Dinx

I am an IEN, a Filipino. I graduated 2007, work for 3 years in the Philippines and the past 3 and a half years in Middle East. I'm on my way to work in a Houston Hospital next month. Prior to this, I've been interviewed by 4 US hospitals, 2 in Texas, 1 in Louisiana and 1 in Arizona. Per experience, it was not hard to find a job in the US as long as qualifications are met such as immigration, education, licenses, english proficiency, health and most of all acute care experience. On the other hand, I've also known a number of IENs who are still struggling to find a placement in the US. In my case, however, I've waited for 7 years to reach this stage.

The problem is OGP will request to postpone the embassy interview of their petitioned foreign nurses for a year or 2 until they can have a placement for them. Til then they will not give a letter of support as what might juan de la cruz mentioned in his post.

Thanks for the info, Im not aware of that. Most probably OGP has never written any kind of letter of support to their recruits. I have a co-worker here in kuwait also under OGP. It took her 10 months after her PD became current before she got hired by a hospital in California and was able to go. Another freind in saudi has long been current for almost 2 years now but OGP is still looking for a placement for her. OGP already hired sales manager to "sell" their recruits to hospitals, once there is a vacancy they will apply in behalf of their recruits. Foreign aspirants will undergo prophesy exam and interview by phone/skype. But vacancies are very limited nowadays with so many applicants internationally and locally that makes it very tough to be hired. Is six years hospital experience have a chance to at least be short listed?

Im waiting for my PD (July 2008) to be current (EB3-Philippines) to USA. I got my EB petition from O'Grady Peyton. I have a current license in Vermont (passed California NCLEX-RN), been an ER nurse in the Philippines for 3 years and currently working in a Regional Hospital (government) in Kuwait (medical unit) for 3 years as well. I'm aware that there are only few available hospital jobs nowadays in USA. Fact is OGP cannot give it's recruits job offer as soon as their PDs become current since they cannot also find placement for them. Competition within OGP alone is very tight for foreign nurses of many nationalities together with the US born/graduates nurses slagging it out for few postings. My priority date might become current next year, but I guess my chances of working there has no assurance. Your thoughts please....

My subcon here in kuwait is Al Ruwad. Their only function was just to process our documents for formalities. We are now regular employees under the Ministry of Health, meaning our salary comes from the MOH finance and goes directly to us not thru our subcon. We can stay in our work anytime we want and can also resigned anytime. Our accommodations are MOH rented/owned as well as our transportation/buses. To simply put, the subcon is only a dummy who catered us upon arrival and beyond that we are all under the Kuwait government thru their Ministry of Health.

I am a 2nd courser of BSN, I graduated March of 2007. I worked in Pfizer before taking up BSN. I took NLE June of 2007 and took NCLEX-RN September of 2007. I really put emphasis on finishing all licensure exams first before taking a plunge in hospital work. My aim back then was to have a US employer to petition me and my family for an immigrant employment-based visa. I was hired by a US-based employer May of 2008 and got my priority date of July 2008. Still waiting for my priority date to be current for embassy interview, as of todate, current priority date processing is December 15, 2006, so I guess it is still a long wait for US emplyment. My first hospital job began in June of 2008 in a 250-bed capacity tertiary hospital. My first area of work was medical-surgical ward. After 8 months, I became an ER nurse, then a year after was promoted to Head Nurse. I spent 3 years in that hospital then began applying for work abroad as financially motivated Presently, I am here in Kuwait working under its Ministry of Health and was assigned in a medical unit in one of its hospitals. Im here for about 2 years. Soon in God's perfect time, we can move to US when my priority date becomes current and immigration formalities all done. I must say that yeah, my career path as a nurse is pretty much alive and productive but it took a lot of sacrifices, dedication, hardwork, prayers, patience and determination before I came to this point. Thanks for my great love to my wife and 2 daughters (ages 12 and 4) which is my focal point of motivation and strenght and to HIM for all HIS guidance.

Some update regarding MOH hiring. Eventually the Ministry of Health Kuwait went to India for massive hiring just recently. My take why they choose to hire Indian nurses solely is because of MONEY that comes along conveniently for local agencies/subcontractors here in Kuwait. In the Philippines, POEA and our government does not allow applicants to pay worth of more than one month of the offered salary as placement fee, but in India, its somehow sky's the limit. Those Indian nurses who came here same year with us (2011) were required to pay a whoping 5 thousand KD as placement fee.That's almost 800 thousand pesos! This placement fee were shared by Indian agencies, government and local Kuwaiti subcontractors. Those Indian nurses worked for a year without earnings since their salaries went strait to paying their placement fee. My take...not unless our government will allow such robbery up front will MOH-kuwait starts to hire nurses from the Philippines again. Sad update indeed.

If I could only answer your queries, I would gladly do that, but Im not familiar with private hospitals here in Kuwait as Im working under MOH. Im hoping somebody can do that for you here in this thread.

first and foremost, the agency should have your visas in there hands before they will let you do the medicals, the reason for this is your medical result might expire already and your visa is not yet available so it is jus a waste of time and money. We signed the job offer as soon as we were declared fit to work. During our hiring process, we were advised of the offered salary and it was the exact salary we signed in the conract, but there is no breakdown as to the basic salary, night differential and other benefits. We only came to know the breakdown when we started our formalities here in Kuwait. What the Philippine agencies advertised regarding the salary offer was what we got.

no...

The exterior of the building is finish but not sure of the inside.

Please be aware that in MOH hospitals there is no such thing as overtime. We dont do overtime here and no double pay for holidays, instead if you are on duty on a special holiday, you will just get an additional off (they call it balance off). I have no idea for private hospitals though. Also, havent heard of a 10-hrs duty here in MOH. Our shifting is 7am-2pm, 2pm-10pm and 10pm-7am.

For police verification, you will go to their police station and just do finger printing, Kuwait police authority will be the one to verify it from our NBI regarding our records.As for the medical exam here, as what I've said it is free of charge. Just a routine chest xray, blood lab, urine, stool and does not require you to get naked (do you have trauma for this?) no MRI, CT, KUB.Just a piece of advise, please verify the exact offer if you're really bound for MOH hospital. It's so frustrating to work here knowing your salary is only the offered 250KD while most staffs who came here ahead are enjoying 700-800KD salary. Also, be aware that deployment wont be fast, most of us waited for 6-8 months after the interview before we got our flight. Dont assume anything, not even if you already have your visa. The best indicator is having your plane ticket available.I also heard that ADM will also conduct MOH exam later this month or February and they're bound for MOH hospitals. The Ministry of Health here is planning to recruit 1,000 nurses from Philippines, India, Egypt and Sudan (just heard this from our Head Nurse).

There's no problem regarding your visa it will be processed as working visa directly. In our case, we spent almost 2 months processing our papers for formalities here including MOH finance papers, police verifications, iqama, nurse license, medicals, Civil ID...etc...The good thing is your salary computation starts as soon as you arrive here even though you're not working yet or on hospital duty. Yes, you will still undergo another medical exam once you're here, but free of charge. Vacation leave here is annually after you had been on duty for 1 year. Just like in my case, I came here November of 2011 (that time annual leave schedule among staffs for 2012 was full already so I had no slot anymore) so they granted my leave come March of 2013. Come 2014, I can request for another leave in any month I want to. They will grant number of days leave from 33 days to 47 days for newly hired nurses. You can also request to have a vacation leave twice in a year but the total wont exceed by the allowed number of vacation leave. Airfare is not free (mine is 190KD round trip), but it is a paid vacation leave. As what I've said, if you're indeed bound for Ministry of Health Hospitals, they will waive any signed contracts there in the Philippines because you will become a regular employee by the Government of Kuwait and by that you can work here for as long as you want or you can resign anytime you want to. If unfortunately your salary is only 250KD/month (with free accommodation,food and transpo) I think you can still save some as long as you will be conscious enough not to spend more than what you earn. But if you're used to an expensive lifestyle, then for sure it is not enough. In short, it all depends on you. For a quite concrete way of saying this, I can survive here with only 60KD in my wallet. The breakdown would be: 30KD for food and toiletries (I am a male nurse). 12KD for my internet, 5KD for cel phone load (prepaid, here you can use land line phone even if you are calling a cel phone number), 3KD for Cable fee (sharing with your flatmates), 10KD extra for bus/taxi fare. If you will buy gadgets (laptops, iPhone,Ipad,Galaxy Tab/Notes..etc) or will eat in KFC, Jollibee, McDOnalds, or take coffee in expensive shops, it will be another list of budget of course. Hope this Helps...God Bless us Pinoy Nurses!

I have not heard of 10 hrs work/day here in any moh hospitals or in any area. The shifting here is 7am-2pm, 2pm-10pm and 10pm-7am. Also if you are indeed bound for moh hospitals, you will not know as to where hospital you'll be with nor to what area you will be assigned. You will come to know that after you are already here and done with all the formalities. As for working conditions, it depends on what area you'll be assigned and what hospital you'll be with.