to moo, a question about residency

[Guest medschoolboy]

hey moo, i have a question about residency after med school. i am contemplating whether to go to an american or canadian med school. I am a Canadian citizen but am wondering what it is going to be like to get back for residency in Canada if I go to the states for med. I know that american grads can match into the first round of carms but are they at all at a disadvantage? what if i stay a canadian citizen and want to match into the states? do i have to get an amiercan permanent resident status? how exactly does this work? i'm afraid of getting caught in the middle without being able to go to either country. sorry for all these questions but i think my decision will really come down to where my future practice will be. Thanks in advance.

[Guest moo]

I am a Canadian citizen but am wondering what it is going to be like to get back for residency in Canada if I go to the states for med. I know that american grads can match into the first round of carms but are they at all at a disadvantage?

 

See my answer in the FAQ... UBC sent me an email regarding the same question. Who really knows whether it's easier. CaRMs doesn't publish the stats of US grads (it's combined with Canadian grads) and it is unlikely to mean much since there aren't a lot of US grads matching back into Canada. I think I remember seeing that in 2003, there were 17 US grads who applied and only 8 actually went through the match (presumably the other 9 dropped out because they wanted to stay in the US). Of those 8 I don't know how many actually managed to match. However, I would imagine that if you wanted to do FP or something noncompetitive, it wouldn't be too difficult to match back into Canada, especially if you want to go to a rural area.

 

what if i stay a canadian citizen and want to match into the states? do i have to get an amiercan permanent resident status? how exactly does this work?

 

No, you don't need US PR. What you do want to get is a hospital to sponsor you for the H1b visa, which will allow you to get a green card after your residency and hence allow you to stay in the US. If you graduate from a US school, you will be allowed to extend your F-1 student visa for one year and during this year, you can do your first year of residency while you sort out the paper work for the H1b.

 

My advice is not to worry about this too much. If you graduate from the US, at the very least you WILL get into a US residency and you WILL get an H1b. It may not be in the most desirable of places or even in the specialty of your choice but you won't be stuck with no job, and a six figure debt. Unlike Canada there are roughly 22000 residency spots while only 16000 grads per year. As a USMG you will always be considered above FMGs and IMGs (and arguably, DOs) who fill the majority of these other spots even though you are a foreign citizen.

 

There are many Canadians each year who go over to Australia, Ireland, the Caribs and almost all of them end up going to the US for residency. As a USMG you will have the advantage in that 1) you can extend your F-1 visa (so you don't waste a year), and 2) PDs are more likely to rank you higher than an FMG or an IMG. Granted, I haven't gone through the match myself but I have never run across any Canadian who graduated from a US med school who had been unable to get into a residency with an H1b. In addition, if you matriculate into a US school you will soon notice that a great number of your faculty are in fact foreign citizens who studied in their home countries and who are now doctors in the US. I have an Indian friend who has 10 doctors in his family, all of whom graduated from Indian medical schools and who are successful physicians in the US. He tells me not to worry about the visa problems, as his family has never had any problems with getting licensed in the US. This is anecdotal evidence though, so take it with a grain of salt but my point remains.