Minnesota Employers Recruit Kenyan Nurses With Green Card Sponsorship and Housing Support

A senior-care recruitment initiative offers a pathway to U.S. employment, with immigration costs covered and plans to help nurses settle together in rural communities.
Minnesota senior-care employers are recruiting registered nurses from Kenya through a programme that offers employer-sponsored permanent immigration, covers immigration-processing costs and provides temporary housing through participating employers. The initiative, led by Global Care Recruiters, focuses on nurses who have already passed the U.S. National Council Licensure Examination for Registered Nurses, commonly known as the NCLEX-RN.

For Kenyan nurses seeking opportunities abroad, the offer goes beyond a job placement. Global Care Recruiters says applicants pay no fees for its immigration process and are not required to repay the immigration support it provides. Partner employers also offer temporary accommodation and assistance with settling into their new communities.
However, this is an employer-led recruitment programme—not an automatic green card allocation. Candidates must still complete the applicable immigration, credentialing and licensing requirements before beginning their new careers.
How the Kenya–Minnesota Partnership Began
The initiative grew out of a January 2024 visit to Nairobi by a delegation organised by LeadingAge Minnesota and led by Minnesota State Representative Mohamud Noor. Participants attended the opening of an NCLEX centre, expanding access to an examination that previously required many Kenyan candidates to travel abroad.
Among those on the trip were Traci Larson of Guardian Angels Senior Services, Dustin Lee of Prairie Senior Cottages and Roger White of Mount Olivet. They later joined Jim Bettendorf of Vista Prairie Communities to establish Global Care Recruiters in August 2024.
Their focus was specific: connecting qualified Kenyan nurses with jobs in Minnesota’s long-term care sector, rather than recruiting primarily for hospitals. These positions involve caring for older adults, often with ongoing health conditions and complex care needs.
“We are specifically for long-term care providers, not for hospitals or other health care organizations,” Larson told the Global Ageing Network.
More Than 60 Nurses in the Pipeline
In a September 2026 report, the Global Ageing Network said Global Care Recruiters had more than 60 Kenyan registered nurses in its U.S.-bound pipeline. It also reported more than 100 candidates progressing through legal review and employer interviews.
Those figures should not be added together as a confirmed total of recruits: the report does not establish whether the groups overlap. Nor do they represent confirmed arrivals in Minnesota. The same report said the organisation had signed contracts with 17 nurses in its first year and 41 in its second year to date.
The recruitment effort comes amid substantial staffing gaps. According to the 2026 Long-Term Care Imperative Workforce Survey, cited by the Global Ageing Network, Minnesota had approximately 11,750 vacant key positions across assisted-living and nursing facilities in January 2026. About 1,350 were registered-nurse positions.
Why Recruiters Want Nurses to Settle Together
One of the programme’s notable features is its emphasis on belonging alongside employment.
Recruiters are considering how to place several Kenyan nurses in the same rural community, rather than sending individual recruits into unfamiliar settings without a nearby support network. Discussing the approach, Larson said employers needed to recognise “the fact that we can’t place just one Kenyan nurse way out here in Marshall, MN.”
“We should probably look at a few [nurses]. And then how do we connect them to the resources that they need in the community?” she added.
Marshall was used as an example in that discussion; the report did not confirm placements there. The wider point was that successful recruitment requires more than filling a vacancy: employers must also help new arrivals establish community connections and navigate life outside work.
A partnership with LeadingAge Minnesota Solutions, the association’s business arm, is intended to strengthen the programme’s day-to-day administration, recruitment and retention support.
What the Sponsorship Package Includes
According to Global Care Recruiters’ published information, the programme offers:
• Immigration-process costs covered, with no applicant fees for that process.
• No repayment requirement for the immigration support provided.
• Temporary housing arranged through participating U.S. employers.
• Social and cultural support during relocation.
• Employer onboarding and training to help nurses adjust to their roles.
The recruitment model uses the EB-3 employment-based immigration pathway. EB-3 can lead to lawful permanent residence, and U.S. immigration rules provide a Schedule A process for professional nurses and physical therapists. Employers must still submit the required petition and supporting documentation.[uscis +1]Passing the NCLEX is an important milestone, but it should not be confused with completing every requirement to practise nursing in the United States. State licensing and applicable healthcare-worker certification requirements also matter.
Global Care Recruiters estimates an immigration-processing period of 18 to 24 months on its website. That is the recruiter’s estimate, not a guaranteed arrival date.
The Public Funding Connection: A Separate Workforce Initiative
LeadingAge Minnesota’s foundation has also received state funding to support immigrant and refugee participation in the long-term care workforce.
In an August 2026 update, the foundation reported an initial grant of $934,332 from Minnesota’s Department of Human Services and a second award of $750,000—a combined total of $1,684,332. The grants support workforce resources, including multilingual materials, employer tools, training and language-access technology.
Reported initiatives include an employer recruitment-and-retention guide, translation devices, regional job fairs and a directory linking workers and families with more than 250 support organizations.
An important distinction is that these are grants for broader immigrant-workforce support programmes. The published information does not establish that the entire $1.68 million pays for Kenyan nurses’ immigration costs or directly funds Global Care Recruiters’ sponsorship package.
What Kenyan Applicants Should Clarify
The recruiter’s published commitments provide a starting point, but applicants should seek written, job-specific details before accepting an offer. Its general information describes immigration support and temporary accommodation without specifying every employer’s salary, housing duration or relocation arrangement.
Questions to resolve include:
• What are the salary, guaranteed hours, shift expectations and benefits?
• How long does temporary housing last, and are there any charges?
• Who pays for airfare, examination costs, credential evaluation and state licensing?
• What employment commitments or termination provisions appear in the contract?
• What support is available for an accompanying spouse or children?
• What happens if immigration processing takes longer than expected?
These questions help distinguish the recruiter’s general offer from the terms of an individual employment agreement.
Could the Programme Expand Beyond Nursing?
For now, the initiative centres on registered nurses working in senior care. However, Larson has identified possible future recruitment in nursing assistance, culinary services, dietetics, social services, and physical and occupational therapy. She has also discussed expansion beyond Minnesota and beyond Kenya. These remain ambitions, rather than confirmation that all those recruitment streams are open.
“Kenya is a great start, but why just Kenya?” Larson said.
For Kenya’s diaspora community, the initiative is worth watching not only as an employment opportunity, but as a test of how international recruitment can combine professional placement with practical settlement support. Its organisers say the goal is to build a lasting workforce pathway one in which nurses are supported after arrival, not simply recruited before departure.