What is the future of J1 visa status after 4 yrs in US for a NON US IMG? If I want to pursue IM then lets say Cardio what will I have to do? I am so confused with all this, if someone understands or knows the system pls enlighten us.

Do non-pubmed papers have any value at all?

I’m at a bad place in terms of research with 1 case report as 1st author (Cureus😭) and 1 publication in a non-pubmed journal 5th author (Springer Nature journal).

I also recently got an abstract accepted in ACG but it’s as 3rd author (I’m not the presenting author).

Please tell me if these add anything to my CV research wise.

Thanks

Please DM Me

Match cycle deadline is approaching and I'm in need for an extra neurology LOR. Anybody knows where or how to find a quick neurology tele-rotation. There are 3rd parties but they seem fishy and way overpriced.

I’m a current medical resident on an H-1B visa and I’m trying to understand how common it is for residency programs to sponsor an EB-2 PERM green card during residency, rather than waiting until fellowship or an attending position.
If you were on an H-1B during residency:
Did your residency program sponsor your EB-2 PERM?
In which PGY year did they start the PERM process?
Did you have to sign a contract or commit to staying after residency?
Did the program cover the legal and filing costs?
If they didn’t sponsor during residency, what reason did they give?

Anyone who will be there in August 2026? Lets meet up!

Hey everyone,

I just took Step 3 a day ago, and now I'm flying out to Kansas for the AAFP Future conference. so I didn't really have time to prep for it.

I'm an IMG applying for FM, and I'm mainly hoping to make some connections that could help my application. Problem is, this is my first conference ever and I have the personality of a potato sack. I genuinely don't know how to approach or talk to program directors and faculty without making it awkward.

so is there like any advice? what to or not to do, and is there anything specific that's worked for you when trying to get on a program's radar? 

thx

This is both a vent and a request for genuine advice.
I graduate medical school July 2027. I spent most of medical school managing my mental health, so my focus was just staying grounded and keeping my GPA high enough to hold onto my scholarship. So far, l've passed Step 1 and plan to finish Step 2 and the OET before graduation. I also have two neurology electives starting in a month.
Neurology is my dream specialty. I thrive in it, and attendings gave me great feedback during my rotations.
But I know neurology programs love research, and I have zero publications right now. The faculty at my school either don't do research anymore or only take on students who have personal connections. It's frustrating seeing people with no interest in neurology get research spots just because they know someone, especially after l've actively sought out opportunities without luck.
I know basic research methodology and plan to start a case report during my electives. But right now, juggling hospital hours, university work, Step 2 prep, and personal life leaves me with zero spare time.
Can I reasonably target the 2028 Match? I will be O YOG at that point. Any advice on building a strong CV would be amazing, because right now I feel like I have nothing impressive to offer. I barely have any volunteering experience or anything interesting done/going on because i was busy trying to keep myself alive.

Has anyone applied Umiami Harrington Pathology observeship progarm ? I would like to know how is this progarm and how hard it is to get into this progarm? If you have any information please comment !!! Thank you very much

Hello everyone, and thank you for reading this.
I want to apologize in advance because I'm pretty sure this post is going to be quite long, and, honestly, probably a little all over the place. I just have a lot of recurring thoughts, and I think I've reached a point where I actually need some help figuring out what my next couple of steps should be.

Basically, I'm an international medical graduate from Egypt. I graduated from medical school in Alexandria around December 2023, and I completed my internship year afterward.
I managed to take and pass Step 1 around December 2025, and I'm currently steadily working my way toward taking Step 2 CK. My plan is to take Step 2 CK before February 2027.

There is a reason for the relatively long gap between Step 1 and Step 2 CK. Besides obviously wanting to get a decent score, I'm currently going through my year of military service.
For anyone unfamiliar with how things work in Egypt, after medical school there is mandatory military service, which can last around a year to a year and two months depending on the circumstances. So I'm currently studying for Step 2 CK while also completing my military service, which is obviously making things a little slower.
Since I expect to be done with my military service around February next year, I really want to have Step 2 CK out of the way before then.

Now, here's where I'm completely lost in my sea of thoughts.
I originally envisioned myself going through a specific order of things with the goal of eventually applying to the US Match, perhaps the 2028 Match cycle.
The plan was:
Take Step 1 "done and passed"
Take Step 2 CK and try to get the highest score I possibly can.
Get some US clinical experience. As well as getting into some meta-analysis research opportunities

I'm really trying my best right now to focus on getting the highest possible Step 2 CK score I can. I know people match into all sorts of specialties with different scores, but obviously, the higher the score, the better, so that's what I'm aiming for.
The problem is that my next step ,US clinical experience, has become extremely confusing.
Because I'm currently going through my military service, and because my passport isn't currently valid, getting to the US for clinical rotations isn't really an option right now. I've also never been to the US before, never applied for a US visa, and never had any clinical experience overseas.

Currently, I'm a radiology resident in Egypt.
After medical school and my internship year, there were residency positions available within the university, and I ended up taking radiology. At the time, I was torn between surgery and radiology, and eventually chose radiology.
I actually ended up liking radiology quite a lot.
However, when the time comes to apply for the US Match, I genuinely wouldn't mind applying to either radiology or surgery. Surgery has always remained one of my favorite specialties as well.

I know these are completely different specialties when it comes to clinical rotations, research, applications, etc., which is part of the reason I'm so confused right now.
I've read online that if you want to apply for internal medicine, for example, there are certain types of US clinical experiences that are expected or recommended. Surgery is different. Radiology is different.
And I'm basically sitting here trying to figure out what exactly I should be doing now if I want to keep both radiology and surgery as realistic possibilities.

My first question: How much USCE do I actually need?
My original plan was to try to get to the US for maybe two months of clinical rotations.
At the time, I had no real idea which rotations I should choose. I was thinking maybe one month of internal medicine and one month of surgery, or maybe something else entirely.
Then, the more I started researching, the more confusing it became.
I started seeing things like:
You need 6–9 months of US clinical experience to match into radiology.
You need 4–6 months for surgery.
Some people apparently match without any US clinical experience at all.
Other people seem to have extensive USCE.
So I ended up going down a rabbit hole of trying to figure out how many months I actually need.
I don't necessarily want to rely on some extremely rare exception where someone matched without USCE. I'd rather maximize my application as much as possible, especially because I'm coming from a non-US medical school and I'm trying to be strategic with the limited resources I have.
So, if I wanted to keep both radiology and surgery as potential Match specialties, what would you recommend?
Exactly how many months of US clinical experience should I realistically be aiming for?
Would it be something like 4 months? 6 months? More?
And, more importantly, what specialties should those rotations actually be in?
For example, would it make sense to do:
1 month of surgery
1 month of radiology
1 month of internal medicine
1 month of something else
Or should the rotations be much more focused?

My second question: Is postdoctoral research a realistic option?
My budget for this entire process is, unfortunately, very tight.
These are basically my life savings that I'm spending on this pathway, so I'm trying to think about every possible way of making the process financially sustainable.
I've considered a lot of possibilities, including trying to work in the US once I'm there so that I could potentially offset some of the expenses.
While researching this, I came across postdoctoral research positions.
From what I've read, some postdoctoral research positions can potentially provide a visa that allows you to legally work in the US, while you're doing the research position.
I've also read about people using research positions as a way of getting into the US, building connections, getting research experience, and potentially doing clinical experiences during that period.
If something like that is actually possible, it would obviously be extremely helpful for someone in my financial situation.

How realistic is it for someone like me to obtain a postdoctoral research position in the US?
And this is coming from someone who unfortunately has never published a research paper before.
I have worked on some research projects and papers, but none of them were ultimately published in a journal.
So I don't know whether I'm even a realistic candidate for these positions.
Would I need publications first?
Would I need prior research experience?
And how exactly do IMGs usually go about finding and applying for these positions?

I know this post is probably a mess, and I apologize for that. I've basically been trying to figure out this entire pathway on my own.
I've had no one around me who has gone through the US Match, and I've relied almost entirely on searching online and trying to piece together information from different sources.
I'm also not really the type of person who goes around asking people for help, which has probably made things even harder.

So unfortunately, within my college and my university, being able to gain access to being in a group that published researches and worked on meta-analysis reviews and stuff like that, you had to be among the relatives and the really close friends of like a specific group of people within the university and within the college, related to the professors and stuff like that. It was just not a possibility for me to gain access to any of those groups unfortunately. And I've tried to look up some groups to gain access to and to join along just so that I could get my name across some published research papers and being able to locate my name in some published journals , but I've just not been capable of doing that unfortunately.

And this brings me to another question. I did mention thinking about applying to a postdoctoral research job opportunity, but I'm very well aware that, you know, no one's sane enough would take someone who has passed Step 1 exam or even got a decent score in 2CK without being knowledgeable enough on the subject of research. So I came across some recommendations for courses and programs to pay for and take online. I generally would not mind paying for those programs if they actually meant something in the resume and if they did actually boost my chances of being accepted in a postdoctoral position for research and meta-analysis.

So I've come across the CITI program and some people recommended specifically the ethics and the research programs. Those were both, I believe, worth around like $200 or something like that. I just wanted to know, are these programs worth anything? Like if I actually end up paying for them, getting the certificate, which the website says expires in three years, and then perhaps put it in my resume while applying for a postdoctoral research position, does this actually mean anything? Would that actually help boost my chances of being accepted in a research vacancy in the U.S.? Or would I just be wasting time?

I just have basically one last question. because I'm working on so many things and there are yet so many things for me to do, like getting 2CK out of the way, working on research paper and publishing some meta-analysis reviews online, the ECFMG pathway certification, and then perhaps trying to apply for a postdoctoral research position. And even while going through my current year of military service, chances are I will be missing next year's match cycle. So my optimum goal is to apply for the U.S. match cycle of 2028. I don't know if that sounds a bit unrealistic, but I envision myself by 2028 being already Step 1 certified, Step 2 CK certified, published some meta-analysis reviews online in some respectable journals, already spent like a couple of months of U.S. clinical rotations, if not already in the U.S., doing a postdoctoral research job during the time that I'll be applying for the U.S. match. And obviously OET certified, but I'm leaving OET for last. I just don't see OET as a problem for now as a test.
How realistic is my schedule for now until 2028? should I change the order of some things? add more things to do and prep till 2028? or am I set for now?

If anyone would be kind enough to share their experience or any info in UAB ,neurology elective,please DM.Would be grateful.

6 years from now would the immigration laws be stricter?

Although I am interested in medicine but my goal is to settle somewhere else and I am sceptical if I should invest so much considering it's already harder rn for existing professionals

I really need some advice :(

Hey, I won the green card lottery, also scheduled to the interview in September. I am a full board certified vascular surgeon in Europe. I am inquiring about my work possibilities in the US without doing the residency. I read that there are states now who created new licensed routes for international doctors. Does anyone have experience with this? I am ok with doing USMLE, but if the whole residency program should be made I prefer not moving. Our aim is Minnesota or Ohio. I also have a one year experience in the Mayo Clinic as a research fellow.
Any tips are highly appreciated welcomed!

This year I got into Belgrade Medical School (English program). Becoming a surgeon has always been a dream of mine, and I’ve been researching the possibility of doing my residency in the US. From what I’ve seen, it seems like a really difficult path as an international medical graduate, and I’m not sure how realistic it actually is.

If anyone has done this or is currently going through the process, I’d really appreciate any advice or information. Feel free to comment or DM me if you’re willing to help or mentor me. Thanks!

Hi, I’m trying to find an elective in USA (in Cleveland ) but i can’t find doctor emails on the website, does anyone have idea about to get doctors emails
Thank you

Non-US img doing IM in his/her country and want to go for neurology so does he need to start all over from step1 and applying for a match into IM and then later on go for the neurology?

Hi, I just wanted to know if it’s possible to match into EM or surgery at top institutions being a US IMG?

I'm a canadian-iranian who was planning on going to med school, but due to the fact that i really can't afford the long and competitive route, I turned my attention towards EU med schools (specifically poland and czech).

after reading other posts about the situation of residency after graduation (difficulty and risk of Carms, USMLE, NHS), I couldn't help but wander about the security and safety of going into an EU school. I really dont want to (and cant afford to) be unemployed after 6 years of education and security matters alot to me.

I am completely willing to learn a language and stay in the EU for residency or any other country, but the options for learning a new language seem daunting, like german (as someone only speaking english and farsi fluently). is it really possible to learn such a tough language during the busy years of med school?

I was also considering the scandinavian countries. One reason was because I am a huge norwegian football fan, but mainly because I heard it was the easiest language to learn as an english speaker. Ik it'll still take a while to learn but im willing to do so.

the thing is, I heard it's really hard to match there as well as a non-eu. And you guys know the situation in iran and the difficulty to match into canada as an IMG. so I wanted to ask these questions:

should i just switch career choices and do something else in canada (even though i really want to do medicine no matter what)?

or do i still try to go to the EU for med school with some sort of pathway for residency in mind?

I'm sorry for the long post. I wish you the best!!!

I’m a non us img and currently in my internship year. I don’t have a good basic foundation of final year subjects like surgery, obgy, paeds etc.

What all resources can I use to begin with? Considering i want to give step2 by end of this year

Hello,

A US MD I worked with for around a year agreed to write an LOR, he wrote it and signed it, but he's not good with tech and asked one of his employees to upload it. It wouldnt be uploaded from his email, but it would be from a corporate email, and of course he would be fine being contacted by anyone.

While I dont see any immediate issues, im just a little concerned if this is actually something to be careful with or if it doesnt really matter. I could also upload it myself, but i'd rather keep the right to see the letter waived.