Skip to main content

United States Visa Guide for USMLE, Electives and Residency

United States Visa Guide for USMLE, Electives and Residency


VISA B1/B2- When Should Be Applied & with What Perspectives:

Article by : Waqas Nawaz MD

There are three points where visa can be applied . Each point has it's own positives and negatives :

1. On the basis of Electives : 

Visa can be applied on the basis of electives. The success chance is 60-70 percent and if gets visa one can go to USA either in final year summer vacation or immediately after final year.
If visa obtained , one should not only do the electives but also do CS on same trip as Cs does not depend on Step 1and 2 . One can pass CS even before step 1 and 2.

2- On basis of USMLE Step 2 CS after taking USMLE Step 1 :
Second point where visa can be applied is after step 1 and before step 2. Success chance is 70-80 percent as they may ask you to do step 2 first and then apply for visa . ( I applied visa after step 1 and fortunately got it ) . You should get registered for CS and take a date of CS before applying visa. That date can be postponed later on once you get visa . Advantage is that you can go to USA early and while doing your rotations , you can prepare for step 2 that may save time if you are late for match . I adopted this way and prepared for step 2 while doing rotations as I was late for match . You can take step 2 ck in USA and then take cs and step 3 in same trip

3-On Basis of USMLE Step 2 CS After USMLE Step 1 and 2 :

Third point where visa can be applied is after step 1 and step 2 on basis of Cs. Success chance is 80-90 (highest) percent and this is point where most of IMGs apply visa. One should be registered for CS before visa application.
One can apply visa at any of these points depending on his circumstances . Remember if refused once, it does not mean that you can not get visa . There are examples when after getting refused even 4 times people got visa . Moreover , externships or observerships don't promise visa as much as electives . Rather observerships / externships decrease chance of visa if u apply visa solely on the basis of them instead of CS. I applied visa on basis of both Cs and externships . I was told to show cancellation of externship because they thought that I would get some pay for externship that is not legal on visit visa . After showing cancellation , I was given visa ( although I still did externships). So don't think that mentioning observership / externship will help u getting visa . Instead Cs is more helpful in getting visa as you have solid proof why u wanna go there .

Other factors which help / support in getting visit visa are : >strong bank statement
> working status in Pakistan ( another thing that makes house Job imp )
>Travel history
> married status

SUMMARY:

Chance VISE: visa at Point 3> point 1> point 2

Advantage Vise: Visa at point 1> point 2>point 3

Any questions will be appreciated !




J-1 Visa

Explained by Dr. Irfan Ahsan

 J-1 visa is a Student Exchange program. 
A) If you are getting visa through ECFMG to begin your US Residency then you are subject to following 2 clauses:
1) Rule 212E applies to you means---- you are subject to the two-year home-country physical presence requirement, also known as the foreign residence requirement under U.S. law.
2) You can't change your visa status before fulfilling this home residency physical presence requirement or completing a waive job. 

B) If you are given J-1 Research Scholar visa directly through program then it depends on source of funding that is given to you. There are 3 points to be noted in this regard.

i : If your funding is from USA government (NIH)
ii: If your funding is from your own home country government.
iii: Your country is in the Skills list subject to rule 212 E.( Pakistan is not in the skills list).

If any of these three apply to you when you get paid research spot in USA sponsored by program then you are subject to 2 year home residency physical presence requirement/Waiver job within USA (if you don't wanna go back). In this case you CANNOT CHANGE YOUR VISA STATUS FROM J-1 TO ANY OTHER VISA LIKE H1b/GREEN CARD. 

If all the above three point don't apply on you then you can change your visa status from J-1 to H1b. 

References can be found here:

http://travel.state.gov/.../residency.../eligibility.html

http://travel.state.gov/.../exchange-visitor-skills-list...

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

RESIDENCY INTERVIEW EVALUATION FORM

I have attached a sample evaluation form that is used to evaluate applicants during an interview. You can score a theoretical maximum of 120 points. Let’s discuss it in detail: 1) USMLE Scores (2 to 10 points): After you get the interview, your scores do matter but not to the same extent as interview skills! You can score 10 points provided you have great scores which correspond to >=245 on step 1 and >=253 on CK. Step 3 is not mentioned on the form and its importance varies depending on the specialty that you are applying and the program. For e.g. Psychiatry places a great weightage on step 3 while IM is not that rigid about step 3. 2) Medical Knowledge (other than USMLE scores) (0 to 10 points): When you are asked any clinical question, this is where your clinical experience will help you. A person who has strong clinical experience will nail this section vs. a person who does not have clinical experience will not be able to create an impression in this section. 3) Me...
Post a Comment
Read more

MY Step 2 CK Experience 284 Medhat Farwati

Dear (future) Doctors, I am Medhat Farwati, a Syrian graduate from Aleppo University, Faculty of Medicine. Hereby I share with you my experience with Step 2 CK. 1. Score: 284 2. Self-assessments: UWSA 1: 273 (2 months out) UWSA 2: 276 ( 1 week out) NBME 7: 277 (1 week out) NBME 8: 280 (3 days out) 3. Preparation time: After I was done with Step 1, I moved to the US as a postdoctoral research fellow. As such, I realized it is going to be challenging to navigate my research du ties, US rotations, Step 2 CS exam, and Step 2 CK preparation. Collectively, the actual preparation time for CK was 12 months with an average studying time ranging from 4 hours a day for the first 10 months to 8 hours a day for the last 2 months prior to my exam. 4. Materials used: UW Step 2 CK (x3) UW Step 3 (x2) Kaplan Q bank (x1) Internal Medicine Essentials Q bank De Virgilio (surgery textbook) Up to date and Medscape Google, YouTube, and Siri 😊 UW Step 2: Your baseline. Most people preparing for CK rega...
1 comment
Read more

Step 1-238

Hello guys, I want to share my experience as a gratitude for all the people that shared their step 1 journey before .For me all the stories posted in this group gave me strength to continue and became my guidelines in a process from I didn’t know anything about.  Started with Kaplan lecture notes except for pathology. Then I watched all Kaplan 2014 videos except for pathology. Then I did Pathoma and gave my first FA read along with DIT videos, it made it easier to digest the book. Then I solved Usmle Rx and jumped straight to Uworld , first pass timed random mode score 62 % and after that I made it second time 85%. I felt confident with the knowledge I had but not with my test taking skills because I made online nbme 15 with a score of 213 and a lot of silly mistakes so I decided to do Kaplan qbank timed random mode( score 77%). I felt is very strong in anatomy and physiology concepts. After that I started to make more nbmes and I realize that my weakness was test taking skill...
1 comment
Read more