bearded frog

Probably depends on the resident and situation, and why the resident is applying. I likely don't think there is a blanket rule that programs have. I can certainly imagine many scenarios where a graduating student would be chosen over a reapplying resident.

It's possible, but it will depend on the policies of the new program Generally programs are looking for residents to fill their R1 cohort and may not be able to accommodate someone starting into second year.

It happens but impossible to say how realistic it is. You can either go through second round CaRMS or national matching service, or ideally both, to achieve this.

There are not that many schools in Canada, you should really be doing your own review of each's admission requirements for such a major life thing like applying to medical school. If I as some random person on the internet gave you a list, would you just take it at face value and not actually look to see if I was right or had missed any which may have major implications for your future? Regardless, schools change their admissions requirements every year so in any case it might be different by the time you apply.

Do you have American citizenship? It sounds like you do if you say you don't see yourself practising in Canada. If so, go to undergrad in a program where you will be the most successful (ie. get the highest GPA, prepare yourself best [or give you opportunity to study on your own time] for the MCAT, and have EC opportunities). Then apply to both Canadian and USMD. Generally, a US citizen applying to USMD will have better chances than a Canadian citizen applying to Canadian schools (many Canadian citizen applicants are accepted in the us while being rejected from Canadian schools at the same time). If you plan on working in the states and have US citizenship you might as well just do the whole US track because it wouldn't make sense to just come back for residency.

I don't know about first round IMG spots but for the current second round spots there are no location restrictions, you just have to work in BC. The program description for the current second round IM spots with return of service explicitly say it's delayed if you do a fellowship.

Not a lawyer so no idea, but I imagine the contract has been drawn up by lawyers in a way that the law would not find them overly restrictive. And hence them wanting you to have your own lawyer to review so that they can say you knew what you were signing up for. I did a quick search on Canlii for "Return of service" and it looks like there is some active litigation in BC on behalf of CSAs. However there are a few cases from Ontario where the contracts were upheld, although the law and contracts are obviously different there.

If you're thinking about applying for the IM or psych spots at UBC that have ROS with them just to break it, you're probably going to have a bad time. Some of those questions are answered on the program description page (for IM at least, you can defer ROS until after fellowship, you can do it anywhere in BC) otherwise, you can see the draft contracts here (A million dollars! Wow). They specifically say that you should have a lawyer review the contract on your behalf prior to signing. Any negotiation would have to be done prior to signing, and I doubt they would since there would be someone else happy to sign the contract and take the spot without haggling (and since it's anywhere in BC they're not going to let you do it outside the province...). There is a section on exceptional circumstances but all it says is it reserves the right to make changes on a case by case basis.

Nobody will be able to answer this question for you as it will depend on the details of your financial situation and options for a professional line of credit, etc.

I did this. I made no effort to hide this as well ("I love the program but my career goals is to work in province X to be closer to family and serve the people of my home community, blah blah blah"). I had the benefit of not pursuing a Royal College fellowship, but I did end up doing a non-accredited fellowship in the city I wanted to work in to get my foot in the door. During residency I did all my electives in the target province, and you could too, staying with your partner.The complicating factor is fellowship, and if you would rather do fellowship in a specific discipline anywhere if needed and then move back when done fellowship, I probably would split my electives targeting my top programs for fellowship as opposed to doing them all in your target city to work in. During your elective at your target program and during fellowship match with that program, definitely strongly emphasize your desire to work there eventually, regardless of where your match, and your connection (your partner living there). If there was a way to do a project or research or something with someone from that program that would obviously help. That being said, if the discipline is small enough that there is only a spot or few at your target school then you might be competing with strong local residents who want to stay and have strong connections with the program, so you might be unsuccessful regardless of how hard you work, and you need to consider this possibility (another ~2 years long-distance to do your desired field vs different sub-specialty or 4y GIM to return to your partner ASAP). During my electives I had met with the department head of the place I wanted to work, talking about how I wanted to work there, and near the end of residency, I reached out to them about paths to do so, and eventually landed in my fellowship which transitioned directly into a staff role at a relatively compeditive place to work. However, as a general pediatrician, with demand as it is, I could have just shown up and there are many locums available or I could have easily joined a clinic and found work right away. If you're in a specialty that needs OR time or other specialized provincial services and can't do FFS then you might have to do something to get your foot in the door like a sub-fellowship, unless you match for fellowship at your home province. That being said, once you're in fellowship, the community gets tight knit so you probably can network at conferences or have people in your program reach out on your behalf. I also looked at the protocols and stuff in my home province when studying as opposed to my residency province in preparation for moving back.

I know people who have done it. It's a defined amount you have to pay in your contract, so you probably don't need a lawyer unless you want to argue that you shouldn't have to pay or pay less etc.

Case by case unless it's something unique to that school.

I believe Alberta has a process where you can transfer between U of A and U of Calgary separate from the national transfer process. There might be something similar within Ontario or Quebec. Otherwise all the schools have agreed that the PGME route is the only option to make it fair to both programs and people requesting transfers. Perhaps, it's not like CaRMS where everyone is an option and they rank, basically if a program has a vacancy, the process will say here are X, Y, and Z who are interested in transferring to your program, and they can take or leave the applicants. If you have a connection than it would likely help your chances. I don't know if there is any benefit to talking to the PD of your local program, if you're looking to transfer elsewhere, unless they really like you and can reach out on your behalf to other programs?

You are correct that credit is based on overlapping rotations. Perhaps with CaRMS you might get credit for required rotations by the Royal College or Family Medicine College and be able to do more electives instead. I think the situation you're describing might be unique to that specific program though, because generally CaRMS spots are specifically for first year and most programs don't have the capacity to just bump someone up to the second year, unless perhaps they were specifically looking to fill a R2 spot with CaRMS applicants who were already in that residency looking to switch locations? In any case I must assume that the situations you know personally would be switching within the same specialty, as I have seen first hand that generally you can't get more than 6 months of credit leaving or going to FM. Very much agree with this, however switching internally (RC program --> FM at the same institution) is by far the most common transfer that occurs.

It's theoretically possible, but uncommon. The options are for direct transfer to a different specialty at the same institution (most likely), applying for an available second round spot in CaRMS, or going through your PGME office with the national transfer program (least likely).