Can I volunteer while waiting for my green card?

[nana.p]

Hi everyone. Im on the final steps for my green card application. I've been unemployed for 9 months and it's gonna be another 6-10 months. So I'm wondering if I can volunteer (ie at a hospital) while waiting for my green card to process? I also greatly appreciate any story/experience of those who also volunteered/are volunteering while waiting for their green card
Thank you very much

[UScitizenFilingforspouse]

Hi everyone. Im on the final steps for my green card application. I've been unemployed for 9 months and it's gonna be another 6-10 months. So I'm wondering if I can volunteer (ie at a hospital) while waiting for my green card to process? I also greatly appreciate any story/experience of those who also volunteered/are volunteering while waiting for their green card
Thank you very much

The only difference between volunteering and working at a hospital is that you won't get paid. You will have to undergo the same rigorous background checks - department of health services and FBI, they're scanning fingerprints now. I am a licensed health care professional now. However, I volunteered when I was a student and there is a lot of red tape. After all, you will have access to different degrees of private health information and you will come in contact with a lot of patients.
Here's what I would do. If you speak another language fluently that is in high demand and you're able to demonstrate your language ability, you should be able to volunteer as an interpreter or patient advocate. Of course, Spanish is probably in the highest demand, then from there depending upon where you are, you're looking at mandarin/cantonese, other asian languages.
You will probably find a volunteering opportunity at a student run clinic than at a hospital.
Medical, dental, pharmacy, Nurse practitioner, physician assistant schools all have student run clinics. What this means is that in this setting, students are doctors - in plain English. There is always a clinician standing right behind the student; usually quietly making sure no one is getting killed. It's very gratifying to volunteer at those clinics because patients who go there, really have no where else to go.
At this clinic where I volunteered, no one who wanted to volunteer was ever turned away. There were two languages in high need. If volunteers knew enough to do a patient check-in and hand out forms, then that's what they did. If you're thinking of a career in health care, volunteering at a place like that can land you a stellar letter of recommendation from a clinician or peer.

Google "student run clinic" and variations of that. Look through the local school websites.

All the best

[miiki]

You can volunteer. As long as you aren?t getting paid you should be good to go.

A hospital won?t use someone as an official interpreter unless they are a certified medical interpreter. Too many legalities to let just anyone translate. Knowing another language would be helpful if volunteering at the front desk or something like that where legal medical translation isn?t needed. (Plus we pay our interpreters).

[nana.p]

You can volunteer. As long as you aren?t getting paid you should be good to go.

A hospital won?t use someone as an official interpreter unless they are a certified medical interpreter. Too many legalities to let just anyone translate. Knowing another language would be helpful if volunteering at the front desk or something like that where legal medical translation isn?t needed. (Plus we pay our interpreters).

Thank you I'll look for something like that in my city

- - - Updated - - -

The only difference between volunteering and working at a hospital is that you won't get paid. You will have to undergo the same rigorous background checks - department of health services and FBI, they're scanning fingerprints now. I am a licensed health care professional now. However, I volunteered when I was a student and there is a lot of red tape. After all, you will have access to different degrees of private health information and you will come in contact with a lot of patients.
Here's what I would do. If you speak another language fluently that is in high demand and you're able to demonstrate your language ability, you should be able to volunteer as an interpreter or patient advocate. Of course, Spanish is probably in the highest demand, then from there depending upon where you are, you're looking at mandarin/cantonese, other asian languages.
You will probably find a volunteering opportunity at a student run clinic than at a hospital.
Medical, dental, pharmacy, Nurse practitioner, physician assistant schools all have student run clinics. What this means is that in this setting, students are doctors - in plain English. There is always a clinician standing right behind the student; usually quietly making sure no one is getting killed. It's very gratifying to volunteer at those clinics because patients who go there, really have no where else to go.
At this clinic where I volunteered, no one who wanted to volunteer was ever turned away. There were two languages in high need. If volunteers knew enough to do a patient check-in and hand out forms, then that's what they did. If you're thinking of a career in health care, volunteering at a place like that can land you a stellar letter of recommendation from a clinician or peer.

Google "student run clinic" and variations of that. Look through the local school websites.

All the best

Oh I didn't know about student run clinic, I'll look into it. Thank you

[boogiewoogie]

You can volunteer. As long as you aren?t getting paid you should be good to go.

A hospital won?t use someone as an official interpreter unless they are a certified medical interpreter. Too many legalities to let just anyone translate. Knowing another language would be helpful if volunteering at the front desk or something like that where legal medical translation isn?t needed. (Plus we pay our interpreters).

its not that black and white, yes you are not allowed to get paid but there should also be no prospect of getting paid employment because you are doing this if im not mistaken.
Finally even if there is no prospect if you are doing something for free which an American Citizen could get paid for it would also not be allowed.

usually charities, no profit organizations are fine but doing a free internship at a big firm for instance wouldnt be.