UK nurse wanting to move to AZ

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Hi everyone,

I am a newly qualified nurse in the UK. I have family in AZ and have always wanted to move there. I've been trying to work out the process of how I go about doing this, but as you can imagine it's very complicated and lots of different sites say different things.

Some say I need two years experience in nursing before I can make the move, but do I need to start the process now as it takes so long?

Some sites say i need to do the NCLEX in AZ others say I can complete it in England.

Basically, I have no idea where to start, whether to go through an agency or not, if I need to do my NCLEX before anything else etc.

Any advice or explanation would be absolutely amazing!

Thank you :)

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Specializes in Complex pedi to LTC/SA & now a manager.

Start with the AZ BoN for information about licensing by examination as an internationally educated nurse. But without a valid US social security number your application will be rejected

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Specializes in NICU.

Because the UK is trained as specialists, you'll probably be short of hours that you didn't train in. If you trained as an adult nurse, for example, you probably don't have enough pediatric hours, so it's harder for UK nurses. Do some searches, there are some UK nurses that did get US registration eventually, but had to make up the clinical hours. First step is to go to the Arizona board of nursing website and look at their requirements and to start looking at the CGFNS (commission on graduates of foreign nursing schools) as they will assess your educational training, required for most US states.

Speaking of which...what type of visa would you try to get over here on? Not much of a nursing shortage right now...

Justbeachy, in AZ, you can be issued an AZ license without a SSN according to their BON...

Applicants who meet all the requirements except the social security number can be issued a license in AZ, if they sign and complete the affidavit at www.azbn.gov/Applications under Other Form Downloads
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Specializes in Complex pedi to LTC/SA & now a manager.

Then they changed the rules, originally, like CA, you could not apply without a SSN. Good to know.

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Specializes in Medical and general practice now LTC.

If going with an agency then most like at least a couple years experience pref med/surg, Emerg, theatre. To be licensed as a RN as mentioned you need CES report from CGFNS and transcripts must show clinical and theory hours in Paeds, Mental Health, Obstetrics and Adult. Due to retrogression waiting time for a immigrant visa is currently 3 years approx, dates do change on waiting times but due to the wait hard to find employers willing to wait the length of time when there are local nurses looking for work. Check out the AZ forum under the US tab above and see what job situation is like.

Not saying it is impossible but expect it to be hard and long. Also just to add going with an agency will not guarantee you will get AZ

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Specializes in Medical and general practice now LTC.

You can not do NCLEX until the state board says it is ok and the exam can be sat in London

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I think you are not affected with retrogression considering that you've done your nursing here in UK. As far as I know only nurses who educated from countries like Philippines, India and others with big populations in U.S. Are affected. Your only concern I think is your educational nursing background as you need to top it up to level up in U.S. Nursing education. Some of those are obstetric nursing, maternal and child nursing etc

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