Where is the best place to immigrate, practice and have young family?

Silverdragon102, BSN · May 3, 2009

For the US and Canada your training needs to be a RN and general with hours both theory and clinical in adult, paeds, mental health and midwifery. You say you are a midwife but in what country did you train and what level? For example if you trained in the UK was it just midwife training or did you do some other nurse training (RN with secondment to do midwifery)

The US is under retrogression and currently looking at several years waiting for a GC although may be quicker if you meet H1b criteria and find a employer. If you go the H1b route your husband will find it hard as they can not work unless they get a H1b of their own. If you get a GC it is valid for 10 years and after 5 years you can apply for citizenship. Starting point is meeting board of nursing requirements for foreign trained nurse and passing NCLEX. Midwifery in the US is totally different to the UK (presuming that is where you trained) Hospitals may not have child care attached. More control if you do it yourself, agency usually have large cancellation fees and are not any quicker than finding a employer yourself. Suggest you have a read up on retrogression

Canada starting point is the college of nursing to the province you want to work in. Can get temp work permit or PNP (PR) depending on what you apply for. Taxes are yearly and we have just done ours (well dh's cos I don't work still sorting my nursing application out) Picking a province will depend on what you want out of life. We live in Nova Scotia and within 20 mins of the coast.

Australia again starting point is the state board of nursing and whether they will accept your training or not. Also depends on what you want out of life.

I would think the first things really is decide on where you want to live and that your training meets that country's requirements

Midwife/Sonographer · May 4, 2009

I am an Irish qualified Nurse, then I got qualified as a midwife, I recently completed my MSc in Sonography (hense specialised). I am shocked to hear my husband would not be allowed to work on the back of my potential greencard, agency sites don't tell you this. Where are you getting the information that spouses need their own greencard to work please.

you mention waiting years for the h1b, yet sites are touting 18 months, can you confirm where you are getting the information of waiting years please. We would be interested in Texas or Illinois as our first choices of location.

Regards

Silverdragon102, BSN · May 4, 2009

I am an Irish qualified Nurse, then I got qualified as a midwife, I recently completed my MSc in Sonography (hense specialised). I am shocked to hear my husband would not be allowed to work on the back of my potential greencard, agency sites don't tell you this. Where are you getting the information that spouses need their own greencard to work please.
you mention waiting years for the h1b, yet sites are touting 18 months, can you confirm where you are getting the information of waiting years please. We would be interested in Texas or Illinois as our first choices of location.
Regards

No I said H1b your husband will not be able to work. If you get H1b then only you can work. If you get a GC then he will also get one as long as you include him in your application. H1b visa is not a GC they are 2 different visas GC are under retrogression and will take several years to get. Current processing times for EB3 visas (GC nurses generally come under) have run out for this year and no more will be available until Oct 09. Even then if they go on the processing date they could start at processing year 2003 which is where the date was the other month.

H1b visa is a specialist visa and if you meet requirements and find a employer willing to sponsor you for one then you can be out in the US quicker than waiting for a GC, however to qualify for H1b you need BSN or equivalent, need to meet state requirements and pass NCLEX and visa screen certificate

Silverdragon102, BSN · May 4, 2009

You may want to consider the GC lottery

allnurses Guide · May 4, 2009

And you've just missed the deadline for filing for H1B for this year (unless you get sponsored by a large, university-affiliated hospital that is cap-exempt and can apply anytime). If you do get H1B working visa, your husband is given a H4 visa which does not permit him to work.

Midwife/Sonographer · May 4, 2009

We would approach the US on the green card approach for a specialised nurse application, my guess from what you are reporting, is that this would likely take seven or so years, unless going through an agency, which would reduce the waiting time down to approximately two years given all the hoops to jump through?

Will be visiting Toronto shortly for a look.

appreciate the feedback.

Regards

Silverdragon102, BSN · May 4, 2009

Going through an agency for the US will not make it any easier or quicker. But you can always try the GC lottery. If you can get a job in the EB2 category with your training then it may be a bit quicker but usually for EB2 it is a Professionals holding advanced degrees (Ph.D., master's degree, or at least 5 years of progressive post-baccalaureate experience) and job has to be in that area

Midwife/Sonographer · May 4, 2009

http://www.nurses4america.com/immigration/timeline.php

Seems to indicate two year process for US Greencard as a professional Nurse, which appears realistic?, The Greencard lottery is a money racket which might never happen.

Silverdragon102, BSN · May 4, 2009

http://www.nurses4america.com/immigration/timeline.php
Seems to indicate two year process for US Greencard as a professional Nurse, which appears realistic?, The Greencard lottery is a money racket which might never happen.

GC lottery as far as I am aware shouldn't involve money until it is time to actually process your application. http://www.travel.state.gov/pdf/T1026V-DV-2010bulletin(3).pdf

If you read this forum you will see that there are many nurse members who have been waiting a lot longer than 2 years for a GC. I am from the UK and until we moved to Canada last year I was affected by retrogression and had been waiting since Aug 06 (actually the process has been longer but we cancelled our application for 8 months because it was taking so long as we originally started this in 2004) and would still be waiting if we hadn't come to Canada as the last dates that was being processed was 2003 for EB3 and now they are unavailable. The time line indicated in the website link used to be realistic but now it isn't

Silverdragon102, BSN · May 4, 2009

Agencies do not get an special deals when it comes to the work visas or immigrant visas and nurses are no longer fast tracked so we join the queue along with all the other occupations. It is the government that issues the visas and best thing to do is keep an eye on the bulletin and EB3 category http://travel.state.gov/visa/frvi/bulletin/bulletin_1360.html

RGN1 · May 4, 2009

http://www.nurses4america.com/immigration/timeline.php
Seems to indicate two year process for US Greencard as a professional Nurse, which appears realistic?, The Greencard lottery is a money racket which might never happen.

Green card lottery is totally free - BUT there are many companies that try & scam you.:angryfire The only way you should apply is via the US Government website. As I said it's free & all you do is fill out on-line applications(within the time frame) & download your photos in the format they require.

Having said that we've done it a few times with no success but please. please note it IS FREE!!!

At the moment there is full-on retrogression for the greencard with none available for nurses right now, it's NOT just 2 years. We had a PD of July 2007 so it's been 2 years pretty much already for us & things have gone backwards not forwards!!

We went to Canada in the end - much better - the whole process took 8 months via the Temp Work Permit & now we have applied for permanent residency via the Provincial Nominee Program - for which my hospital has sponsored me.