NURSES
Yes, there are options to your nursing shortage.
As the nursing shortage in the U.S. worsens, more and more health care providers are turning their recruitment efforts overseas. As you search for foreign nurses, it is important to keep in mind your options for handling the U.S. visa and immigration process.
After candidate nurses have passed the necessary exams (usually the Commission on Graduates of Foreign Nursing Schools exam) and have been licensed by the appropriate state agency, they will need to take the National Council Licensing Exam (NCLEX). The NCLEX is typically taken after the nurses arrive in the U.S. with their immigration visas, but it is possible to enter the U.S. to take the NCLEX on a visitor visa (B-1 or B-2), and then return to the home country and wait for a green card or work visa to be approved. Most health care professionals, including nurses, will also need to complete a screening program verifying their credentials in order to qualify for certain occupational visas. BKR can provide you with more information on these exams, licensing requirements, and screening programs.
Typically, there are four ways to bring foreign nurses into the U.S.:
- I-140 - Employment-based Permanent Residency (Green Card)
The immigration method with the fewest requirements for the nurse applicant and the employer is the employment-based green card. This allows a nurse to work in the U.S. indefinitely, as long as the green card is renewed every ten years.
Nursing is one of the few professions that does not require a labor certification to be filed before applying for an I-140 (unlike physicians), so I-140s can be approved in three to six months.
- H-1B - For Positions Requiring at Least a Bachelor`s Degree
The H-1B visa can be used to hire skilled professionals that have at least a bachelor`s degree and are filling a position that requires the same level of education. Most registered nurses and nursing jobs do not meet this requirement, but if you are hiring foreign nurses for supervisory or management positions, or for subspecialty areas that require a bachelor`s degree, an H-1B might be an option. Additionally, if your facility hires nurses with bachelor`s degrees almost exclusively, it is possible to make a case for using the H-1B to bring in international nursing talent.
Depending on where your facility is located, approval of an H-1B visa can take anywhere from two to six months. H-1Bs last for three years, and can be renewed for another three.
- TN - For Canadian or Mexican Nurses
Under the auspices of the NAFTA treaty, registered nurses who are Canadian or Mexican citizens can work in the U.S. on the TN visa, as long as they have a state or provincial nursing license. The TN visa typically takes from one to six weeks to approve, and is good for one year. It may be renewed in yearly increments an unlimited number of times.
- H-1C - For Facilities in Underserved Areas
The H-1C visa was created in 1999 specifically for hospitals in areas with low primary care physicians-to-patient ratios, typically in rural or inner-city locations. Facilities must meet additional stringent standards, so stringent, in fact, that the U.S. Department of Labor has identified only 14 hospitals that are qualified to hire nurses on H-1C visas. These 14 hospitals face additional restrictions: only 500 H-1C visas will be issued each year by the INS, and the program limits the number of H-1Cs issued in each state to either 25 or 50, depending on the state population.
H-1C visas are valid for three years, and usually take two to six months to approve.
