International student studying in US-when to apply for work visa?

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Hi, I was hoping for some advice regarding my sort of special case. I am a nursing student, originally from Bosnia. I moved to the US a little over 9yrs ago and have completed part of middle school, all of high school, a bachelors degree in science and am about to complete a BSN in Nursing, all here in the US. I came to the US under my parents' work visa, but since we had still not received a green card yet, I had to transfer to F-1 student (International student) status once I turned 21 years old. This is my status presently. I will graduate next May (2008) and am planning to apply for Employment Authorization Documents so I can do my Optional Practical Training (OPT) as soon as I graduate. I understand that once I start the OPT, I have 12 months (plus possibly 2 more months) to finish this training. In this time, I assume, if I desire to continue to work in the US, which I do, I would need to have my employer sponsor me for a work visa. Is this correct? And all this has to be done before I could be eligible for a green card? Correct? I am trying to understand the process in order to plan accordingly. Does this mean that I need to be talking to my prospective employers who may want to hire me next May about sponsoring me for a work visa right away? Is it true that I may apply for a work visa only in March and could, under best circumstances, get it in October (this is information my mom received, but she is an architect so I don't know if it applies to nursing). I would greatly appreciate some help in understanding the requirements for non-citizen nurses desiring to work in the US, and having a US nursing degree.

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Specializes in Medical and general practice now LTC.
Hi, I was hoping for some advice regarding my sort of special case. I am a nursing student, originally from Bosnia. I moved to the US a little over 9yrs ago and have completed part of middle school, all of high school, a bachelors degree in science and am about to complete a BSN in Nursing, all here in the US. I came to the US under my parents' work visa, but since we had still not received a green card yet, I had to transfer to F-1 student (International student) status once I turned 21 years old. This is my status presently. I will graduate next May (2008) and am planning to apply for Employment Authorization Documents so I can do my Optional Practical Training (OPT) as soon as I graduate. I understand that once I start the OPT, I have 12 months (plus possibly 2 more months) to finish this training. In this time, I assume, if I desire to continue to work in the US, which I do, I would need to have my employer sponsor me for a work visa. Is this correct? And all this has to be done before I could be eligible for a green card? Correct? I am trying to understand the process in order to plan accordingly. Does this mean that I need to be talking to my prospective employers who may want to hire me next May about sponsoring me for a work visa right away? Is it true that I may apply for a work visa only in March and could, under best circumstances, get it in October (this is information my mom received, but she is an architect so I don't know if it applies to nursing). I would greatly appreciate some help in understanding the requirements for non-citizen nurses desiring to work in the US, and having a US nursing degree.

Hi and welcome to the site

Doing your training in the US will not make your process any easier except you will be waivered on the english exams. Luckily you have OPT to use which if retrogression is still in progress you can work. You cannot start the process until you have completed training and have complete transcripts. If you have prosective employers then yes you need to discuss with them petition for gc. At the moment there is retrogession and no visas but no reason starting process once you have qualified but unless there are any visas to adjust you can only process I140.

I suggest doing plenty of reading in this forum on retrogression, Primer to working in the USA and a lot of the other threads on here. You will find plenty of information also check out the thread on US international students. A couple of similar questions have recently been asked

Anna

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I was looking at some of the posts but I still do not understand what retrogression really is-I've never heard of this term before honestly. Also, what is a gc? When you say I "cannot start the process" before completing training and transcripts-do you mean start OPT? And do you mean nursing training or training to work at the specific site? Sorry for all of the questions but I don't know much about the process or language and am just starting to learn. :)

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Samo da dodam, dobrodosli na forum.

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Hvala:)

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Specializes in Medical and general practice now LTC.
Samo da dodam, dobrodosli na forum.

Hvala:)

Can I remind you that as per TOS only english to be used unless in pm's

Retrogression means that currently there are no visas that allow adjustment of status. GC=Green card which is what you require for petition. Once you have completed your nurse training and have a complete set of transcripts you can start the process and continuing working with OPT whilst starting the process. But OPT is only valid for 12 months and if retrogression is still in progress when you finish OPT it can not be renewed so you need to look at other options in staying in the US. Coming from Bosnia may make it a bit easier to get a visa as demand for visas tend to be higher in Phillipines, China and India but at the moment everyone is affected from every country. I do suggest a good read

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i'm sorry, will stick to English only, didn't know:(

So if there are no visas for adjust of status, does that mean that (since you have to get adjust of status to get a green card) there is no way to get a green card-or is it just a cap on administering green cards for the year? Is there a site or somewhere where I can learn more about regression (or why it is in place)-I do not quite understand how one is affected by retrogression-the other posts make it sound that it makes the process to get a green card longer....but if you are in the process for a green card, doesn't that mean you are ok to work-at least that is what i was told or does that only work with people who already have work visas which in that case would not work for me...Thank you so much for all of the replies, honestly without this site i would be absolutely lost

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Specializes in Medical and general practice now LTC.
i'm sorry, will stick to English only, didn't know:(

So if there are no visas for adjust of status, does that mean that (since you have to get adjust of status to get a green card) there is no way to get a green card-or is it just a cap on administering green cards for the year? Is there a site or somewhere where I can learn more about regression (or why it is in place)-I do not quite understand how one is affected by retrogression-the other posts make it sound that it makes the process to get a green card longer....but if you are in the process for a green card, doesn't that mean you are ok to work-at least that is what i was told or does that only work with people who already have work visas which in that case would not work for me...Thank you so much for all of the replies, honestly without this site i would be absolutely lost

Up until last October (2006) nurses was expediated under Schedule A. Then the demand became too high and visas ran out nurses reverted back to EB3 which resulted in retrogression. Now unless visas are available you are not able to adjust if living in the USA unless you meet the criteria and visas are available and then you can file for I140,EAD AOS and be able to work. At the moment there has been a short window to be able to do this and things may change next year but because you will be starting the process next year we can't predict what will happen.

All I can say at the moment is complete your studying and pass NCLEX and wait to see what next year brings.

Hopeully Suzanne can put a bit better light on this although I hopefully have given you something to think about

Anna

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To clear up a few things for you:

The OPT permits you to stay in the US to get a year of training. That training still considers you to be under the F-1 status, and that does not expire until 60 days after you complete your studies, or since the F-1, after that is finished.

If there are visas available for the I-485 once you have started on your OPT, and have passed the NCLEX and meet the other requirements, then your employer can start your processing for that, or even just the I-140. You do not need to complete the OPT to start the processing for the green card.

There is no such thing as a working visa, what you get when you are under the OPT is called the EAD, Employment Authorization Document, this permits you to work and obtain a SSN#. When you start the I-485 process and immigration can start your petitioning process, then you get an EAD with that as well, when the application for that EAD is submitted as well.

At the moment, we have no ideas as to what will happen with visas next year. And graduating from the US does not make things any differnt for you, you still need to go thru the same processing as those that trained out of the US, and meet the same requirements.

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Thank you very much Suzanne, things are definitely making sense now. I was just wondering-I have several hospitals to which I will be applying for a job which I would like to start when my OPT starts (if this can be arranged.) Do you think it would be wise to be upfront with the potential employer right away about my desire to be sponsored for a GC? Also, is it common for hospitals to sponsor the green card process or give benefits for one handling their own GC process, like some people talked about on the board (like a starting bonus) -I would like to know what to tell my potential employer about what would be required from them in the GC process so as to prevent misconceptions/them being too afraid of the process to hire me.

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Specializes in Medical and general practice now LTC.

you will be ok using OPT but when approaching employers I would tell them you are looking for a petition for gc. No reason why you don't ask about signing on fee, I have one which I will get once I start working for them. It is up to you how you negotiate your contract and most hospitals know about the gc process and may even have their own lawyers to do the process.

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i thought i was the only one in the world.. im in the same situation as you. :]

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