PH RN

Hi Carol,

You did not mention anything about wanting to work in the U.S. immediately as a nurse but I'm assuming that's the case. Before applying to a state board, take care of the immigration requirement first so that you will have a required U.S. social security number or ITIN before you can work legally in any job anywhere.

The following information is what I have heard only from the experience of others.

An EB3 visa will allow someone with a Philippine citizenship to work as a nurse in the U.S. I am not sure if you will need to find an employer to sponsor you first before applying for an EB3, but quite honestly from what I've read it will be very difficult in the state of California to find an employer to sponsor a foreign nurse graduate as California has a surplus of nurses. If any forum member has an experience of being sponsored in CA, feel free to chime in.

If you absolutely must apply to sit for the NCLEX for California, it can even more months up to a year for documents to be processed and evaluated before you can sit to take the NCLEX exam in addition to the waiting for EB3.

It might be easier to find someone to sponsor you in the state of New York, South Dakota, maybe Arizona and New Mexico. I know of a neighbor of my grandmother's who just immigrated to the U.S. 3 years ago and was sponsored to work in New York but she applied over 10 years ago.

In most other states,since you have many years of experience, your paid work experience might give you an advantage over the hundreds of foreign graduates that only have only a few years.

The process can take many years as there is a retrogression of visas being processed from all countries and all professions into the U.S. so start the process right away if you choose to work in the U.S.

You can visit the O'Grady Peyton website for more information about the immigration process and also the recruitment for nursing jobs. There is also Avant agency but I've heard they have not been responding so O'Grady Peyton will be a better choice.

I hope someone with experience with the same situation will reply to you.

If you are on Facebook, join the group: California Board of Nursing- Foreign Graduates. It is a very informative site.

Enjoy your stay here!

eb3 is almost current right now its on 2017