# Considering move to Florida



## andy s (Mar 28, 2009)

Hi,

Myself and my wife are considering a possible move to Florida with our 2 young children however I don't want to get too excited by the idea at this stage as I fear the visa entry requirement may not make the move possible for us.

I believe my wife is likely to qualify for a working visa as a result of her experience and work as an intensive care nurse in the NHS. There is however an entry exam to sit (and of course position to find).

My concern centres around my being able to qualify for a work permit myself as my work as a Sales Account Manager is not too specialised and I would not have thought it would be too difficult to find people to in the local market to fill this type of role. For this reason Sponsership could be difficult as well.

Whilst there would be no immediate pressure for us to both to be working straight away I don't want to waste time getting excited and my wife sitting exams if if there is no propect of me being able to work eventually as well.

If anybody has any advice on this i'd be grateful for any views on whether we could make it all work for us. 

Many Thanks

andy s


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## Fatbrit (May 8, 2008)

It may work eventually but it's going to be a hard slog. There used to be a special path for nurses but this has been closed for a long while so you're stuck with finding an employer offering an H1b or path with EB2 or EB3 immigrant visa -- and they're few and far between. The H1b has become an annual lottery and you wouldn't be able to work on it until your wife managed to persuade her employer to sponsor you for green cards. The EB2 requires a Masters, and the EB3 has a long wait.

If you're going for it, I'd suggest she starts studying for the NCLEX and she takes it on a vacation over here. Then she can try for job sponsorship (and she has a head start with NCLEX in her pocket) or, better still, they might resurrect the quick path for nurses.


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## andy s (Mar 28, 2009)

*Considering moving to Florida*



Fatbrit said:


> It may work eventually but it's going to be a hard slog. There used to be a special path for nurses but this has been closed for a long while so you're stuck with finding an employer offering an H1b or path with EB2 or EB3 immigrant visa -- and they're few and far between. The H1b has become an annual lottery and you wouldn't be able to work on it until your wife managed to persuade her employer to sponsor you for green cards. The EB2 requires a Masters, and the EB3 has a long wait.
> 
> If you're going for it, I'd suggest she starts studying for the NCLEX and she takes it on a vacation over here. Then she can try for job sponsorship (and she has a head start with NCLEX in her pocket) or, better still, they might resurrect the quick path for nurses.


Cheers for the above info Fatbrit, my wife is considering taking the NCLEX (as this can done in London) and hope that the situation improves with regard to the current entry restriction on nurses. The Royal college of nursing believe it will have to be reviewed sooner or later. Even if the above is sorted i'm not sure this will help my own working visa situation or would a positive outcome for my wife help my cause too, do you have any view on this ?

andy s


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## Fatbrit (May 8, 2008)

andy s said:


> Cheers for the above info Fatbrit, my wife is considering taking the NCLEX (as this can done in London) and hope that the situation improves with regard to the current entry restriction on nurses. The Royal college of nursing believe it will have to be reviewed sooner or later. Even if the above is sorted i'm not sure this will help my own working visa situation or would a positive outcome for my wife help my cause too, do you have any view on this ?
> 
> andy s


The last time the special route for nurses was running, it gave permanent residency (= a green card) on entry to the US, i.e. you had the right to live and work here indefinitely. The spouse and kids would get a green card, too.

Who knows what will happen with immigration! We're well overdue for a comprehensive immigration bill which, I expect, will be a thorough overhaul of the whole system. However, nobody's going to look too good at the moment handing out jobs to johnny foreigner in the midst of a recession! The nurses path could also be slipped in as a separate bill or tacked on another one. No crystal balls, I'm afraid.


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## mexliving (Mar 30, 2009)

*florida*

florida is a right-to-work state wich means you will earn less then anywhere else.... 7 or 8 right-to work states in the USA..
might want to do some more re-search on jobs/wages


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## tomben (Dec 31, 2008)

There are some travel nurse agencies that your wife can work with but they take a chunk of her pay check once she finally gets over here working.

Check with each states board of nursing as some requirements maybe different but basically your wife will need to

1) find a job
2) submit visa application to work in the USA
2) have her qualification deemed equivalent to US standards by the CGFNS CGFNS International - this can take a year
3) take a course and study for the NCLEX exam (this is what qualifies you to pratice as an RN)
4) take the NCLEX exam - a 50% first time pass rate, multi choice questions answer so many to pass, test can go on for hours.
5) submit license application to state board of nursing


Once she is here working on her visa, you will not be allowed to work


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