Canadian undergrad -> American residency

[Caide]

Would it be better to go to a Canadian or US med school if I was planning on doing my residency in the US (with an intent to stay)? Canadian med school tuition is a lot cheaper so that's definitely an incentive to stay at home, but I'm not sure of the process if I wanted to match to a US residency. Would it be difficult to become a US citizen (I've lived in Canada all my life, no family in the US)? Lastly, regarding licencing exams, when/how would I take USMLE step 1/2 at a Canadian school? Would I also be required to take MCCQE?

[mystery_chick]

Would it be better to go to a Canadian or US med school if I was planning on doing my residency in the US (with an intent to stay)? Canadian med school tuition is a lot cheaper so that's definitely an incentive to stay at home, but I'm not sure of the process if I wanted to match to a US residency. Would it be difficult to become a US citizen (I've lived in Canada all my life, no family in the US)? Lastly, regarding licencing exams, when/how would I take USMLE step 1/2 at a Canadian school? Would I also be required to take MCCQE?

 

ok, obviously it would be better to go to a competitive US med school. At a Canadian school, you would register, study and take the USMLE on your own time (Step 1 after 2nd year, Step 2 right after 4th year). Whether if you'll match though will depend on your own abilities (mostly the USMLE score) and how friendly the schools you plan on applying to are to Canadians. Ideally you will get a H1B visa and the visa will give you enough time to be eligible to get a greencard and PR status, and then you gotta wait some more before you'd be eligible to be a US citizen. As for the MCCQE... I don't think you have to take it, but if you don't take it, you won't be recognized as an MD in Canada and since most of the content of the MCCQE is the same as the USMLE (except for the policy/law stuff) you're not doing that much more work to prep for both.

 

(if anyone else knows better, correct me if i'm wrong)

[sobes74]

And by time to wait to become a US citizen, mystery_chick means years, ie. upwards of a decade. You can get a green card and such before that, of course, but citizenship takes a long time. Also, I would absolutely still write both licensing exams. Again, same sort of prep so why not, and you always have the option to a) choose Canada should you match better or come back to Canada. You seem fairly certain about going to the US but you never know what opportunities might arise in life.

[mystery_chick]

a) choose Canada should you match better

 

If you match through the NRMP, you're automatically taken off of CaRMs, and vise versa (depending on which one runs first during the year you're matching). just a fun fact.

[Caide]

If you match through the NRMP, you're automatically taken off of CaRMs, and vise versa (depending on which one runs first during the year you're matching). just a fun fact.

 

So when it comes time, I have to choose between applying to all Canadian residencies or all American?

[mystery_chick]

So when it comes time, I have to choose between applying to all Canadian residencies or all American?

 

You can actually apply to both, however depending on which match happens first for that year, you will be forced to accept if you match in the first round. So for example, this coming year, the Canadian matches are happening first (last year NRMP ran first), so even if you did apply to both countries, if you match in the CaRMs R-1 match, you will automatically be withdrawn from the NRMP match. The same is true vise versa. However, you can take the chance of only applying to American programs through the NRMP and this would then become a non-issue.