Well, honestly I would not be able to return to school, going for undergrad was hard enough and almost a miracle to actually go. As a matter of fact I was very lucky the year I went to college....my school was not very strict in terms of I.D's. I was actually able to register for undergrad with just my high school ID. The following year they got pretty strict and required proof of ID and residency for the billling. I have lived in NY for almost 12 years and I graduated from a NY highschool.

So I got instate tuition plus a school grant academic based scholarship. I was indeed quite lucky....but point is.....with my masters its gonna be almost impossible for me....and so i'll prolly lucky out....deff don't have the choice of going the master's route

.....since I don't qualify for 245i getting a Visa will be out of the question. So the hospital that I was planning on sponsoring me....im just gonna volunteeer there this summer.....full time actually 3 days a week...12 hours shifts...no pay so i can avoid giving my SSN....my uncle works there and said if you "volunteer" they don't ask for an SSN and its pretty much like an internship....i'll be shadowing nurses the whole day when its not too busy....then after that idk....lol maybe the world ends? haha

in terms of doing my background checks, they were online...for a private company....they were also the company that made sure we had all our immunizations...i did use my itin for my social....keep in mind my school was a private school....it wasn't a public university. And so they werent as strict with the SS....when i got the results it said that there was no record of residency in this SSN blah blah but the rest which were drug, criminal etc...were negative and so our school was pretty much ok with that....they never asked me to validated or clarify if my ssn is right or valid...and so don't ask don't tell kinda.....

FOr you....well idk where your home country is but since you graduated....maybe you could volunteer at a hospital....for a couple of months then try to move to canada?....I mean I don't want to to go a masters w/o any experience whatsoever. So I mean if you could maybe try to transfer to canada....that's another option. Or get married...lol

On a serious note....with using ur ITIN....its very had to say....i guess it will be under the discrepancy of the school you are considering to go to....if the school is lenient maybe they might not even try to investigate why ur ss is not valid or whatever...but again mind you it depends on the school.

Anywhoo....just my two cents....if you have the capability to move somewhere else just for a year or two outside the united states....you are better off than staying here. Since you graduated already...your priority is to get any type of nursing experience. NY is so hard get experiece with out connections even for legal residents..lol how much more us dreamers?

Anyways PM if you wanna chat some more on this...i think i wrote a lot

Good luck to you and to all those who read this on their nursing careers.