Two Million Skilled Immigrants Can’t Use Their Degrees in the U.S. Professional Certification Is Changing That.

There is a doctor driving for a rideshare company in Houston. A civil engineer stocking shelves in a warehouse in New Jersey. A nurse working as a home health aide in Atlanta for a fraction of what she earned in her home country. These are not hypothetical people. According to the Migration Policy Institute, roughly two million college-educated immigrants and refugees in the United States are either unemployed or working in jobs that do not match their qualifications. The economic cost of that mismatch is staggering: an estimated $40 billion in forgone wages and $10 billion in unrealized tax revenue every single year.

The problem is not a lack of talent. It is a licensing system that was never designed to accommodate credentials earned outside the country—and until recently, had very little incentive to try.

The Licensing Wall

The numbers paint a clear picture. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, roughly one in four American workers holds a professional licence or certification. In healthcare, education, law, engineering, and dozens of other fields, you cannot legally practise without one. Licensed workers earn approximately 16 per cent more than unlicensed workers in the same occupation with comparable education—a gap that represents the difference between financial stability and chronic underemployment.

For immigrant workers, the barriers to obtaining those licences are structural and often invisible. Foreign degrees may not be recognised. Clinical hours completed abroad may not count. Licensing boards may require U.S. citizenship or a Social Security number that some work-authorised immigrants do not yet have. And the exams themselves—often the final gate—can be unfamiliar in format, language, and testing culture, even for candidates who possess the underlying knowledge.

The disparity shows up in federal data. BLS figures show that Hispanic and Latino workers hold professional certifications or licences at a rate of roughly 15 per cent—compared to nearly 25 per cent for white workers. That gap is not about ability. It reflects the accumulated weight of systemic barriers that make the credentialing process harder for some communities than others.

States Are Finally Moving

The landscape has shifted meaningfully in the last two years. In 2024 alone, state legislatures introduced more than 200 immigration-related bills, many specifically targeting professional licensing reform. Washington State passed a law allowing qualified immigrants to apply for occupational licences regardless of citizenship or immigration status. Virginia created provisional licences for internationally trained physicians. California has offered professional licences to anyone who completes training requirements since 2014, regardless of immigration status. Twenty states have now established an Office of New Americans to help guide immigrants through government services, including the licensing process.

Georgia—a state with a rapidly growing immigrant population—launched its Behavioural Health Provider Student Loan Repayment Programme, offering between $10,000 and $150,000 in assistance to clinicians who commit to serving Medicaid recipients. The programme exists because the state cannot fill its mental health positions without actively recruiting from every available talent pool, including internationally trained professionals.

These policy changes are meaningful. But removing a barrier to applying for a licence is not the same as removing the barrier itself. In virtually every regulated profession, the final step is the same: pass the exam.

The Exam Is Still the Gate

Whether someone is pursuing nursing licensure, an EMT certification, a teaching credential, a construction safety designation, or any of the hundreds of regulated professions in the United States, the credentialing exam is the non-negotiable endpoint. And for candidates whose training was completed in another country, in another language, or under a different testing culture, preparation is not optional—it is essential. Resources like practice test questions and answers give candidates a structured way to familiarise themselves with American exam formats, identify knowledge gaps, and build the test-taking confidence that comes from repetition and feedback.

This is not about gaming a system. It is about equity of preparation. A nurse trained in the Philippines or a safety professional educated in Colombia possesses real clinical or technical knowledge. What they may lack is familiarity with how American licensing exams are structured—the question styles, the time pressure, the specific regulatory frameworks that differ from country to country. Closing that familiarity gap is what turns a qualified professional into a licensed one.

The Economic Case Is Overwhelming

Every immigrant professional who obtains a U.S. licence represents a direct gain for the communities they serve. A licensed counselor in a mental health shortage area. A certified EMT in a rural county with no ambulance crew. A credentialed teacher in a school district that cannot fill its classrooms. The workforce shortages in healthcare, education, construction, and public safety are well documented and growing. The talent to fill those gaps already lives here. It is waiting for a system that lets it contribute.

The policy reforms are happening. The exam prep resources exist. And the economic math is unambiguous: $40 billion in lost wages is not just an immigrant problem. It is an American one. Every licence earned, every barrier removed, and every qualified professional who finally gets to work in the field they trained for makes the whole system stronger. The path forward is not complicated. It just needs to be walked.

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