Rules surrounding receiving an honorary in residency/fellowship

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geniusindisguise

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Hoping to get advice on this matter from anyone with experience. As implausible as it sounds, if a resident or fellow was invited to give an academic talk, discussion, etc. for an entity separate from the said resident/fellow's training program and was offered a monetary honorary, does the resident/fellow need to obtain permission and/or report this activity to the program? Does the answer to this question change if the resident/fellow is on a J1 visa? It seems a J1 can receive an honorary for academic activities based on my review on the web. Thank you in advance!

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The answer to your question is going to be very institution specific. First, ignoring the visa issue: In general, there's nothing that prevents a resident from getting an honorarium from their institution, or another. Presumably getting this honorarium requires your presence / time at another institution, and your home institution needs to approve that. Rarely, an institution could try to claim that, if you're presenting work you did there, that they own the IP of your work and hence they get to claim the honorarium. The amount is usually small enough that it's no worth anyone's time/energy to do so.

The J visa issue is more complicated. What's clear is that you can't just get paid by someone else if you're on a J visa -- you need approval from your sponsor. And your J-1 sponsor for a GME position is NOT your home institution -- it's the ECFMG. Whether they will be willing to do the paperwork to approve this is unclear.

So, best plan is to discuss with your program. If they are in support (which hopefully they would be), they can help you petition the ECFMG. Whatever you do, don't try to collect it without ECFMG approval -- if they hear back that you did so, you'd be in violation of your visa stipulations and could have your visa revoked. If you can't get ECFMG approval, you can still do this but would need to decline the payment.
 
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Thank you for the advice. Will discuss with my program to clarify these issues.
 
One idea to think about...
Do NOT take an honorarium. Instead have the sponsoring institution pay for your expenses during that time that you are there, with the understanding that you travel, dine and lodge in a first lass manor.
 
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One idea to think about...
Do NOT take an honorarium. Instead have the sponsoring institution pay for your expenses during that time that you are there, with the understanding that you travel, dine and lodge in a first lass manor.
Thanks you, that's a good idea. Unfortunately, the speaking engagement doesn't involve travel, so if there is an issue with my accepting the honorary due to the visa status, I will have to decline the payment.
 
Thanks you, that's a good idea. Unfortunately, the speaking engagement doesn't involve travel, so if there is an issue with my accepting the honorary due to the visa status, I will have to decline the payment.
You can always ask them to award it to your residency/fellowship and ask the PD to use it in a way that will benefit everyone
 
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