another damn H1B question...

[brendang]

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hey all,

i'm going to be applying to psych this september from a caribbean school (saba) and would like to know which places among the "top 20-30" programs would offer the all-so-elusive H1B visa [yeah, i'm canadian 🙁]... i've tried emailing many of these programs but i'm guessing that they are all tied up with residency apps, they don't have the time to get back to me yet... do any of you have a concise list of these places?

cheers,
grandmasta -b.

 

[whopper]

I've seen plenty of foreign graduates in good Psychiatry residency programs. They seem to not really care what school you went to so long as you got solid reccomendations, and show a sincere interest in Psychiatry.

I hate saying this but at an interview at a specific program, I interviewed the same day with a foreign doctor from India who had a heavy accent. Our interviewers asked us very different questions (We had the same ones). He got questions like..."do you have any problems understanding English" I was getting questions such as "so why did you pick Psychiatry?" and getting some very good smiles from my interviewers.

None of the Americans I knew who went to foriegn schools got questions that the Indian doctor received. I felt sympathetic towards this guy because he seemed geniuinely nice, but I could tell they were considering his grasp of the language against him.

I can't answer your question, but I can tell you that many of the psychiatry programs I've seen did not prejudice themselves against foreign grads so long as they spoke very good English. Most of them offered visas and I'm talking the very good programs, not the ones begging to fill their spots.

 

[Thewonderer]

I can only tell you who do NOT offer H1B: Stanford, UCSF, UCLA, Northwester, BU, Duke, UNC, and Tufts. Some that might include U of Washington, NYU, Mt. Sinai, etc.

A lot of it has nothing to do with whether they are willing to give you H1B or not. It has to do with, "can you get your visa in time?"

If you graduate from a Carribean school, you are not eligible to take Step III of USMLE at the earliest right after you get your MD, which could be May (or if you go to Ross, maybe Dec.). And after you get your MD and pass step III right away and then find a program that is willing to sponsor you for H1B, it takes 7-8 months for the dept of labor to process your visa. so you will not make it in time for the start of your residency in mid-june or end of june. alternatively, you can pay extra $1000 (?) to expedite the processing of your H1B and cut that time down to 1 month (?). Similarly, even if you graduate in Dec, you do not match until mid-March. Then getting H1B before the start of your internship is a rush too, even with extra $1000 payment. One more thing to possibly consider is to sign outside the match AND graduate by Dec or previous previous May (i.e. 13 months ahead) AND write and pass step III right away after your graduation. As an independent applicant, I believe that you are allowed to sign outside the match and do that early! Otherwise, if you go through with the match, mid-March is too late. But that's assuming that all three factors listed above work for you.

On the other hand, any academic institutions can issue you J1 and they don't have to go through dept of labor. It saves them so much time and energy. therefore most programs like to offer you J1 and tell you to take it or leave it.