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.

Hi Suzanne,

I'm from Belize and I have my BSN from a US university and at the moment I'm on OPT and it ends June 22nd. I'm currently in Florida working but no hospital seems to sponsor here (my supervisor is not aware that I am on OPT but HR knows). Can you tell me what options are available to me to stay and work? Also can you explain where the AOS fits in cuz I'm confused on that. Also is there still no H1B visa for nurses? On OPT can I work over 40 hours? I'm confused on what to do and before today I didn't know hospitals were not recruiting international nurses due to the retrogression. I'd appreciate any help.

Lyn

There are going to be no other options other than to continue on with your schooling and retain the F-1 status.

H1-B visas were designed to be used for specialists and with only one year of experience, this really is not going to apply to you. Next issue is that the facility needs to prove that they are unable to hire an American, and that is going to be very hard to do at this time as well.

AOS is Adjustment of Status. The US government must be accepting the I-485 in order for you to be submitted under this and remain in the US. This is where your problem lies. We do not expect it to open up for more than 5 years as there were over 800,000 petitions submitted July/August 2007 when there were not any visas available. This is going to take more than 5 years just to cover these and that is not including others that are out of the US.

Attending school in the US does not give one a preference over another in terms of getting a visa. Since the retrogression has been in place already for more than two years, there are many that are already ahead of you in line for a visa.

H1-B visas also require that the employer pay 100% of the fees, and most are not willing to do this now as well. It is not permitted for the employee to have the money taken from their pay later on as well, and is grounds to have the H1-B automatically denied as well. Next to even get petitioned for the green card is also going to be hard as the employer is looking at probably more than five years before you would be able to work for them full-time.

OPTs are normally for 40 hours per week only, suggest that you check with your international advisor since they are the ones that handle your EAD. And for the CPT, it is only 20 hours per week, except during vacation time if you continue on with your studies. Be aware that you will not be able to continue working after the OPT is exhausted until you would receive another document that would permit it, even if you continue on with your studies. Meaning that you would be looking at not working before next fall, somewheres in the middle of the term at the earliest.

Things are quite bad here right now. American RNs that do not need to do anything with immigration are also having issues with getting hired at this time.

Best of luck to you.

Specializes in Medical and general practice now LTC.
Hi Suzanne,

I'm from Belize and I have my BSN from a US university and at the moment I'm on OPT and it ends June 22nd. I'm currently in Florida working but no hospital seems to sponsor here (my supervisor is not aware that I am on OPT but HR knows). Can you tell me what options are available to me to stay and work? Also can you explain where the AOS fits in cuz I'm confused on that. Also is there still no H1B visa for nurses? On OPT can I work over 40 hours? I'm confused on what to do and before today I didn't know hospitals were not recruiting international nurses due to the retrogression. I'd appreciate any help.

Lyn

Hi and welcome to the site

If you need a petitioner then you are going to struggle and stay in the US and work. Retrogression has been ongoing for over 2 years and there is no way at the moment you can AOS (adjust your status) and stay. The only way really is to maintain your student status H1b can be used for nurses but they are specialised and as a new grad you will find it hard to meet that criteria

hi,

last couple weeks i had nursing recruiters in my college, 3 out 0f 15 said that will sponsor international students. i am confused... does that mean they will petition for me, but that will not guarantee for me h1b visa?

i am also planning to go see the immigration lawyer, should i not waste my money?

thanks

Hi,

In what state are you? If you don't mind me asking. I've just given up on this visa as everything is not guarranteed. I'm going to start applying for a Masters program.

i am in il, as far as i heard, smaller hospitals or health organizations are better to ask for sponsoring since huge and, of course, great hospitals have enough applicants as it is.

sorry we are in the worse time to become nurses :(

Specializes in Medical and general practice now LTC.
hi,

last couple weeks i had nursing recruiters in my college, 3 out 0f 15 said that will sponsor international students. i am confused... does that mean they will petition for me, but that will not guarantee for me h1b visa?

i am also planning to go see the immigration lawyer, should i not waste my money?

thanks

h1b is for specialist nurses and for most especially new grad do not meet criteria. also unless the hospital and you meet requirements and is uncapped then h1b is a lottery and file april to start work in oct and no way to stay in the us and work plus not guaranteed. the us has been under retrogression since oct 06 with no idea on things changing. you may have to consider either staying a student or return home or look at another country

hi,

last couple weeks i had nursing recruiters in my college, 3 out 0f 15 said that will sponsor international students. i am confused... does that mean they will petition for me, but that will not guarantee for me h1b visa?

i am also planning to go see the immigration lawyer, should i not waste my money?

thanks

the h1-b visas are actually not for new grads in the first place, they were designed for specialists and a new grad does not have experience. recruiters do not issue visas, only the us government does. they cannot guarantee any visa, if they did, they would just be feeding you a bunch of garbage. an employer is also required to pay 100% of the costs for the visa, and most facilities are not able to do that right now. especially since there are quite a few americans that have not been able to find work at this time.

sponsorship denotes a temporary work visa. petitioning is for the green card. the us has been under a retrogression for more than two years. no special approval for those that have trained in the us.

and just because a facility is willing to petition or sponsor, it does not mean that one is going to get approval. there are many more students/nurses applying than there are visas.

first question for you would be what state are you interested in working in?

i am in il, as far as i heard, smaller hospitals or health organizations are better to ask for sponsoring since huge and, of course, great hospitals have enough applicants as it is.

sorry we are in the worse time to become nurses :(

illinois has been hard hit by the recession/depression that we are in now. these facilities that you have mentioned are also affected and i am sure that they are not going to be willing or able to pay for the h1-b visa if it were available to you. there are still many new grads that are having problems finding a job at this time.

as well as the fact that if the facility is unionized, then they cannot even bring in an employee on a temporary work visa. and temporary work visas can be cancelled at any time by the employer or the us government and then one does not have any recourse over it. next problem is that the last hired is also the first to be laid off as well.

i would recommend that you take the time to actually do some reading on this site.

best of luck to you.

Also just to throw in the fact that these type of facilities are also under the H1-B cap. That means that the application for the visa needs to be submitted right away in April when the open window is and then they cannot be submitted again until the following April. This also requires that one has passed the NCLEX exam as well as have a Visa Screen Certificate in hand that needs to be submitted.

And the chances of getting one under this category is quite slim.

Hi,

In what state are you? If you don't mind me asking. I've just given up on this visa as everything is not guarranteed. I'm going to start applying for a Masters program.

Please be aware that even with going for the Master's degree, it may not help you in getting a visa for the US. You are going to have issues trying to find an employer to hire you without work experience behind you as an RN and you must be hired for a job that requires the Master's as entry level to be able to have a chance at an EB-2 visa.

Just wanted you to be aware of this.

hello guys, does anyone here know of a online RN-BSN program willing to give CPT from teh very first semester. any help greatly appreciated!!

Online program is not a valid for F-1 student.

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