New Orleans RN living in NYC...and to UK( I know)... :)

Hi Ya'll!!!!
I am originally from N.O and am looking to work as a nurse in the UK. I have always wanted to visit/work there and am very excited to visit in March or April. I hope to meet some cool folks here who could help me on my journey....
LotusRN1972 

Hiya,
I'm a Mass. born and trained RN and have been working and living in Scotland since 1999. Started off on a work permit and worked my way up the immigration ladder and now have dual citizenship. .. It was much easier back then to get registered with the nursing licensing agency here in the UK.. Not as easy now from what I understand,tho maybe someone who as done it more recently can pipe in. General nurses are no longer on the shortage occupation list and there are more hoops to jump through as well.
Here is the link to the nursing licensing agency for the UK. Its a good place to start

http://www.nmc-uk.org/registration/

A little more specifically, here's the page for nurses trained outside the UK:

http://www.nmc-uk.org/Registration/Joining-the-register/Trained-outside-the-EU--EEA/

Good Luck!

Thank you Ms. Kaylesh and Ms.Texas Girl,
I was SUPER APPEHENSIVE to transfer my nursing skills to the UK, cuz, quite frankly, *GULP*, I don't dig being a nurse AT Aall
I graduated 2.5 years ago and it is NOT what I expected or are willing to endure. Once in dialysis, I was stuck: no in-hospital experience=get any job that will keep the kids fed= dialysis= not happy, but bills are (barely) paid. Long story short, I am looking to grow within a company that has a UK office. A career in business is my change of career move.  I am at the beginning of my Journey so any feedback would be Groovy 

The only nursing speciality on the shortage occupation list at the moment is neonatal intensive care.  If that's not your area of expertise, your chances of finding a sponsor are pretty low.

Other than that if your position doesn't fall in the shortage occupation list, Tier 2 work visas are extremely difficult to qualify for if you're not a superstar in your field.

Inter company transfers are a possibility but they are shorter term visas which will not lead to settlement if that is your goal.

My wife is a US trained RN, and is currently 13 months into the process of applying for a UK license and we are still waiting. Be ready for massive amounts of paperwork and bureaucratic hoops to jump through. For us it's worth it, but it's not easy. She is working with a company called continental travel nurse who help with the NMC registration process and will sponsor a work visa for short term contracts. They've been very helpful, but most of their postings are in the south east of England so you won't have much say in where, and they do help with housing. Our goal is Scotland though and I will hopefully be working on a masters degree in Edinburgh so she will get a work visa as my spouse but she is still planning to do an initial contract with continental...if we ever get approved.  If you don't have a bachelors degree in nursing then they won't even consider you for licensure in the UK. Not to get your hopes down but it is a long process, but we didn't let that stop us! Best of luck!