Visas

If you’re an international student completing clinical rotations or planning to apply for residency in the U.S., it’s important to understand the different visa types used by medical trainees. Each one has its own rules, benefits, and limits.

• B1 (Business Visa): This is mainly for clinical rotations. This is the visa type that you will use when you officially start your clinical rotations. The border official may allot you between 6 months to 1 year on this visa type. 

• B2 (Visitor Visa): This is mainly for short visits such as observerships, interviews, writing the Step exams or conferences. It doesn’t allow hands-on patient care or paid clinical work.

• J-1 (Exchange Visitor Visa): The most common visa for residency training, sponsored by the ECFMG. It allows you to train and be paid as a resident but usually includes a two-year home return requirement after your program (some graduates can apply for a waiver).

• H-1B (Temporary Worker Visa): This visa is for graduates who have passed all USMLE Steps and are ECFMG-certified. It allows direct employment in the U.S. and is typically offered by programs willing to sponsor international physicians long-term.

At Ross University School of Medicine (RUSM), most international students complete their clinical rotations in the U.S. under an B1 visa. When moving into residency, graduates usually transition to a J-1 visa (through ECFMG) or, in some cases, an H-1B visa if the residency program sponsors it.

For more information, please take a look at the IMG Visas explained PowerPoint and YouTube video recording.

Here are some key things to consider when searching for Residency Programs as a NON-US Rossie:

• Always filter whatever program database by J-1 and/or H1B acceptance 

  • Based on those responses, you can look into the programs that actually have non-US IMGs in their programs

• Always go through their current resident list, some programs will say that they accept non-US IMGs but their entire resident list is full of US MD or US DO students

  • I tend to categorize these programs like this

    • Which programs took Rossies or AUC or SGU students 

    • Which programs took medical graduates from foreign countries

      • Note though, some programs have ties with specific international medical schools (like in Beirut) so they would have foreign students but check to see if they have other foreign graduates

  • For the programs that have no US IMGs or non-US IMGs, the only way for you to be considered for those programs is through connections

    • Do you have personal connections with the faculty, including the APD or PD

    • Did you talk with a PD or APD at a conference and they enjoyed talking to you

    • Do you have roots in that specific region that makes you more palatable compared to other US MD graduates that do not have those roots?

• If a program says, "We do not sponsor visas," and they do not qualify it with "We accept J-1 visas," [Red Flag]

  • That program is not familiar with the visa process that non-US IMGs undergo

  • Programs are not sponsoring us unless they are handling the H-1B visa (and it is very unlikely, especially now with this current administration, that any non-US IMG will have this visa)

  • We will be on the J-1 visa that is sponsored by ECFMG

  • If they stated that they dont sponsor visas but they have other residency programs that are IMG friendly, then you might need to investigate some more by emailing the program directly to qualify that statement.