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PROFESSIONAL ISSUESCongress renews visa waiver program for IMGsA program that helps staff medically underserved communities with international medical graduates has been extended.By Myrle Croasdale, AMNews staff. Nov. 1, 2004. The U.S. House and Senate have approved bills that will extend by two years a program used to attract physicians to medically underserved rural and urban areas. The J-1 visa waiver program exempts international medical graduates who have completed medical residencies in the United States from having to leave the country for two years once they have completed their studies, as required by their student visas. Instead, these physicians are allowed to apply for a work visa in exchange for committing to practice in a medically underserved area for at least three years. The bill also exempts sponsoring organizations and their applicants from a cap on H-1B work visas, which were used by the vast majority of IMGs seeking to work in the United States. The Appalachian Regional Commission, the Delta Regional Authority, the Dept. of Health and Human Services and the Veterans Health Administration all have been subject to the H-1B visa cap that limited the number of visas to 65,000. All those visas were snatched up on the first day of the fiscal year in October, preventing these programs from sponsoring physicians for the next 11 months. The Senate version of the bill also allows for all sponsors to support either primary care physicians or specialists. In the past, only the state-run Conrad 30 programs were permitted to place both. [...]Full text of AMNews content is available to AMA members and paid subscribers.
Copyright 2004 American Medical Association. All rights reserved.
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