For
International Nurses
.......Published: May 1, 2010 Updated: May 1, 2010
............................................................................................................Written
By: Sushila Paudel
I have been in the USA since 2007. I am a registered nurse from Nepal
and 
now
I am also a RN in the USA as well. Now I am doing Master in Nursing in
the Clinical Nurse Leader sequence in Mennonite College of Nursing at
Illinois State University. I had struggled a lot to be eligible for the
NCLEX (National Council of State Board of Nursing) exam. I am going to
share my experience and try to provide some information and I hope that
will help for the other international nurses like me. I am trying to explain
the process step by step.
Rules and Regulations are different in every states of the US and every
state board of nursing rules is also different as well. First go through
the web site or call them for the information for the state you want to
be a eligible for in the NCLEX. Most of the state wants the credential
evaluations form CGFNS for the international nurse. CGFNS international
is the private organization that provides other services including credential
evaluation and visa screen for the international nurses. Nurses who want
to apply for the NCLEX they should go through the CGFNS first. Sometimes
it is easy but most of the time it takes really long time. Nurses should
be very careful while filling the forms; if you do any mistake it will
take long process for the correction. CGFNS need one form filled by your
nursing school (Information regarding your completed degree and hour by
hour evaluation from theory and clinical) and another one form your board
of nursing from your native country. Usually the time frame for the credential
evaluation is 8 weeks but it may take longer than that, applicant can
call and ask about their status of the application in CGFNS.
After completing the credential evaluation CGFNS will send copy of that
to your board of nursing and to you as well. Some of the nursing board
including Illinois has requirement that you need to pass English and then
you will be eligible for the NCLEX exam. After completing all this process
you can schedule your exam date through pearson Vue. You can create account
and need to pay and then you will be able to see the date and you can
choose the appropriate date for you.
It is very challenging to pass the NCLEX exam for the international nurses.
I feel it is really hard for me and I have heard same experience from
a lot of my friends as well. I have studied 3 months for 12 to 14 hours
for the NCLEX exam. You need to figure it out what kind of learner you
are and what works best for you. From my experience NCLEX need real hard
work!.
Still your work is not finished; you need to apply for the visa screen.
You can apply visa screen in CGFNS. Visa screen certificate will prove
that you are RN in US according to the certain law of US. To obtain a
visa screen certificate you need to have TOFEL score 83 overall (computer
based) and 26 in speaking or you can give IELTS and overall score need
6.5 and 7 in speaking.
If you have US green card you do not need visa screen certificate and
English score as well. After passing the NCLEX you are good to go in the
real world. If your visa status does not permit to work in the USA the
sad thing is that, it’s been three years special visa for nurses
( retrogression ) is not opening. You will hear so many rumors about it
but nobody knows when it will open again. You can rely on the information
of United State Immigration and Citizenship Service (UCIS) web site and
you can check on their monthly visa bulletin for the information.
The important thing is you need to have lot of patience, processing can
take long time up to one and half year for giving the NCLEX, English exam
and obtaining visa screen. Do not get frustrated and keep going, one day
you will get it what you want! Good Luck for a bright future.
I am sharing my personal experience with you hoping it may help you; and
I hope your experience in this process will be better than mine, and please
share your thoughts.
Some useful websites:
http://www.pearsonvue.com
https://www.ncsbn.org/index.htm
http://www.cgfns.org