Residency after J1 visa

[kmf_51920]

I'm a non-US IMG applying for residency next year, with the intention of pursuing fellowship and/or starting to work permanently in the US after.

I've read about Immigration information for international medical graduates.
Seems like getting a J1 visa waiver under the three circumstances (persecution by home country, spouse as US citizen, and working for Interested Governmental Agency) apply only to a small number of IMGs.
What are the other options for IMGs who finish residency on a J1 visa? Do most return home and if not, how do they get around it?


Thanks!

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[NotAProgDirector]

Conrad 30 program or work at a VA hospital. There are no published statistics that I know of but I expect that most trusting on J visas stay in the US

 

[kmf_51920]

Conrad 30 program or work at a VA hospital. There are no published statistics that I know of but I expect that most trusting on J visas stay in the US

May I ask, what is the process like in final year of residency? assuming aiming for fellowship, do most PGY3 nonUS IMG IM residents apply to fellowship and chief year and conrad 30 and VA jobs? Which ones have an earlier deadline? and am I still eligible to apply for one (i.e. fellowship) after being accepted to another (i.e. conrad 30 job)?

 

[NotAProgDirector]

The fellowship match in IM starts in July, and match day is the last wed in Nov / first Wednesday in Dec. Chief decisions are usually made before that, so that people who are doing chief years do not need to apply for fellowship -- although some chief positions are filled right after the fellowship match by those people who didn't match. Usually you'll have a good sense of whether you're going to match based upon the number of interviews you have and the field you're going into (although there are no guarantees). If you're very conservative (not in the political sense), you would finish interviewing for fellowship by end Oct and could then start the job hunt in Nov and abort if you match. Even if you start right at the start of December, you'll probably be OK. once you have a J waiver position, you'll usually want to keep it for 3 years instead of trying to match again right away -- hence the interest in a chief year sometimes to gain one more round of the fellowship match. You'd apply to both VA jobs and other J waiver eligible positions at the same time -- even if you don't need a visa, you would apply for multiple jobs together so you could pick whatever from whatever offers you get.