Newly grad from California but an International student

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Hi. I am a newly graduate with my RN-ADN in a community college here in California. I am expecting to take my boards early this july. My problem is that I am on a student visa (F1-visa) and I am having a hard time looking for hospitals/nursing facilities that will sponsor work permit due to the regression. I believe my visa will expire in a couple months and so I hope to find an employer who would help with work visa. Does anybody know any hospitals/facilities that still provides work permit for nurses? My family lives in the USA but I am the only one with a visa problem (my parents are not citizens yet). I do not mind moving but I would love to stay within the California state (to family members).

Also, if anybody has any advice on how I can go about changing my visa from a student visa to a work permit that will be very helpful because since I am in the country already, I would prefer to do all those visa/paperwork here instead of (paying for an airline ticket) going back to my country (where none of my family is living in anymore) and doing all that from there all alone. All suggestions are appreciated. Thank you.

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Specializes in Medical and general practice now LTC.

Welcome to the site

Unfortunately at the moment you are going to have to think about staying in school as a student. GC is under retrogression and you have no way to change your status and stay. For a work visa H1b you need to be BSN so ADN will not meet criteria also H1b is specialist and as a new grad you don't meet requirements. Otherwise you are looking at leaving the country

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Hello, thanks for replying. But I was thinking, if I do leave the country, will it be easier to apply for a work permit that way? or...apply for something else-as an immigrant? And how long does it take for either one to be processed? I think it is too late for me to apply to go back to school for my BSN right now so I'm not sure what to do. Can I stay in the community college I am in and just continue going to school there for a different major just to pass time until the next application for BSN?? Please help!

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Specializes in Medical and general practice now LTC.

For a work permit you need BSN or higher (as far as I am aware) and experience. For GC you are affected by retrogression and can not currently adjust your status if you leave the US look at several years waiting as currently no visas and predicted date when the new visas are released in Oct 09 is PD of 2003 or 2005. To stay in the US you will need to maintain your F1 status

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