Need Advice: Looking for Canadians Studying Nursing in the U.S.

RNGrad2006 · Sep 18, 2008

I am a Canadian citizen currently contemplating going to nursing school in the U.S. for my BSN. If there are any Canadians that are/have done their school in the U.S., your advice about the following would be greatly appreciated:
1) As an international student, it seems like I'd go under the F-1 visa. Once I graduate and would like to begin working, I could use the F-1 OPT visa for one year or just go directly to the TN visa. If I chose to use the OPT first, I could then just use the TN visa after the one year period is expired. Is this correct?
Yes, you can and the benefit of the OPT is that you can start working right away while you wait for the visascreen to be processed which you need for your TN.
2) Are employers/hospitals hesitant to hire Canadians straight out of US nursing schools since they're usually under a temporary visa such as the OPT or TN? I'm currently planning on working in NYC or Chicago. Or are employers fairly willing to hire Canadians like this?
From my experience employers are very willing to hire Canadians since the TN process is a simple and cheap one. You don't need to worry about retrogression since the TN does not have a cap (at least not now but some worry that there may be changes if the Democrats achieve the presidency).

3) If I return to Canada, is working in Canada a nurse after being licensed in the U.S. fairly simple since I'm a Canadian citizen?
You are treated as a foreign trained nurse when you want to go back to Canada. No benefit to being a Canadian citizen other than the fact that you don't have to worry about immigration issues or english exams but all other requirements of foreign trained nurses will have to be met.

Any other tips you have about licensing, the NCLEX, job stuff, etc. would also be awesome!

You can PM me. I did not go to school for my BSN but got my LPN, then ADN, and now my employer is helping me pay my way through to get my BSN which I hope to complete by spring/summer of 2009. It is cheaper to do it this way and faster to get to work. Many employers in the US help with tuition reimbursement. Something you may want to consider. As far as NCLEX goes, Kaplan and Saunders are excellent.