Underpaid Nurse
 

UNDERPAID DUE TO IMMIGRATION STATUS

I was granted DACA. As a new graduate nurse looking for any position available, I got employed in a nursing agency. At the time I accepted the job, they offered me $30/hr (I live in NY) with a 1 year contract. A month or two after, I learned from my coworkers that the baseline wage for an agency nurse runs between $38-40/hr. My colleagues who are agency nurses with associate degree and new grad like myself working in the same hospital are getting paid $40/hr. My agency said that they will provide sponsorship as long as I pay the $500+ fee and fill out the paperwork.

I know that as a non-immigrant that I don't have plenty of choices. What I do want to know is:
1) if there is anyone who is in a similar position as me, being underpaid due to status? If they are underpaying me due to my status or their intent to provide sponsorship, I would have appreciated it if they made me aware of that. I did ask them and their response was $30/hr was the standard pay for starting nurses (which is not true as mentioned above).

2) Has anyone been sponsored by an employer? How does the process work (fees, paperwork)? And are you then bound to work for them forever?

Please no negative comments. I appreciate your input. Thank you.

Re: Underpaid Nurse
 

30 is still good, did you even negotiate the starting salary at all?

Re: Underpaid Nurse
 

No I didn't. I had no idea at the time. Do you know anyone with a similar experience?

Re: Underpaid Nurse
 

First of all be glad you have a job that pays 30/hr. when i started as a structural engineer i was getting 15/hr. with a masters degree due to lack of experience. Second, once you are out of contract you can take your 1 yr. experience and you can ask for 40/hr. experience is more valuable than degree. lastly, since you got a job through an agency. you should know that they also have to make a profit for getting you the job. so typically what they do is they take away some part of your salary. maybe that is the reason why you are making less than other co-workers. regardless, just complete your 1 yr. and move on.

Re: Underpaid Nurse
 

Exactly, almost everyone is underpaid at some point. Keep trying to get that bsn and earn experience.

Re: Underpaid Nurse
 

I failed to mention that my co-workers are also agency nurses. So pretty much they're the same as me, associate degree new grad nurses (no previous experience) working at the same unit in the hospital. The only difference is the papers. That's what my point is on this post: That I'm getting underpaid not because of my degree or my lack of experience but my immigration status.

I wanted to know if anyone has a similar experience and have some solid advice on sponsorship.

Re: Underpaid Nurse
 

Employers cannot discriminate individuals because of their immigration status in the hiring process. However, if they are to petition you is a different story.

My friend was petitioned by a hospital for 5 years and was getting paid 32/hr.

Now, he makes a lot more because he is out of that contract and works for a different hospital w/ 5 years of nurse experience behind him.

Who exactly will be petitioning you? The agency or a hospital itself?

Re: Underpaid Nurse
 

The agency will petition me. The hospital is currently not hiring those with non-immigrant status. Did it take 5 years till he got his greencard? Do you know what process he had to go through to get sponsored?

Re: Underpaid Nurse
 

Considering that you have DACA, you are out of status. You cannot adjust status via employer unless you are grandfathered under 245(i). Them sponsoring you won't result in anything. The DOL will issue you a PERM, USCIS will happily take the money for the I-140, they might even remind you that you are good to go to file I-485 when your priority date becomes current, and then the I-485 will be denied because you're ineligible for adjustment.

You could undergo consular processing if you have under 180 days of illegal presence in US, however I really doubt that's the case. For that you'd either have to fit into one of these categories:
1) You filed for DACA while under 18.
2) Your DACA was approved before you turned 18 and 180 days old.
3) Your legal status expired as of June 15th 2012, you filed for DACA and were approved within 180 days of the previous status's expiration (extremely unlikely). (There's probably one person in US who just happened to luck out like that).

If all else fails being a nurse there's always MAVNI. They generally want medical professionals. You'd need to wait for them to draft the regulations for enlisting DACA holders and re-open the program however. As of the present they're still sitting on it. I'm not sure how well they pay, but medical professionals can enlist into the reserve as well, that or 3 years of service. In either case they give you citizenship upfront.