Travel Nurse Checklist
Start to finish!
Stage 1: Basics
Bachelors of Nursing
- After graduating, choose a specialty
- Get minimum 2 years experience in your specialty
NOTE: Some specialties pay higher than other and some are more in demand. For example, ER , Med-Surg are universally needed. For high pay, the OR and ICU tend to pay best (due to surgery making a lot of money for hospitals and ICUs having high demand). Some specialties that are not in high demand (generally) include L&D, Psych, and NICU.
Start Saving Money
You will need to save up a bit of money to pay for the start up costs to travel nurse...
- VisaScreen (approx. $740 USD)
- State License
- Additional costs (ie. to have your university send information, for your provincial college of nursing to send information, etc.)
- Minimum ONE month's pay (for when you go to your contract 10 days prior to starting your contract, incase of any delays or emergencies).
REMEMBER: Save your receipts for everything and keep track of all expenses related to travel nursing. Some or most of the costs may be reimbursed by some travel nurse agencies (e.g. some agencies will give a lump sum per contract and other agencies will reimburse individual things and *may* even pay for the VisaScreen). For a list of our recommended recruiters, click HERE.
And if the costs cannot be reimbursed by your agency, save them to claim on your taxes.
Preliminary Visa Document
- Choose between CGFNS (renamed TruMerit) or Josef Silney
NOTE: Both CGFNS and Silney have pros and cons. For more information, see the article on the VisaScreen/Visa4Nurses HERE.
State Licensure
- Review all the potential states (approx. 17) that do not require an American SSN (unless you have a U.S. SSN already, if so you can pick any state you want)
- Choose a state
- See ALL the requirements for that state via looking up the state's Board of Nursing (BON) online.
- Ensure you meet all the requirements (especially the education requirements such as having psych, L&D, or peds)
- See if a CES will be required (look if this is required as it can be time consuming and some states like Washington have an expiration on their applications)
- Apply and submit all documents required (ie. transcripts, proof of graduation, licenses from all jurisdictions licensed as a nurse, sometimes fingerprints, sometimes a CES, sometimes a jurisprudence test, etc.)
- Apply and submit all documents required (ie. transcripts, proof of graduation, licenses from all jurisdictions licensed as a nurse, a photo, etc.)
NOTE: For more information on the process, see the article on the VisaScreen/Visa4Nurses HERE or in the Facebook Group Canadian Travel Nurses (to the U.S.A.) we have a CGFNS Support chat HERE.
NOTE: For more information on the process, see the article on STATE LICENSURE HERE and in the Facebook Group Canadian Travel Nurses (to the U.S.A.) we have state chats for most states HERE.
NOTE: For more information, see the article on ENGLISH LANGUAGE REQUIREMENTS HERE and in the Facebook Group Canadian Travel Nurses (to the U.S.A.) we have Quebec chat for additional support HERE.
Apply for BOTH your VisaScreen & State License at the SAME time to SAVE time!
Stage 2: Begin
