the quotas for your country as well.
Dear suzanne, First I'd like to say thank you for welcoming me and this opportunity as a new member of allnurses.com.
I'm in my first semester of a 3-semester LPN program at an approved technical college in AR and going to continue at the same school for the 3-semester RN program which will give me an Associate Degree in RN.
Question:
1. I'm wondering if I will get my first OPT after I finish my LPN here.
2. And if the answer is yes, will I be able to get another OPT after finishing my RN (Associate Degree).
As I answered in your e-mail to me, it is going to depend on how your school set up the program.
Not sure why your LPN program is three semesters when it is usually a one year program. What length are your terms?
Thanks y'all, Proverb16:3 and Suzzane4 for the answers. I love this web site. VERY informative.
As far as my term, It started jan 08, will end may 09 (summer off). So I guess that's a 1 year term? Even my Intl' student advisor is not sure about my LPN-OPT and working on finding the answer.
Q:
1. Even if I'm not qualified for the LPN-OPT, I can always apply for CPT to work in a hospital for 20 hr/wk while I continue with my RN, right?
2. In the end, with my OPT after my 1 year Associate Degree RN (this is ADN right?) and NCLEX will I be qualified to apply for green card if I have an employer to petition me? or it has to be BSN to qualify for Green Card.
Thank you.
Btw, suzzane, just so you know, I haven't read the answer, which is the same one you posted here, you sent to my email. I'll figure out how. no big deal :nuke:
Then your program is 18 months in length, even with the summer off, if one year and that is what most are, the term would end in December. The summer off is only two months, not four months off.
You can qualify for the green card with the ADN, but again, the issue is that if there are not any green cards available when you finish your program, even with having passed the NCLEX-RN as well as having an employer, you will not be able to remain in the US waiting for the visa to become available. Your student visa expires 60 days after the last date of class or the end of your OPT.
No exceptions to this and you cannot adjust a visa if it has expired. They do by what is stamped on your I-94, and that I assume is D/S which means date of study ending. You get 60 days grace only.
You are going to have to make very sure that you will be able to get the OPT after the LPN, otherwise waiting the 6 months like that will not meet the requirements in the US for you to remain here.
suzanne4, RN
26,410 Posts
Again, they are making offers that they cannot legally do and they have no control over.
Even if you go back to school, then you are under the student visa again, and your OPT will no longer be in existance, you will be unable to work for them full-time. With the student visa, you cannot work full-time and you must be enrolled in a school program full-time.
And we have not seen the H1-B approved for the RN in more than three years at the bedside. And as Anna has mentioned, definitely not for the role that you will be in. There are many more applicants for that visa in the first place as well, and the visas are gone in hours.
Next issue that you do have before you even start to do anything is that you must have an actual Visa Screen Certificate in hand before you could even have documents submitted for the H1-B visa, or any other visa for that matter.
You just passed the NCLEX this past week, and it takes on average one to two months to get this document. Saying that it is going to be March in just a few days, there is no way that you are going to have everything done by then. You also need to have a letter from the BON, formal letter, that you passed the NCLEX-RN and that needs to be included with your petition.
It just is not going to be as easy as you think that it is, or that they tell you that it will be. You are not working for an employer where there is no cap in the visa on top of everything else.
Suggest that you spend some time here reading about what is actually going on in the US right now in terms of visas.