Graduated nurses outside the United States can apply for a license in the USA
One important thing to remember is if a nurse has worked several years in his/her country with a license in Brazil (the board of Nursing there is called COREN) or in another country, in the USA one must apply for a license first and until there a nurse is not allowed yet to be called a Registered Nurse or practice nursing in this country, he or she must go through the process. I'll explain below. Practicing nursing without a license is considered a crime, this is a law for all graduated nurses, graduated in the USA or outside the USA. Read the rules and regulations from the Texas Board of Nursing it's available for download.
First contact CGFNS and create an account. Follow the steps, then pay the fee for professional CES.
Just fill in the secondary education, or high school education, then fill in the nursing school, usually it is a bachelor's of 4 years-long nursing education. Please do not add any extra education (Specialization, Master's degree, a Doctorate degree education). Those extras are not necessary for initial licensure. Besides if you enter it will take longer to erase as you might need to call customer service to erase it for you, calling from outside the USA can be a little expensive. To send e-mails and including diplomas or paperwork use the FIREFOX browser. CGFNS will send you your order to be completed by your nursing school, another for your secondary education, and another for your board or license department. You must sign them before mail or e-mail them. Contact your Nursing School and your professional translator to prepare the paperwork, these must be sent directly to CGFNS. Contact your board of nursing from your Country, In Brazil COREN, again your professional translator with the board will prepare the paperwork and send it directly to CGFNS.
Decide which board of Nursing in the USA you will apply. There are 50 in total. All of them accept the Professional CES from CGFNS. Most states require English Proficiency. TOEFL must be presential not home edition, minimum of 83 points, with a minimum of 26 in the speaking part. IELTS Minimal of 6.5 overall and 7 on the speaking part. Board of Nursing decided, pay the fee for licensure by examination.
Once the Board Of Nursing of Your choice is decided your CES from CGFNS will be sent electronically to the board.
Decide what English Proficiency you like best and apply for the academic exam. Prepare for the test. Both tests have the reading and comprehension, Listening, and finally Writing (which has two essays first assay has a minimun of 150 words and another essay with a minimun of 300 words.
When all the paperwork is appoved and when you have passed the Engligh exams your Professional CES will be expedited. Now when you recieve your ATT authorization to test you can book your NCLEX RN exam with Pearson Vue, it's a fee of about $200.00 You can choose the closest test center to your home, I know In Sao Paulo, SP, Brazil there's one.
To prepare for the NCLEX I highly reccommed preparing with KAPLAN NCLEX PREP you choose the best program and you will be very well prepared.
Make sure you are practicing nursing in your country while wait for the process, some boards of Nursing require recent experience, less than 4 years before the test date, the process can take a few years if you fail the tests which is OK, just keep positive learn from the mistakes improve the weak area and pass the next test.
I hope this helps in your process and I wish you the best of luck and before I go, here are some of the websites
htts://www.cgfns.org
htts://www.bon.texas.gov
htts://www.ets.org>toefl
ielts.org
ncsbn
htts://home.pearsonvue.com
