reflex Posted September 20, 2011 Report Share Posted September 20, 2011 Hi, are any of the older members here familiar with applications for year off research programs for Canadian citizens who are currently enrolled at a USA medical school. I am wondering of the implications of taking a year off for research (HHMI) and having to applying for OPT (which maxes out at 12 months) and if that has any bearing on my residency application. Hope that makes sense! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mashmetoo Posted September 20, 2011 Report Share Posted September 20, 2011 Hi, are any of the older members here familiar with applications for year off research programs for Canadian citizens who are currently enrolled at a USA medical school. I am wondering of the implications of taking a year off for research (HHMI) and having to applying for OPT (which maxes out at 12 months) and if that has any bearing on my residency application. Hope that makes sense! well yes because you'll have used up your OPT. Which is *usually* better spent in the first year of residency in order to get you the better visa - H1B... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reflex Posted September 20, 2011 Author Report Share Posted September 20, 2011 could you please elaborate on that? why do i need my first year of residency to get my H1B? I thought my visa would have to be all set up before i enter residency? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mashmetoo Posted September 20, 2011 Report Share Posted September 20, 2011 H1B visa: Best visa to be on as a Canadian for a US residency. Unfortunately, many US residency programs don't offer it, as it is significantly more paperwork than a J1 visa. The requirements for an H1B visa include having graduated medical school, and successful passage of USMLE Steps 1, 2 and 3. If you are a US medical school graduate, you can do your PGY-1 year on something called an OPT, which is an extension of the F-1 visa that you used to attend the US medical school. OPT stands for Optional Practical Training, which gives you an entire year to get the USMLE Step 3 completed, as well as apply for, and receive your H1B visa. The H1B visa would then go into effect at the start of your PGY-2 year. This OPT year is key, because otherwise, you would need to graduate med school in May, send in USMLE Step 3 application (requires med school graduation as a prerequisite), take and pass USMLE Step 3 and receive said results, and apply for and receive your H1B visa, all before July 1 in order to start a US internship/residency on time (pretty much impossible). If you can use the OPT year, then the H1B visa becomes a much more viable strategy. The strategy here is to contact each institution prior to applying there for residency, and see if they offer H1B visas. If not, don't apply there. Note that as the competitiveness of a specialty or its location increases, the likelihood of them offering the H1B visa decreases, since they'll fill their spots regardless of whether you interview there or not. Conversely, if you are applying for something like Internal Medicine, Family Medicine, Pediatrics, Psychiatry, etc, all of whom are relatively less competitive and often fill their vacant spots with international medical graduates, you are much more likely to ask for, and receive H1B sponsorship. Intermediate difficulty specialties will be somewhere in the middle in their stance on offering H1B visas. The H1B visa allows you to be employed in the US, allows you to moonlight during residency, and also is on the pathway to obtaining a green card, which lets you live and work permanently in the US. http://www.premed101.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20803 scroll bottom. You really don't want to do anything that might screw up your H1B.. research, no research Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.