US Residencies for Canadian Citizens

[Guest zipzappy]

Being a Canadian Citizen (not a US permanent resident/ citizen), if I finish my MD in the US, I understand that I will have to find a school that will sponsor me with a H1 visa in order to continue residency in the US. Is there anywhere I can find a list of US schools/ programs that will provide me with a H1?

 

Thanks,

 

Zp

[Guest moo]

No, such a list does not exist. That's because there are way too many hospitals in the US.

[Guest Madz25]

Can't you continue residency with a J1 as well?

[Guest moo]

Yes you can but you must return to Canada for two years afterwards. (Then you can come back down.) There are many ways around this including working in an underserved area for x number of years or working at a VA or going back to Canada to do a fellowship and then coming down afterward (I know several attendings at my school who are Canadian who did this.)

[Guest zipzappy]

Thanks for your replies. But I still am pretty confused with the H1, J1, T1 -what they mean and what I need. What's the best way to learn about these different visas? Is there an existing site that you know will explain each explicitely?

 

Thanks,

 

Zp

[Guest pyhw]

To my knowledge, there really isn't a good summary of the visa options available to Canadians for U.S. residencies.

 

As you spoke about in your last post, there are three possible visas that are available to doctors, and I'll briefly describe them here.

 

As a principle, medicine is a pretty closed profession anywhere you go in the world. Doctors in each country are generally tightly protective of their market, i.e. their patients and citizens.

 

(1) TN-1, NAFTA professional

 

This visa is only available for doctors who work in the U.S. as researchers, and cannot do clinical work unless it is absolutely incidental to the research. Generally you would not want nor qualify for this type of visa as a resident.

 

(2) J-1

 

This visa requires that you return to your home country for two years after you complete your residency. The only exception is if you are willing to work in an underserved area in the U.S., a VA hospital (probably in not the most desirable location), or generally the locations or specialties in which U.S. doctors don't want to work. So you get the short end of the stick as far as jobs go.

 

(3) H-1B

 

This visa has basically no restrictions in terms of where you work afterwards. However, very few residency programs are willing to sponsors H-1B visas. Also, to qualify for this visa, you must pass all 3 steps of the USMLE, and in some states, you must have graduated medical school before you are considered eligible to take Step 3.

[Guest theglassman2k6]

So, as a Canadian citizen your options are limited for residency in the states after completing an MD in the states?

 

How hard is it to get dual citizenship?

[Guest WhiteTiger]

I know many residencies will not sponsor the H1B visa but do program directors discriminate against people on the J1 visa? As in, is it harder for someone to match in a program if he's under a J1 than an US resident?

[Guest zipzappy]

Thanks for your comments!

 

Reading the above post on the visas, the situation sounds so grim for a non-US permanent resident/ citizen. It seems like if I'm a Canadian citizen with a US MD, wanting to practise and lead a decent life in the US, it's going to be quite a task from a visa standpoint. Is this so? Is it really a long haul?

 

Zp