reliable nursing agencies ???

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hi there,

i just came from germany to san francisco in order to find a job as a rn after i fulfilled all the necessary requirements to get the license (without the ssn) from the bon california. :nurse:

as you can imagine it isn't so easy in the times of retroregression. now i was wondering if i should work together with a nursing agency (no travel agencies!!!) and want to ask you if someone made already some experiences with nursing agencies? i heard a few really nasty stories about those agencies and wanted to ask you, if you could recommend any trustable for the bay area??:confused::confused:

thanks a lot!!

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Do you actually have a visa that will permit you to work as of now?

There is a retrogression in place so there are no visas available for you at this time. Since you do not have a SSN#, suspect that you do not have the visa. You are going to find it extremely difficult for any hospital to wish to petition you as they do not know when you will be able to start work. And this is even more true in the Bay Area, just have not seen any facility here petition in the past few years.

You also need to have the English exams passed as well as have a Visa Screen Certificate in hand, not sure where you are with that.

Right now you are looking at a several year wait for the green card, not sure if you are aware of that.

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Hello Suzanne4,

thank you for your answer!:nuke:

I already passed the TOEFL and have started with the VisaScreen. Furthermore I'm not looking for the GreenCard, I'm looking for a working visa like H1 B. They are not so difficult to receive like a Grenncard but finaly I need a Sponsor...That's the reason why I'm looking for an Agency, they are mostly more willing to sponsor an alien because they have to any time a hospital or care facsility which seeks for nurses.

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Specializes in Medical and general practice now LTC.
Hello Suzanne4,

thank you for your answer!:nuke:

I already passed the TOEFL and have started with the VisaScreen. Furthermore I'm not looking for the GreenCard, I'm looking for a working visa like H1 B. They are not so difficult to receive like a Grenncard but finaly I need a Sponsor...That's the reason why I'm looking for an Agency, they are mostly more willing to sponsor an alien because they have to any time a hospital or care facsility which seeks for nurses.

You will find it very hard to find a hospital doing H1b visas as many have used GC for a few years. No longer a guarantee with H1b and even then you have to meet a strict criteria and not all nurses qualify. VSC can take months to get and how long do you have permission to stay in the US as VWP can not be extended and when filing you need VSC in hand if you are lucky for H1B and you find a hospital willing to file it.

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Not sure what your training was in Germany, but the H1-B requires that it be at least a four year Bachelor's degree.

Next issue is that we have not seen any of the hospitals in the Bay Area sponsor a nurse with the H1-B as the unions do not permit any temporary work permit like this one. The unions are quite strong in the Bay Area, and you are just not going to find any sponsors for this, let alone a job that will qualify for it.

Since we have not had H1-B visas mainly for nursing in more than four years, yes they are hard to come by. Any area that is strongly union will not accept them first of all, and you must have approval of the union in that facility for the job to be able to be offered. This is the reason for the shift to the green card several years ago.

Most bedside jobs here also do not require the BSN, so the H1-B visa would not be acceptable for them either. There are also specific requirements as to what job can be done to be able to get the H1-B visa. And it requires a university job to be exempt from the cap, and you are not going to see that in the Bay Area once again. H1B visa petitions otherwise are only accepted two times per year and the next being the first week of April for an October start date. You also need to have the VSC in hand before you could be petitioned if you were to find the needle in the haystack. Without that being in hand, there is nothing that can be done, passing of the English exam alone is not acceptable.

Not sure what type of research that you did before you came to the US, but the fact that we have been under a retrogression for more than 16 months and no H1-B visas in the Bay Area for quite sometime.

We do not see hospitals willing to petition even when there are visas as they do not wish to wait for the nurse to be able to start work, there are many that wish to work here because of the increased pay from other areas.

Not sure what your area of expertise is, but as far as a hospital with a bedside job, it is going to be impossible to get. There are already quite a few nurses that have been posting here that are on the H-4 visa because of their spouse and in the Bay Area and they have not been able to find one employer willing to start anything for them or let them work there with the H1-B visa.

Happy hunting. Just make sure whatever you do is quite legal to do here.

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Hello Suzanne4,

thank you for your answer!:nuke:

I already passed the TOEFL and have started with the VisaScreen. Furthermore I'm not looking for the GreenCard, I'm looking for a working visa like H1 B. They are not so difficult to receive like a Grenncard but finaly I need a Sponsor...That's the reason why I'm looking for an Agency, they are mostly more willing to sponsor an alien because they have to any time a hospital or care facsility which seeks for nurses.

The agency does not offer visas, only the US government does. And this type of agency is not exempt from the quotas of the US government for the H1-B visa. And the next open date to submit the petition for it is in just a couple of weeks and only open for a few hours, and you must have the VSC in hand to be included with the petition. And it takes about three to four months on average from the time that you completed the final test, whether NCLEX or the English exams.

If you are going to be working in the role of the RN, you have to go thru all of the procedures that are in place here. And agencies are not exempt from this either. They are unable to do anything any faster than anyone else. Please be aware that there have been many crackdowns on agencies here, as well as on their employees for the ones that were trying to do something that was not legal to work here with. And they are getting deported.

We are telling you that there is no way for you to remain in the US and work legally at this time, it is up to you to decide what you want to do. But as I have stated over and over again, even working as a caregiver in someone's home requires a visa to work, and without that, you are subject to being deported for ten years.

And this is a well known fact here.

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Hi, I'm in the same boat. The only difference is that I have all the requirements already.. the only thing I lack is a visa and a sponsor. I'm in the US right now on a student visa. I have passed the NCLEX, licensed under NM, endorsed in FL and CA [license pending since I don't have an SS# yet]. I also have my VSC already. I have a Bachelor's degree and worked in an ICU, unfortunately, only for 7 months. my problem is i need a sponsor and this retrogression is really not helping..

do you know of any hospitals? agencies? thanks

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Specializes in Medical and general practice now LTC.
Hi, I'm in the same boat. The only difference is that I have all the requirements already.. the only thing I lack is a visa and a sponsor. I'm in the US right now on a student visa. I have passed the NCLEX, licensed under NM, endorsed in FL and CA [license pending since I don't have an SS# yet]. I also have my VSC already. I have a Bachelor's degree and worked in an ICU, unfortunately, only for 7 months. my problem is i need a sponsor and this retrogression is really not helping..

do you know of any hospitals? agencies? thanks

Even if you find a petitioner there is no way you can stay in the US and work, doesn't matter if hospital or agency with retrogression you are looking at years as there is no way you can file I485 which allows you to stay and work whilst your file is being processed

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When your student visa expires, or when you finish the training that you came here for; you are going to need to leave the US. There are no visas available for you to be able to remain here, even with an employer.

And be aware that just because you are going to school here now, it does not give you any preference over others that are also waiting for the green card.

Right now, you are looking at five years or so before being able to get a green card for the US. Not sure what else that you want for us to tell you, but even if you find an employer, you are still not going to be able to remain here, and still no guarantee that you will be able to get a green card. There are thousands from your country in line ahead of you at this time and only less than 10,000 visas per year including dependents.

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