FAQs - CGFNS vs NCLEX
This is a very basic Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page which attempts to answer some of the more commonly asked questions. Just click a question to read the answer.
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DO I NEED TO TAKE THE CGFNS BEFORE TAKING THE NCLEX?
This is, perhaps, one question we get asked most often. And the answer to this question is YES! Most nurses would certainly like to avoid taking CGFNS if they can...and many times they look for employers in states that do not require CGFNS for licensure, thinking it will save them time and effort. However, here are some things to think about first before you decide not to take CGFNS:
1. If you are a nurse who is physically located outside the U.S. and have accepted employment in a state that does not require that you take the CGFNS exam, consider the following:
a. In order to enter the U.S. for employment, you must have an immigrant visa approved (for most nursing positions). Requirements for the I-140 Immigrant Petition for Alien Worker, says you must provide evidence of having passed the CGFNS exam OR have successfully passed the NCLEX exam. Until NCLEX is given internationally, you'll have to enter the U.S. somehow, to take it.
b. You say..."why can't I enter on a tourist visa, sit for NCLEX, then stay and work once I pass it?" It's not that simple...
i. You cannot work on a tourist visa, regardless whether you've passed NCLEX or not, so you will have to apply for the immigrant visa anyway.
ii. When you apply for a tourist visa, you attest that you do not have immigrant intent. Many people do not know this...that means that when you are granted a tourist visa, you tell INS that you do not intend to stay in the U.S. permanently, or have no intention to pursue an immigrant visa. So if you accept a tourist visa, then attempt to change your status to immigrant, once you have arrived in the U.S., you are showing you had fraudulent intent when you accepted the tourist visa. Please note that when we have nurses come to us (who are present in the U.S. on a tourist visa) to process their green card, we always refer them to an immigration attorney, because they may need legal counsel later to prove they did not have fraudulent intent in the final phase of processing. Many of you may say, "I had a friend who did it and had no problem."...and that may be true, but it is a risk in which we prefer not to get involved.
iii. Besides all that, the tourist visa may expire before the immigrant visa process can finish, and you risk being present in the U.S. with no status. Another risk we like to help you avoid!
c. Finally, since the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the U.S., tourist visas are much more restrictive than ever before, both for "reason to enter" and for "length of stay".
2. If you are a nurse who is already in the U.S., in another visa category (perhaps a dependent of H-1B, J-1, L-1, or on a tourist visa, etc.), then it will be easy for you to take NCLEX without CGFNS, if the state does not require it.
If you are already here on a tourist visa, read #1b above!
However, even though you may have taken NCLEX and passed it for one state, another state you may want to move to later, may have additional requirements regarding the CGFNS exam or credential evaluation. So, it's best to go ahead and take CGFNS for your future marketability. Regardless, you will need to check out each state's specific licensing requirements very carefully when moving from one state to another.
3. The bottom line...
It is easier, and safer for your future, to enter the U.S. on an immigrant visa, and for state licensure in the future, if you take and pass the CGFNS exam! If you try to cut corners now and enter quicker, it will likely catch up with you and cause a delay later.
Source: www.admin@nurseimmigrationusa.com
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THE CGFNS EXAM IS BECOMING LESS ATTRACTIVE TO US EMPLOYERS
Applying for the CGFNS exam, waiting two months for the exam and obtaining the results two to three months after the exam, can take a nurse up to 6 months or even one year to complete. Test results take so long to be mailed to the nurse, that the deadline for the next exam will have passed. This means that a failure to achieve a score of 400, and the nurse must apply for the next exam. Then that nurse will have another year for the results of that exam. CGFNS exam results are not published/mailed to the nurse until after the expiration date for application the next exam. In addition, the CGFNS exam is expensive and it is only given three times per year. Last year, in Manila , Philippines, several thousand Philippine nurses completed the CGFNS exam. CGFNS does not publish the pass /fail rate for various countries. Current CGFNS application test fees are $295.00 However, one can estimate that Philippine nurses are projected by this writer to be providing at least $3,000,000 annually in revenue to the CGFNS for exams. Additional fees of $325.00 are paid for Visa Screen to the ICHP, a division of the CGFNS. If only 2000 Visa Screen application are sent from the Philippines annually, a very conservative estimate, that would represent $625,000 of additional revenue provided by Philippine nurses to the CGFNS.\r\nAlthough, the CGFNS exam certificate will allow for the filing of the I-140,with an US employee sponsor, some US employees will require that the nurse pass the NCLEX
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Licensure by Endorsement.
Those nurses who apply to take the NCLEX® exam through a state like Arizona that does not have a requirement of having passed the CGFNS exam, may intend to apply for endorsement into another state that does require the CGFNS. Thereby, the foreign educated nurse who has not passed the CGFNS exam, first applies to a state like Arizona. Then, after obtaining the Arizona license, seeks endorsement into this other state. Not all states provide for endorsement and the applicant must research each state and the exact requirements for endorsement.
Source: article NCLEX for foreign nurses – a guide by Meladee M. Stankus at www.nurseimmigrationusa.com
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CGFNS vs. NCLEX
CGFNS
The CGFNS Certificate is an important supporting document in applying for the foreign nurse’s green card, but it is not an authorization to practice nursing in the U.S. In other words, it allows the foreign nurse to come as an immigrant worker but it does not allow her to work as a nurse in the U.S. Foreign nurses who wish to work in a majority of the states, such as New Jersey, are required to pass the CGFNS exam first before taking the state NCLEX exam in order to practice nursing.
The CGFNS certification has been widely criticized as an unnecessary requirement for foreign nurses, prompting medical facilities and foreign nurse groups to call for its abolition.
The CGFNS traces its beginnings to the huge influx of foreign nurses in the ‘70s when about 80 percent of them failed the U.S. nursing licensure exams. The nursing establishment then thought a predictive mechanism must be put in place in order to determine which foreign nurses will be able to meet the requirements for U.S. nursing licensure and therefore stay and work here.
But the underlying presumption for requiring the CGFNS tests was flawed from the beginning.
The high failure rate of foreign RNs in the nurse licensure exams was not due to any academic deficiency or lack of nursing knowledge. Many foreign RNs failed the exams because, unlike their American counterparts, they hardly had the opportunity to study and prepare. They were overworked and were required to take the first available licensure test right away.
The American cultural bias of the nurse licensure exam also adversely affected the foreign RN’s chance of passing. Observers noted that the difficulty encountered by foreign RNs with the NCLEX was not so much the content of the exam, but its language and the multiple choice format.
Nearly three decades since it was first administered, the value of the CGFNS exam as a predictor of a foreign nurse’s qualification to practice in the U.S. is still largely overrated.
Several states – including New York, California, Colorado, Arizona, Ohio and Oregon – do not require the CGFNS certificate before a foreign nurse may sit down for the state nurse licensure test. The nursing boards in these states are obviously satisfied with their system sans the CGFNS.
Those foreign RNs who wish to work in states where the CGFNS is required prior to licensing may still work in such CGFNS states, if they have already obtained their license in a non-CGFNS state like Arizona or Colorado and they apply for licensure reciprocity. This circumvention only underscores the needlessness of the expense and delay of the CGFNS certification.
Overall, the CGFNS has not proven itself an effective predictor of a foreign nurse’s qualification to work in the U.S. In the past, proponents of the CGFNS said that 85 percent of those who passed the CGFNS exam would pass the NCLEX.
Latest figures from the National Council of State Board of Nursing (NCSBN), however, indicate that only about 40 percent of all foreign nurses pass the NCLEX exam. A nurse who has not passed the NCLEX would have to wait for three months and pay additional fees to retake the exam.
To cut down costs and reduce delay, some U.S. employers require the foreign nurse to take and pass the NCLEX exam in Saipan or Guam before coming to the mainland. This indicates a growing awareness among U.S. employers that the CGFNS exam does not really serve their purpose.
The CGFNS has also been blamed for the high cost and delay in processing the immigration papers of the foreign nurse, making it less attractive to U.S. employers. It can take a foreign nurse six months to a year to apply to take a CGFNS exam, wait two months for it to be administered and about three months or more for the test results to be released.
As the nursing shortage worsens, CGFNS states are beginning to take a second look at their foreign nurse screening procedures. Certain state legislators in Michigan, for example, pointed out that the CGFNS is unnecessary if a foreign-trained nurse has already passed the NCLEX and has been licensed in another state.
In New Jersey, the Philippine Nurses Association there has been vocal about the abolition of the CGFNS.
NCLEX
Perhaps the most persuasive reason for the abolition of the CGFNS is the fact that one testing and certification process already meets the requirements of both a green card application and the state nursing license – the NCLEX.
The NCLEX exposes the redundancy and the waste of money associated with the CGFNS. Both the CGFNS and the NCLEX exams are similar and based on the same nursing knowledge.
As noted above, however, NCLEX nursing sites are less accessible to major source countries of foreign RNs, like the Philippines. Most Filipino nurses find it too expensive to come to the U.S., usually on a tourist visa, just to take the NCLEX exam.
This is why groups such as the Philippine Nurses Association in America have been strongly advocating for the holding of the NCLEX exam in the Philippines, especially since Filipinos make up the majority of NCLEX exam takers. NCSBN figures confirm that this trend continues with some 31 percent of the total foreign-educated NCLEX candidates for the first quarter of 2004 coming from the Philippines.
Despite this, the NCSBN apparently bypassed the Philippines as one of the three international NCLEX testing locations beginning January 2005, apparently for security reasons. The NCSBN, however, stressed that London, Hong Kong and Seoul are initial testing sites only and more international testing sites may be added later.
With the designation of NCLEX international testing sites, more nurses will prefer to take the NCLEX instead of the CGFNS.
U.S. employers, who usually pay for testing and certification fees will likely require the foreign nurse to take the NCLEX as well. A foreign nurse with the NCLEX would be ready to assume her duties when she arrives in the U.S.
The foreign nurse armed with only the CGFNS certificate would be able to work only in a limited capacity. And if she does not pass the NCLEX the first time, the delay may be months or years.
The designation of more NCLEX international testing sites, particularly in countries rich in potential nurse recruits may actually render the CGFNS obsolete.
Source: article entitled Undue Rules Fuel Nursing Shortage by Rueben S. Seguritan, October 2004 at www.philippinenews.com