Your Guide In Taking The NCLEX Exam

Written by Meladee M. Stankus, RN MS

Note: As of August 1, 2002 the Arizona Board of Nursing will accept applications from foreign educated nurses who have not completed the CGFNS exam. These nurses will only need the TOEFL or similar English exam, if their nursing education in their country was not in English. In addition, the nurse must have the nursing program transcripts evaluated for equivalency to US nursing educational standards and a validation of unrestricted licensure in their country or origin.

This will facilitate the licensure into Arizona for those foreign nurses who would prefer to take the NCLEX®. And not take CGFNS.

The National Council License Exam (NCLEX®) is a test that each nurse must pass in order to obtain a license to practice nursing in the state where they will work. In the United States, licensing is under the authority of each individual state, not the federal government. Nurses cannot apply directly to the NCLEX®, but must apply through one of the states.

State requirements for foreign educated nurses.

Each state has unique laws and regulations for Registered Nurses. Differences are apparent between states in requirements for foreign educated nurses. For example, California and Nevada have very different requirements . California does not require that a foreign educated nurse have passed the CGFNS exam in order to apply for licensure. California does require that the nurse undergo a credential review by specialists within their agency. This means that foreign nurses must have their transcripts from their nursing school sent directly to the California Board of Nursing as well as documents verifying their license from the licensing authority in their country. Unfortunately, California will not accept the Visa Screen by the CGFNS or any other credential evaluation. They will review a copy of a credential certificate from another source, but California still must complete their own review of the transcript. Since the immigration law specifically requires the Visa Screen, foreign nurses applying for licensure in California, must be credentialed twice, and have the forms and transcripts sent to both California and the CGFNS. CGFNS will not accept the California Board of Nursing Credential Review. Neither California or the CGFNS will recognize their respective credential review, leaving the foreign nurse with two sets of fees, the potential for delays when documents are not received, etc. The most common cause for delays in the completion of the credentialing by both agencies is not receiving the required documents from the licensing agency and also from the nursing school in a timely manner. Note: As of this July 2002, California is now requiring the foreign educated nurse applicant to provide a valid social security number. California will only issue a temporary license without the social security number. Unfortunately, the INS will not accept a temporary license to file the I-140 and/or adjustment of status. As long as this situation exists, I would not recommend foreign educated nurses apply in California for purposes of filing the I-140 unless they are also a CGFNS test passer. If they are a CGFNS test passer with a pass on TOEFL, the I-140 petition can be filed. Then if a concurrent adjustment of status and EAD is filed, the nurse can apply for the social security card after the EAD is received in about 90 days. Then....with the social security card, the nurse can obtain the full license. However, with the temp license and the social security card, the nurse can begin to work.

Application forms from various agencies can be difficult to complete. Some of the applications forms are written in language that native speakers, find confusing, let alone someone who has English as a second language. In addition, when the foreign educated nurse, who is residing abroad tries to phone these licensing agencies, they often get busy signals as well as long waits. This can be expensive and frustrating.

Carl Schusterman, the leading US Immigration Law firm, handling healthcare workers, has provided links to various states web sites to assist with solving state problems. Not all states have web sites and those that do have web sites, may not have a specific area for instructions to foreign educated nurses.

.( See our Nurse links section.)

Taking the NCLEX® in Guam or Saipan

Some Philippine nurses who have passed the CGFNS exam as well as those who have not taken the CGFNS exam, will seek to take the NCLEX® in either Gaum or Saipan or will obtain a US Tourist Visa and travel to the US to sit for the NCLEX® exam. Saipan does not currently require a US tourist visa for Philippine nurses traveling to take NCLEX® and staying only 3 days. However, the test site can only handle 6 nurses taking NCLEX® per day. Guam does require a US tourist visa. However, with the actual paper approving the nurse to take the NCLEX® in Guam, the US Embassy has in the past, been approving nurses for tourist visa to travel to Gaum for NCLEX®. Guam can handle 12 or more NCLEX® test takers each day. The NCLEX® organization is in a one year long process of changing from the Chauncy company that run the test sites. This might mean improvements in test site capacity. It also may result in other international test sites being opened in such cities as Manila. As of August 16, 2002, new test sites and phone numbers for Guam and Saipan. Please read this article, written by Meladee M. Stankus, President of Nurse Immigration USA. Click Here For More. as well as the NCS Pearson VUE web site.