He said he was told before he decided to move to New Zealand by the New Zealand Nursing Council and immigration officials that if he completed an English exam he would be able to work as a registered nurse.
Mr Jose said he had spent $85,000 to move to New Zealand with the false hope of being able to work as a nurse in New Zealand.
Mr Jose has an Indian diploma in nursing and three years' experience working as a nurse.
"Before I came to New Zealand I rang the Nursing Council and they encouraged us to come here."
He said he was told he was eligible to work as a nurse under existing criteria.
The first stage of his applications had been accepted but the Nurses' Council requested he provide additional documentation about his training and documentation from the Indian nursing board.
"We feel the nurses' council doesn't have a clear idea of what was going on."
He said the Nursing Council had argued Indian nurses were a threat to public safety and had declined registration without notice.
The Nursing Council said it had registered 1003 nurses who qualified in India in the past three years.
Acting chief executive Clare Prendergast said 70 per cent of nurses who qualified in India were approved for registration in New Zealand each year and it had registered 1003 such nurses in the past three years.
"I can't respond about individual nurses but I can inform you that overseas applicants are generally declined registration on the grounds that they do not have educational equivalence with a New Zealand graduate," she said.
"This means they have been assessed as having the same standard of professional competence as any New Zealand-educated nurse," she said.
She said the Nursing Council would not have told the applicants before they left India that they were eligible.
