Nurses: How to Apply for an RN Residing Abroad
I have been practicing immigration law for so long (almost 30 years) that I remember when immigrating a registered nurse to the U.S. used to be fast and easy! Hospitals and recruiters obtained temporary work visas in a matter of weeks for RNs who had passed certain required examinations.
Now, after successfully immigrating 5,000 RNs, here's an outline of the current, cumbersome 10-step program used to immigrate RNs who are residing abroad:
(1) Form I-140 to appropriate CIS Service Center - Remember to do the proper posting (or serve the bargaining representative if the RNs are unionized), obtain a prevailing wage determination from the state workforce agency. Also, remember that the RN must have "a full and unrestricted license" in the state of intended employment, or have a CGFNS Certificate or have passed the NCLEX-RN examination.
(2) After the I-140 is approved (possibly after responding to a couple of RFEs) in 3-6 months, wait another month or two, and you will receive a letter from the National Visa Center (NVC) in New Hampshire asking you to pay the appropriate filing fees for the RN and her family members to a P.O. Box, not in New Hampshire, but in Missouri. No checks are accepted, only money orders or cashiers checks.
(3) FedEx the money to the NVC ASAP.
(4) Wait another month, and you will receive another missive from the NVC in New Hampshire containing applications for immigrant visas and alien registration, part I & II (Form DS-230), a barcode sheet and a list of documents that the RN and her family will need to produce.
(5) FedEx the DS-230 (Part I only) and the barcode sheet to NVC (New Hampshire) ASAP.
(6) Wait another 2-3 months, and you will receive still another letter from the NVC in New Hampshire requesting all of the original documents required for the immigrant visa interview in Manila, New Delhi or wherever. Also, NVC will request a copy of the biographic data page of the applicant's passport, including the expiration date of the passport for each IV applicant. (This is not how it works for London and most European posts. You will get a letter from NVC stating that the case has been transferred to the proper consulate and then a letter from the U.S. Embassy with the visa instruction package. You do not send anything to NVC.)
(7) FedEx all of the above documents to the NVC.
(8) Wait another month, and you will receive another letter from the NVC (I am NOT kidding you!) containing an immigrant visa appointment at the U.S. Consulate abroad, instructions for the medical exam, and a request for two color photographs.
(9) Appear at your interview with your passports and your VisaScreen Certificate.
(10) A week or so following your interview, you will receive a packet. Buy your plane tickets to fly to the U.S.
We wonder whether, considering the huge shortage of RNs in U.S. hospitals, the NVC could not streamline the system described above by consolidating some of the steps. The only beneficiary of the present system is FedEx!
National Public Radio ran a story on July 20 mistitled "Nursing Shortage May Be Easing". In fact, the story predicts that the nurse shortage in the U.S. may quadruple by 2012 with 800,000 vacancies for RN positions. We link to the audio file from our "NPR" page at
http://shusterman.com/npr.html
For comprehensive information about how to immigrate RNs to the U.S., see our "Nurse" page at
http://shusterman.com/toc-rn.html