Daneandkathy

Well I recognize this is an unorthodox method, if he pursued a medical degree he would have to essentially redo medical school and the cost and time to do that would be huge. In Macedonia doctors are not paid well, he maybe earns $1000 a month if he is working close to 60 hrs a week. But if he gets his nursing school accredited ( he did that before medical school) he can be in the states with a job in less than a year earning about 3-5 times more. Eventually he would like to specialize into anesthesia nurse or cardiac nurse or something like that. I know it seems backward but it is what he wants to do.

Thank you for your comment, as I said he has to have his credentials approved BEFORE he can take the NCLEX. He went to nursing school in Macedonia and then directly to medical school to become a doctor. The company CGFNS has to approve his credentials before he can move forward with the NCLEX. I am hoping someone from that region had gone through a similar process to get first hand knowledge of how it went.

HI everyone I am hoping someone might have experience with this. Here is the run down Our cousin from Macedonia is a doctor (for past 10 years) currently a cardiology resident. He and his wife and hoping to come to the states on a work visa Currently doctor credentials don't transfer and so he is looking at coming as a nurse. We live in South Carolina and to take the NCLEX (nursing exam) the person must have a green card / work visa and or Social Security card He has a limited SS# from when he came as a student 10 years ago but it states on the card it is only active with a work visa. So he has to go through North Carolina to apply to take the NCLEX First he has to get his credentials reviewed by a company called CGFNS It took a 3 month visit to try and sort all this out, it was like trying to figure out what came first, the chicken or the egg. We think: CGFNS approves credentials This info is sent to North Carolina nurse board who approves the NCLEX exam He can take it in Turkey or France I believe Once the NCLEX is passed He can get a job offer and start work visa proceedings ( he already has an offer pending NCLEX results) Has anyone been through something like this before? Thanks Kathy

HI All I am so sorry that I seem to be offending some people, I really didn't mean to post something that caused people to be so harsh. I understand what you are all saying and if you read it as me being naive or not knowing, it's just because I literally just starting to figure this all out and am finding conflicting information. If anyone knows how I can just delete this post please let me know. Thanks to those who have given me some information to help me understand the process more.

@ROK2USA thank you for the information. I spoke with the school yesterday and they said if we are her legal guardians it would be a cost as if she were our child. But I will double check that.

The plan is for us to be approved as a host family and continue hosting students after that, I have already looked into that. Thank you for the information about needing to reapply after the first year.

@nelmagriffin thank you so much for all this information, I really appreciate. most people have just said I have no idea and this is too expensive, without helping with any information about how to move forward. I have spoken to the local high school and if she does decide to come for a year, since it is public school there is a negligible cost to it (since it is included in our taxes already, I think $20 for administration). I know when I moved to the states and started university we had to do the SATs and we also paid out of state tuition for 2 terms and had to petition the school to allow us to have instate tuition after that, but we were on green cards. I need to research more about pharmacy and see what she actually wants to do, I am not sure if she wants to be an actual pharmacist or just work in a pharmacy, but she may change her mind completely later. In macedonia there are limited options and so she chose pharmacy. Once she comes here she may realise she can choose anything. I know if we go through an exchange program she can only stay with a host family, but my hope was to become approved as a host family so she can stay with us and possibly continue hosting students from Macedonia. Thank you again for the useful information, I was starting to feel quite discouraged by the folks who were just saying negative things.

@SusieQQQ Thank you, I will take a look at these. I appreciate it. @AnnaCa thank you I will look into this.

sorry I don't think I am making sense. At the moment there is a very long wait for all visas for Macedonians into the US. So I am trying to find an international student exchange program that you can work with who would bring students out to the US and hopefully we can act as the host family. Give her that experience for her last year of high school. Then after that, she can apply for a student visa for pharmacy college (probably after she goes home). But this would be a way for her to come and see if she even likes studying in the US and to look at some schools she can apply to when she needs to do the student visa. We realise it is expensive and will cover cost of high school and she would live with us for that year.

thanks, I am looking into all that now.

I am looking into schools now. I found one program that is approved by the US embassy in Macedonia and hope I can use that one to get her here for the first year. then we can look at Pharmacy schools and she can apply for a student visa for that school. Just starting the process and trying to figure everything out.

Yes, I guessed as much, I am trying to find a program to bring her out to do a year of high school to start while we figure out how they need to do the student visa.

Hi All Now that my husband is a citizen we are working to bring his nieces over from Macedonia. The oldest is 16yrs and wants to come and study, perhaps finish high school and then study pharmacy. I am not exactly sure where to start. Any ideas? Thanks os much.