Question for Canadians in Europe/Aussie

[Jspev]

Hi everyone,

I'm not in this situation, but had a question for those of you who are in med school in Ireland or Australia. It seems like a lot of you are planning on doing a US residency and I was wondering what type of visa most people get for that. If it is the J1 which requires one to return to their country of citizenship, how does this work for if you attended med school outside of N. America (i.e are you allowed to practice in Canada after the US residency?) Thanks...

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[Choda]

In a nutshell... (please correct me if i'm wrong on any of this info)

The J-1 visa is issued to people who's country is in "need" of specialists/doctors in a certain field/area and must provide a statement to the fact. The visa can be extended through 6 years I believe. After completion of your residency, you must return to your home country for at least two years before you're allowed back stateside. Most programs offer J-1 sponsorship.
You are allowed to practice in canada afterwards depending on which province wrote your statement of need, mostly this would be for gp's in sask, manitoba, territories...

the H1-B allows you to apply for permanent residency (green card) status after your hospital training. This one is very difficult to get because not many programs want to go through the trouble. most likely hospitals in underserviced areas might offer to sponsor your for this visa. The thing is, you cannot apply for this visa until you have written (and passed) the USMLE step III, which can only be written after you graduate from medical school. Thus, you pretty much have to take a year off to write the exam and hopefully match into a program that will support you for an H1-B.

check www.valuemd.com forums for more on this. there's a canadian forum there too with someone from health canada who posts there.

 

[shamrok78]

I have heard that it is very difficult to get the neccessary letter from Canada for the J-1 visa. It seems like of all the IMG's, Canadians have it hardest to get into the States, because Canada is very reluctant to give people the letter. Can anyone verify this? If you get a letter from a particular province, then do you have to go back to that specific province?
I am a Canadian (4th med) studying in Dublin. All the Canadians from this years graduating class got residencies back home, but they were all in Family Medicine. A few are staying in Ireland to do their internship (and earn way more their first year, than you would back home) and write stp.3...
I'm taking step one this summer, and plan to specialize in the states, but am slightly worried about all this visa stuff

 

[ralan]

" All the Canadians from this years graduating class got residencies back home, but they were all in Family Medicine"

hey shamrok78, i was just curious to know how many Canadians got residencies? and where did they get them within Canada? I'm asking because i recently got accepted to study medicine in Australia, i'm also a Canadian and i want to know how to get back after school, i've read quite a bit about it and the consensus is that its very difficult, could you comment on your or your colleagues experiences with this?? thanks shamrok78

 

[shamrok78]

Hey Ralan,

It's true, everyone who wanted to do Family Meds and who applied, got in. I'd say there were about 4 or 5 Canadians who went back. As far as i know there were a couple in Winnipeg, one guy got accepted to several different programs and settled on New Bruswick (all on east coast), another girl got Dal, and I have just heard that one guy got obs/gyne in either saskatchewan or Manitoba. Our school has very good connections with MUN, and in the past garduates have gone their for a variety of specialties, but I don't think anyone is going to NFLD this year. I don't think it is impossible to get back inot Canada, especially as the doctor shortage worsens. Really depends on what you want to specialize in I guess...

 

[coastal]

"I have just heard that one guy got obs/gyne in either saskatchewan or Manitoba"

I read today that Saskachewan's OB/GYN program has either lost, or is in the process of losing, its accreditation because it is not up to snuff. This would explain why a spot was still available in the second round of carms. A couple of months ago I thought I would have to go the international or american route to become and md. From what I read then, and have seen in statistics more recently, the only way to come back for residency is to go the FP route. If you want something else, you're better off gunning for the states.