Transferring Provinces For Residency

[DisplayName1]

I'm currently a PGY1 and I'm planning to request a provincial within my speciality. The rationale for this decision was unexpected, and primarily involves wanting to be closer to family members facing health challenges.

Initially, my plan was to reach out to the PGME individual in my current province responsible for transfers. I intended to wait their guidance in facilitating confidential communication regarding my transfer between myself and the province's PD which I want to transfer to. However, I recently received advice to proactively contact the Program Director (PD) of my desired program to establish rapport. While this approach could potentially be beneficial, I am worried about the information reaching the PD of my current program.

I am curious to hear your thoughts and experiences on this matter. Have any of you navigated a similar situation? How did you approach the transfer process while ensuring confidentiality? Your insights and advice would be immensely valuable as I navigate this important decision.

[bearded frog]

Honestly, talk to your PD about your concerns. Your PD wants their residents to be happy, and you will be a lot better off if you have your support. They will have to write you a LOR at some point in the process if things move ahead regardless. You are welcome to cold call the PD of your target program, but unless you have some connection they will likely ask you to work though the PGME process. However, if you have any connections to people at your target program you could reach out through them for an introduction, or you could talk to mentors in your current program (including your PD if they're on board) about reaching out on your behalf. I just want to warn you that depending on your specialty and which province you're interested in you may have a strongly uphill battle, as transfers in general are relatively rare, and interprovincal transfers are least common and most difficult.

[ChemPetE]

Our very small program has had 4 successful transfers to us in the past dozen years or so. One of those was externally funded and brought funds with them. At least one failed attempt, most recently, due to lack of funding/funding denial from our pgme office, though we did try to support their application locally as best as possible. It is possible, but is a lot of hard work, and probably harder in the current era than it has been in the past.