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Friday, September 26, 2003
Easier for nurses to get US visas
By Jessica B. Natad
REGISTERED nurses in the country can get immigrant visas to the United States faster and easier. But they have to first prove that they are qualified for nursing positions in the US.
According to a document furnished Sun.Star by HealthJobs America, registered nurses from other countries like the Philippines are qualified to nursing positions in the US if they pass the National Counsel Licensure Examination for Registered Nurses (NCLEX-RN), among others.
Passing the NCLEX-RN is one of the steps of the VisaScreen process, which registered nurses have to go through, if they want to bypass the laborious process of obtaining immigrant visas to the US.
“Armed with a VisaScreen, foreign nurses are able to immigrate to the US much faster that most other occupations being sponsored for legal permanent residency,” according to the document.
The Commission on Graduates of Foreign Nursing Schools (CGFNS) conducts the VisaScreen process.
US-based HealthJobs America, located in Rivergate building on Gen. Maxilom Ave., Cebu City, is an NCLEX-RN review center, HealthJobs general manager Mario Carin said.
The Cebu branch is HealthJobs’ first branch outside the US, he told Sun.Star during the center’s opening last Saturday.
Carin said the center offers an NCLEX review and examination package at P80,000. The package includes a two-week lecture review, unlimited use of computer for review, processing of NCLEX examination application, two-way airfare to and from Guam, the venue of the NCLEX examination, and board and lodging during the NCLEX-RN examination.
To ensure that all clients pass the NCLEX exam, HealthJobs requires them to pass the center’s diagnostic exam.
He said registered nurses who pass the NCLEX exam are assured of nursing positions in the US.
Carin said HealthJobs will return the P80,000 and refund all the expenses incurred by the examinee during the examination, if he passes the NCLEX exam.
This is because HealthJobs is assured of receiving a placement fee from the hospital in the US to which the company will petition or send its reviewees, who pass the NCLEX exam.
“This is how serious the US is in looking for qualified registered nurses. They pay agencies like us, who provide them with the nurses they need,” he told Sun.Star.
According to the document, the US shortage of nurses is so severe that the US Department of Labor has pre-certified the registered nursing occupation as a shortage occupation.
This pre-certification allows employers such as hospitals to petition the Bureau for Citizenship and Immigration Services directly for an immigrant visa of their prospective employees.
(September 26, 2003 issue)
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