Wishing to work in CA, from the Philippines

[CaliGuy]

First I want to thank all of you for the great information. I a US citizen living in California and am engaged to a Filipina that has completed her nursing school for a 4 year RN program. She did not take her local board exam immediately after graduation since she owed the school money. She has now finished paying the school and is taking a review course to prepare for her local board exam. Her instructors had told her that she would need to take the local exam before she could take the NCLEX. I came across this thread and told her she might not want to take the Philippine exam. I have a few questions that you might be able to help me with though...

First, she has already applied to take the test, is it too late to cancel? If she just does not show up for the exam will she receive a 0% or will they just not record her as a participant? Would it be inadvisable to not take the test since she has already applied? Her test date is only 10 days away.

Second, she passed her classes with only a 77% average, while most nursing schools in California require that you maintain an average of at least 80% just to stay in the program. Would it be of benefit for her to take the local board exam to show that she is qualified as a nurse? Would passing the local exam be considered a positive factor in considering her educational qualifications? Or, is taking the local exam of no real benefit and only something that could get in the way of her taking her NCLEX?

Third, I will be sponsoring her on a fiancée visa and therefore she does not need a language test for immigration reasons, will she still need to take an English test for California licensure? Her English is actually quiet good but she gets very nervous when being tested.

I appreciate your opinions on these issues. BTW, I noticed that it has been a while since any replies have been made to this thread, is the information still current?

[suzanne4, RN]

The rules were actually changed January, 2008 by the BRN. Your fiancee is required to write the NLE before she will be given permission to sit for the NCLEX-RN exam by CA BRN. She is not exempt from the requirement as she will still be a citizen of the Philippines even with the green card. The only ones that can get an exemption are those that are actually only US citizens and do not hold dual citizenship in the Philippines and they are required to get a letter sent directly from the PRC as well.

There is much more written about this on the International Forum that is current about CA and is up to date.

She has no choice but to write the NLE if she wishes to work in the US. English is not needed as a requirement since she is not applying for her own visa under an employer petitioning, however, that is not to say that an employer will not want proof of her English skills.

Not sure of the location that you are in, which city in Ca; but you need to be aware that some areas are going to be almost impossible for her to get a job as a new grad there when everything is done. This is very true in the Bay Area the most. New grad programs even in the LA area are getting harder to get into as well for an American trained nurse.

I am going to go ahead and move your post to its own thread on the International Forum where it is more appropriate.