Have you ever wondered how a foreign nurse can work in the United States and what visas
are actually required for a nurse to be able to work in America?
Well watch this video and I'll tell you how.
So what's happening right now, and we are kind of 2018 going on in 2019, the situation
with visas for nurses is quite hard.
Immigration Service has quite strict as far as how to adjudicate those petitions and nurses
are required to prove a lot of things to be able to come in and work in the United States.
At the same time, the shortage of nurses is continue to grow in the United States and
therefore there is a really, really a need for, foreign nurses to come and work here.
The good news is that, in early 2000, there was a crisis in the amount of visas that were
available for nurses.
So it was, you took nurses many, many years to wait for their visas to be adjudicated
before they can come to the United States.
But now that crisis is coming to an end and the wait time for nurses from the Philippines
and from India and from China is definitely has definitely been reduced.
So let me tell you how nurses can actually come to United States and get visas.
In the early eighties, nineties, there was a specific visa available for nurses under
the H1C category.
That particular visa allowed nurses to do use that visa to come and work if they met
certain requirements.
Around 2009, that visa was actually cancelled.
There was no longer that opportunity.
And so right now most nurses who want to work in the United States are able to come by being
petitioned by their employer specifically directly for a green card or certain nurses
that have a master degree or a bachelor degree plus five is experience and are working in
a particular category like a nurse practitioner or are in management positions, can come on
H1B visas.
But most nurses are going to come to the United States by being petitioned for a green card
directly by an employer.
So what is required for that?
First of all, most nurses that are going to come here and be petitioned for a green card
must have visa screen, which is basically a equivalency of their education done by the
CGFNS organization that is in charge of equivalency of education for nurses.
It is also important for those nurses to pass the IELTS English exam.
They have to have sufficient English proficiency before they can come and work in the United
States.
They also must pass a state license.
So if they want to work in California or Texas, they must hold already the state license.
And finally they must also pass NCLEX exam which is the national licensing exam.
Those are the main criteria that those nurses need even before they're even being able to
be petitioned.
The other thing that they need is a job offer typically from a hospital that is going to
offer them their job and sponsor them for permanent residency.
So the most common way is to be a petitioned for permanent residency.
And typically that employer will file for what is called an I140 which is the immigrant
petition.
That application will include the nurse's credentials, information about the employer,
about the position, a prevailing wage determination to show that that is particular wage in that
particular state, and that that employer is attesting to pay that wage to that nurse.
And typically once the I140 is approved, depending on where the nurse is from.
So let's say we have a nurse from the Philippines right now, the wait time for a priority date
for an approved nurse with an I130 and an I140 is about a year and a half, just short
of two years.
So even when that petition is approved, that nurse will have to wait in the home country
for their priority date to be approved before they can come and attend their visa interview
at the US embassy in home country and collect their immigrant visa and come to the United
States.
So the most common way for nurses to come to United States is being petitioned by an
employer, typically a hospital, and obtain their green card and then come to the United
States after particular waiting period that they wait in their home country.
Another way is that nurses, those nurses there qualify for…they hold an advanced degree
and are in specific positions like management or nurse practitioners.
They can apply for H1B.
And we'll talk about that in a separate video.
So the most common way is being petitioned for a green card by an employer.
We must meet those requirements and visa screen, educational credentials equivalency, pass
the English exam and the NCLEX and of course pass the state licensing and have an employer
that petitions for their green card.
And again, there was a need for nurses and nurses that are coming from Canada or Mexico
can also qualify for TN visa.
And we'll do a separate video about a TN Visa.
So those nurses that immigrated from the Philippines to Canada over the years, and now are now
Canadian citizens are able to come to the United States using a TN visa as long as they
have a Canadian license and they meet other requirements that we talk about in separate
videos.
So here go green card H1b or a TN if you're a nurse from Canada or Mexico.
Hope this information was helpful.
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Thanks for watching and we'll see you in our next video.