Teaching vs. Nursing? US Teacher shortage

galvtexas · Jan 22, 2008

The immigration route is different for teachers. Employer must apply H1B visa for you. The application must also go through Department of Labor as they will verify if job is in the "shortage" area. Applying for H1B is not a sure thing either as there are only a few available and there are more applicants than slots. Be wary of agencies offering J1 visas. This visa does NOT have dual intent compared to H1B. With J1 visa, you have to go back to home country after 3 years and you may not apply for green card.

lenjoy03, RN · Jan 23, 2008

You know what I think about this? You ask someone a favor, when he does it for you, you still ask for payment.

angelocsin · Mar 5, 2008

Whow whow whoa!!! Better think ten times (if not, maybe a hundred) before doing that! Why? I have taught in the USA and I did not have a good time. Sacrifice as you may say but, working there itslef is already sacrificing and having to deal with demonic/uncivilized students will make you lose sanity...especially in Baltimore. I will send you an email about the two Filipino teachers there who killed themselves because of depression and frustration. It was not at all a good experience for me either. Students are so disrespectful as contrast to what patients may be. Patients will appreciate what you will do and students won't. Take it from someone who has taken that road before.

That is why, I am taking my nursing degree back here in the Philippines. By the way, I was a Science major and most of my Education units were credited. That was a good thing...

So my advice is, that is your life you know what to do just be ready with the unlikely consequences of teaching.

GSG9ers · Mar 7, 2008

In an ironic twist, Teaching may be a much better path towards immigration than nursing. The US is in dire need of teachers, especially inner cities where schools are chronically short of qualified teachers. It might be a smart move for a 2nd year Nursing student consider a switch to Science and go for teaching certification or even a masters degree as opposed to Nursing. Thats the GOOD news!
The BAD news is that the POEA (Phil. Overseas Empl. Agncy) is demanding $5,000.00 AND 3 months salary in performance and repatriation "bonds". Thats about 15,000USD up front for an employer to fork over before a work visa can be issued. I suspect financially strapped schools and hospitals will give up trying to meet this burden and offer instead an equivalent "Bonus" to get teachers on board, or nurses.
Here's the story:
Baltimore to hire 178 Pinoy teachers
By JOSE KATIGBAK, The Philippine Star Washington bureau
The Philippine Star
WASHINGTON - Baltimore City will hire an additional 178 new public school teachers from the Philippines in the coming school year, the latest in a wave of Filipino migration to hit the United States.
This will bring to nearly 1,000 the number of Filipino teachers in the Washington metropolitan area which includes parts of Maryland and Virginia, said Consul Rico Fos, head of the Philippine embassy's cultural section.
Fos said teachers follow a long tradition of migrant Filipino professionals supplying the global need for doctors, nurses, accountants, engineers and computer programmers.
CONTINUE.........
http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/storypage.aspx?StoryId=106362

Yes its true that there are shortages of teachers in the states. Its just a matter of what you want to be and how bad you want it. At the same time you should ask yourself if you are going to be happy with the profession or career path you opt to take. With regards to the POEA, its just one of those government issues we all have to face as a nurse, teacher or what so ever. Our government are looking for more ways to earn money with or we can say make money . . . You know what i mean. If it was for the improvement of the country well its okay. . . GOD BLESS all FILIPINO NURSES! :yeah:

Daly City RN · Mar 17, 2008

Whow whow whoa!!! Better think ten times (if not, maybe a hundred) before doing that! Why? I have taught in the USA and I did not have a good time. Sacrifice as you may say but, working there itslef is already sacrificing and having to deal with demonic/uncivilized students will make you lose sanity...especially in Baltimore. I will send you an email about the two Filipino teachers there who killed themselves because of depression and frustration. It was not at all a good experience for me either. Students are so disrespectful as contrast to what patients may be. Patients will appreciate what you will do and students won't. Take it from someone who has taken that road before.
That is why, I am taking my nursing degree back here in the Philippines. By the way, I was a Science major and most of my Education units were credited. That was a good thing...
So my advice is, that is your life you know what to do just be ready with the unlikely consequences of teaching.

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To comment about the first paragraph I would say I read between the lines, it is not p.c. to comment further on this but I know exactly what you mean. Let's leave it at that.

In regards to teaching vs. nursing as a profession, well right now I would still choose nursing. Like nursing, teaching is a noble profession, but at the end of the day you still have to feed and house your family and send your children to school. Here in California new teachers earn about $30,000 to $40,000 per year if I'm not mistaken. For any teacher in the Philippines reading this they would say: "Wow!" Not so fast, "sir" or "ma'am". Remember, you would be spending most of your earnings here in the U.S. Trust me, that is nearly not enough. You have to scrimp everywhere you can. The message I'm trying to send in this thread is if you haven't started your education yet and you are choosing between being a teacher or being a nurse then I advice you to choose nursing as your profession.

At the time of this writing public teachers in California with only a few years of seniority are receiving lay-off notices by the tens of thousands. The economy of the U.S. is in a recession and here in California in particular, the state government is not earning enough taxes to fund all of its expenses. Public school budgets are being cut right and left. I believe this is true in most of the other 49 states of the union.

If you are a registered nurse and posses local experience, your skills are still in great demand. May I remind you that RN's in California's big cities earn double the salary of teachers in public schools and some of my fellow RN's earn up the three times the salary of teachers. There is a caveat though, as you well know nursing is a stressful job. Many of my fellow nurses have left the profession or have taken early retirement not because of low salaries but because of job-related stress.

I have great respect for teachers. They sacrifice a lot, and I'm sure the vast majority of them love their profession and their students. I myself is a product of public education in the Philippines. I have read that many in the teaching profession are leaving the field due to low salary and lack of respect from their superiors. That is very sad indeed.

Although there is a so-called "retrogression" in the availability of U.S. visas for foreign-grad registered nurses, I heard one "trick" that some of the Filipino RN's or Filipino MD-RN's have taken advantaged of to facilitate the acquisition of legal work visas. But that is for another thread.

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suzanne4, RN · Mar 17, 2008

The tricks are no longer available at this time as far as visa for the US.

Many still think that they are available for them and they are not and they are getting caught and sent home.

Daly City RN · Mar 18, 2008

The tricks are no longer available at this time as far as visa for the US.
Many still think that they are available for them and they are not and they are getting caught and sent home.

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Maybe "trick" is not the right word and I apologize for this error. Alright, let me reveal it here...

If you are lucky enough to obtain a U.S. tourist visa, and as far as I know the U.S. Embassy in Manila does thorough background checks on individuals who apply for U.S. tourist visas, then you've made the first step. One of the major requirements by the U.S. Embassy in Manila is of course the applicant has enough money in the bank. Many Filipino MD-RN's and some Filipino RN's who are financially well off are able to obtain U.S. tourist visas. Some of them have been to the U.S. in the past either as legal U.S. tourists or they came to the U.S. as tourists for the purpose of taking and hopefully passing the NCLEX. (Starting in 2008 NCLEX can be taken in Manila.)

The second step is once they are in the U.S. they can legally, I repeat, legally convert their tourist visas to work visas by getting employed by U.S. hospitals who are willing to sponsor these RN's from the Philippines or from other countries for that matter. I heard that this is quite a complicated process and you would need the services of a lawyer to help you obtain the legal work papers.

I work with several Filipino MD-RN's who legally obtained their work visas 1-3 years ago this way. The question is if that is still possible to do in 2008. Perhaps someone out there knows the answer.

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lawrence01 · Mar 18, 2008

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Maybe "trick" is not the right word and I apologize for this error. Alright, let me reveal it here...
If you are lucky enough to obtain a U.S. tourist visa, and as far as I know the U.S. Embassy in Manila does thorough background checks on individuals who apply for U.S. tourist visas, then you've made the first step. One of the major requirements by the U.S. Embassy in Manila is of course the applicant has enough money in the bank. Many Filipino MD-RN's and some Filipino RN's who are financially well off are able to obtain U.S. tourist visas. Some of them have been to the U.S. in the past either as legal U.S. tourists or they came to the U.S. as tourists for the purpose of taking and hopefully passing the NCLEX. (Starting in 2008 NCLEX can be taken in Manila.)
The second step is once they are in the U.S. they can legally, I repeat, legally convert their tourist visas to work visas by getting employed by U.S. hospitals who are willing to sponsor these RN's from the Philippines or from other countries for that matter. I heard that this is quite a complicated process and you would need the services of a lawyer to help you obtain the legal work papers.
I work with several Filipino MD-RN's who legally obtained their work visas 1-3 years ago this way. The question is if that is still possible to do in 2008. Perhaps someone out there knows the answer.
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Actually, the Pearson-Vue Center in Manila is operational since late 2007 and many have posted here of passing the NCLEX taken in Manila (actually in Makati) since then.

Second, retrogression has been in place since Nov. 2006 and with the exemption of July and Aug 2007, filing for AOS has not been allowed. To be ale to file for AOS the visa category has to be current and it hasn't been since Nov. 2006 except for the 2 months I mentioned.

So, anyone mentioning going to the US on a tourist with a dual-intent in their mind at these times cannot do anything to legally stay beyond the customary 6 mos. (sometimes they only give 3 mos. nowadays) and if they say they intend to wait w/o going back could only mean one thing.

Also, although filing for AOS from tourist is not illegal per se and no one here ever said it is from all the discussions I have read ever since I became a member here since 2005 there is an ethical standard to using a tourist visa that way way, whether or not a USCIS adjudicator sees it as having dual-intent or not. Let's be honest, someone going to the US to take NCLEX or going to the US who recently took and passed NCLEX in a foreign testing site has a dual-intent and most who filed for AOS from tourist did so. They can ask themselves that and they can answer that they really did have dual-intent in all honesty. It is just they leave the decision to the adjudicator. Likewise, they are very stringent now on w/c case has dual-intent and w/c one not and once they conclude that it has dual-intent then they will deny the AOS for dual-intent reasons and that will be the end of it. It is not even appealable if the reason for denial was dual-intent. Some get lucky it was not seen as dual-intent by the USCIS adjudicator that handled their case while some aren't so lucky even though they may have the same dual-intent in mind or the other one was more obvious than the other and we have seen cases being approved and another one being denied like this.

suzanne4, RN · Mar 18, 2008

As I stated, the tricks no longer work. There is no way to convert from the tourist visa to the green card via the AOS process. And that process also involves taking cuts in front of everyone else that is in line and not the thing to be doing.

It also has made it much more difficult for anyone from the Philippines to get a tourist visa for the US for this specific reason.

So not a good thing to even be considering.

suzanne4, RN · Mar 18, 2008

Please read the news around the US right now, there may be a teacher's shortage in some areas, but then others such as CA are having pink slips given out. 14,000 if something is not done in the government.

Please do not select any field based on the idea that it will get you to the US, things are just changing too much and there is no longer any guarantees for anything.