foreign trained nurse trying to get license in USA
Foreign-trained nurse here and my US licensure journey has honestly been INSANE.
Went through CES first and they said I had deficiencies in peds and maternity clinical hours, which were not part of the curriculum where I trained. So after months of research and spending a lot of money, I finally found a US university offering exactly those courses. I spent an entire semester completing them and got the exact credits + clinical hours CES said I was missing.
Then I started another CES application, now including both my foreign Bachelor of Nursing transcripts AND the transcripts from the US courses I completed. After waiting almost another month, CES sent me…the EXACT SAME REPORT as before.
I called them panicking saying, “I literally spent 6 months doing exactly what you told me to do.” And they casually replied, “Oh honey, we only evaluate international education. We don’t evaluate US coursework. Send those transcripts directly to the BON.”
So I did.
Now with Texas BON, everything from my side is DONE:
• CES report sent
• Foreign nursing transcripts sent
• US course transcripts sent
• NJE done
• Fingerprints done
• Basically everything completed
But my portal still says “missing hours” and my application has been under “Education Review” with NO timeline.
Calling them is exhausting, wait times are over an hour almost every time. I even physically went to the BON office hoping to speak to someone face to face, and they basically told me the same thing: no timeframe, huge backlog, and apparently only THREE people evaluate international applications for the entire state.
I’ve been researching nonstop trying to find people in the same situation and I’ve heard everything from 3 months…to TWO YEARS.
Two years just to evaluate education??? Especially when the only thing left to review in my case is two US-based courses I already completed exactly as instructed?
This process has genuinely been one of the most frustrating experiences ever. Has anyone else gone through this? How long did your education review actually take?