Nursing hours for US

I've been a serial lurker on this site for a number of years off and on, always wondering about applying to the US or Canada but put off knowing that it could be a difficult and lengthy process due to my UK nursing diploma falling a bit short of the US requirements.

I took the plunge on Friday and paid my fee to CGFNS then had a little meltdown in my old university student services office with regards to my transcript and completing the CGFNS application form. Thankfully, since I completed my training 8 years ago I have kept hold of all of my practice documents but i'm still worried my old university will not complete the form correctly....

So I just wanted to get a few things straight in my head and wonder if anyone can help?

UK adult branch training means we're usually deficient in MH, Paeds and Midwifery.

There's nowhere in the UK to make this up, right?

And universities in the States are reluctant to offer bridging programmes?

So, my questions are?

Once CGFNS has looked at your qualifications - you then apply to your chosen BON with the information you were given. Is it the BON that decides that you have enough in the way of experience or do they just go with what the CGFNS says?

Since i'm 8 years post qualification, do they take into account any of your practice at all? After qualification I trained as health visitor but I now work as a practice nurse so I deal with MH patients and have worked with pregnant women, babies, new mums and children a fair bit.

And failing all of that, if I'm still not up to scratch with US standards for an RN, would that mean I could still be eligible to work as a LPN or not? (obviously not talking about the exams bit here).

And finally with regards to the NCLEX - I was over in the States a week ago and one of my friends said she knew of an international nurse that had done her NCLEX before she had applied to a BON. I was wondering if it was actually possible to do that as all I've seen is that you must have an ATT from a BON before you can take the exam?

Anyway, any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thank you in advance:-)