International nursing students in the US

World Immigration

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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.

I just looked at the latest visa bulletin and almost all categories are current except for the 3rd category and other workers category(I'm talking about my own country). So again, I do not see why I wouldn't be able to file both I140 and I485.

Nurses are under the employment-based, 3rd category. You can actually file the I-140 (petition) anytime regardless if there is retrogression or not. It is the I-485 (Adj. of of status) and the EAD that cannot be filed if your PD will not be current.

The I-485 is not allowed to be filed because a category not current means there is no visa available.

Nurses are under EB3 and your country is under worldwide/other chargeability areas w/c currently have a cut-off date of March 1, 2006. Only those with priority dates below the cut-off date are allowed to file for the I-485. The EAD is base on a pending I-485 and so w/o a filed I-485, an EAD cannot also be filed.

All those categories w/c says 'current' can file their I-485 and EAD anytime because being 'current' or 'C' means there are available visas whereas those categories w/ a cut-off date only have visa numbers below that date. In this case, only those with a last day of Feb. 2006 priority date can have a visa or file for AOS if they filed an I-140 a long time ago.

It's very fair. It was your choice to become an international student. Why would they waist limited resources on foreigners like you and me?

I don't think they would waste their resources. They'd be well used, it is just that we do not qualify. We are not citizens or residents, it's this country's money. It is fair.

So my only hope is to wait until the visa bulletin under the third category becomes current. And that could probably take anywhere from a couple of years to forever.... hmmm.

The only other choice is H1b as far as i can recall. But there's a limited number of these and they're granted on a random basis. Perfect :(

So my only hope is to wait until the visa bulletin under the third category becomes current. And that could probably take anywhere from a couple of years to forever.... hmmm.

The only other choice is H1b as far as i can recall. But there's a limited number of these and they're granted on a random basis. Perfect :(

Yes, it is because the H1B is not specific for nurses. It also have a minimum Bachelor's degree req't but even then a nurse with BSN is not routinely granted an H1B as well. I have made a post on why is this and I posted it on one of the stickies here if you want to do more research on H1B.

There is also an H1C visa that is actually specific for nurses but it has it's drawbacks. There are lots of threads and posts in the forum about that as well.

Many choose to rather be on OPT now to buy time for an opportunity just in case a window to file the I485 and EAD opens rather than be on H1C visa. Then after the 1 year OPT runs out and they still can't file anything they plan to do an ADN-BSN program just to try and remain in the US.

Specializes in Telemetry.

My friend has been attending school here in the US for a long time although her F-1 Visa is expired. It expired three years ago..she will be graduationg some tome next year. How can she get the opportuunity to work in the hospital? She is working now but on her social only which I thin is dangerous; if caught she can be deported. How can she nake things right here by geting her green card?

Specializes in Medical and general practice now LTC.
My friend has been attending school here in the US for a long time although her F-1 Visa is expired. It expired three years ago..she will be graduationg some tome next year. How can she get the opportuunity to work in the hospital? She is working now but on her social only which I thin is dangerous; if caught she can be deported. How can she nake things right here by geting her green card?

She really needs to speak to a immigration lawyer. Retrogression means she can't stay and get a visa and even is retrogression was not ongoing to go the AOS route her visa must be current and valid. Not sure how she has managed to stay studying when F1 has expired. She really needs to speak to someone who has experience

Specializes in Telemetry.

Can a person do the NCLEX here without a green card? My other friend told me that she is a registered nurse which is true but she does not have a green card. She is working presently but no one knows but me that she does not have a green card.

Specializes in CTICU.

How do these people get hired without a valid work visa?

Specializes in Medical and general practice now LTC.

Does not need green card to sit NCLEX but to work as RN then needs to pass NCLEX and I too am curious to how they have a job without a valid work permit. They are at risk of getting deported for 3-10 years and also employer will get a heavy fine

Everybody,

I'm a new member to this community. I may not know all the rules which you guys are talking about. I need some advice on my situation. I'm here in US since 2005 on H4-B visa. I've received B. Pharm degree from my home country. Once I found out that I need to study all over again due to Pharmacy rules, I decided to pursue into Nursing field as I wanted to stick with healthcare filed.

Currently I'm enrolled into BSN program at St. Louis, MO school. I've changed my status from H4-B to F1 as I wanted to take an advantage of OPT. I'll finish my degree in May'09(hopefully). According to this forum I was able to find out below details :

1. I'll be eligible to work on OPT for 1 year and meanwhile try to get a sponsorship from hospital after finishing NCLEX & Visa Screen.

2. I can always go back to H4-B status if I don't want to take any risk to extend my F1 status while I140 is in pending status. Clearly F1 has no intention to stay in US.

3. While on H4-B, I can enroll into Master program (Particularly I want to pursue into Family Nurse Practi. field).

Did I understand it correct or not..?? If not, than please spread some shine on my understanding.

If yes, than It'll take about 3 months to clear NCLEX exam and I'll be able to work as a RN for just 9 months on my OPT. Most of the schools require to have atleast 1 year of exp. as a RN in able to apply for Master program.. How can I enroll into Master program than..??

Is there any chance to get H1-B with BSN degree..?? I don't want to do H1-C as job locations stinks..:zzzzz

Thanks a lot in advance for all your help..

She really needs to speak to a immigration lawyer. Retrogression means she can't stay and get a visa and even is retrogression was not ongoing to go the AOS route her visa must be current and valid. Not sure how she has managed to stay studying when F1 has expired. She really needs to speak to someone who has experience

You can stay in school with an expired visa as long as your I-20 is current. The visa only becomes an issue if you want to leave and return, but as long as your I94 references your I-20 you're legal to stay as long as your I-20 is current.

Specializes in Medical and general practice now LTC.

To stay in the US they need a legal status which it sounds like she hasn't because it mention deportion in one the other posts and to adjust status in the US status has to be legal plus visas also need to be current which at the moment they are not and doubt they will be for a few years. They may even have to consider leaving and trying consular processing but either way if caught I think they are looking at 3-10 year ban if overstay starting from 180 days

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