Medical Green card marriage logistics and timeline

[Raryn]

Hello I am an IMG at one of the better overseas med schools but Canadian. My partner is also Canadian at a nearby school but they were born in US ie. green card and passport. I graduate 2024 partner graduates 2023. I am confused if we would need to get married before graduating to transfer the green card to me so I have a better chance to match to a residency that they match to in 2023.

We'd rather not have to get married before matching but if that will help my chances of matching to the same area it would be worth it. How long does it take from the marriage to getting the green card to show to the residency if neither of us live in the US at the moment? Can you show the residency that you applied and it acts as something showing you won't need a J1?

And if I end up having to match with a J1 can we get a marriage green card after so I wouldn't need to leave the US?

Also is it really hard to end up in the same place if no couples match? partner wants Emerg or FM most likely and then I would try and follow them with internal med residency. I don't see the benefit to that specialty to take a gap year just to couples match but if they did what kind of stuff could they do to bolster their application?

So this is a bit complicated and I am not a lawyer, but have friends who have gone through parts of this process:

1) When you fill out your residency application, there are *two* questions. The first asks "Will you need visa sponsorship through ECFMG (J-1) or the teaching hospital (H-1B) to complete the entirety of your GME training?", and the second basically asks you to explain a yes or no answer. There's no space for "well, I need a visa to start residency but I plan on getting married later and changing status." - you either check the box that you will need a visa or not.

2) If you do need a visa, you can start on a J1 (sponsored by the ECFMG) and transition later to permanent residency, though it gets a bit complicated. It's *not* automatic that your j1 "return to your country" requirement is waived after marrying a US citizen. You need to fill out a series of forms to adjust your status from J1 to marriage-based immigrant - this takes a year and a half or longer.

3) On the other hand, if you get married *before* you start on a J1, you can get an EAD (work authorization) in 3-6 months. It used to be just a couple months, but has gotten longer over the years. You do *not* need a green card to start residency (that takes up to a few years) - just the EAD.

Honestly, some programs filter based on that "will you need a visa" question. If you want to maximize your chance of getting in, get married at least 6 months before you apply for the match (so by February or so of your *M3* year) and have the EAD before ERAS is submitted. The one hink here is that applying for an EAD from abroad may or may not be doable - it looks like you may need to be physically present in the US to apply for the work permit and then can't leave until your travel permit is approved (3-5 months from the day of application). Otherwise you'd need to get married over a year in advance of application and have the green car by the time you apply.

On the other hand, if you don't want to do that, you just apply as a non-US FMG, try to match on a J1, and change status later. Changing status from a non-immigration intent visa to permanent residency is complicated and takes time, but it's certainly doable.

There's also the possibility of starting residency on an *H1* visa and converting that over to a green card after marraige. This is not particularly complicated - but you'd have to find a residency willing to sponsor an H visa, which are the minority of programs.

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[Raryn]

Thank you so much for your in depth answer. @Raryn
So maybe if my partner goes to the US before me for their residency it will be beneficial because it shows their intention of living in the US before we get married and then I just apply to residencies in the area and pray that I match (I think I have a good chance because I have lots of research already and some decent connections). So would it be possible that if I found out my partner is going to a US residency (because they would apply a year ahead) would we still have time to get married 6 months in advance of my application?

I edited my post after I found more information regarding what portions can be applied, so you may not have caught it.

The one hink here is that applying for an EAD from abroad may or may not be doable - it looks like you may need to be physically present in the US to apply for the work permit and then can't leave until your travel permit is approved (3-5 months from the day of application). Otherwise you'd need to get married over a year in advance of application and have the green card by the time you apply.

If you’re doing rotations in the states? No big deal. But otherwise I’m not 100% sure how to make the timeline work out. We have reached the limits of my topic specific knowledge.

Sorry I missed that edit
Yeah I think my school does most of our rotations in the country the school is in but they are big on foreign electives in North America so maybe I could make it work by doing a few electives there plus maybe staying there some other way. I think I'm going to need a lawyer for this problem lol. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction though.

 

[NotAProgDirector]

I'll add a bit to the great advice you've gotten already.

The J1 -> GC pathway is fraught with difficulty. You would need to apply for an "extreme hardship" waiver, which can be difficult to obtain. Especially if your spouse is a physician with a great income, it would be impossible to argue for financial hardship. If you get a J visa, you may need to do a standard J waiver process which has its own problems.

No matter what you do, you need to speak to a lawyer first. It is very easy to screw this process up. And if you end up tripping a flag that suggests that this is a "marriage of convenience" to get US citizenship, you'll end up with no visa at all and no way to come to the US. It's quite possible a lawyer would recommend getting married ASAP, to start the process.

 

[Raryn]

yeah this process seems very involved just to go to the US for residency. I saw it takes like 11-17 months to get a green card if both spouses are overseas and ideally you would share bank accounts, have joint investments etc.
I think I'm too young for this lol I'll just have to focus on going back to Canada and keep US as my backup I think.

Thanks for all the advice though it helped a lot.

I am not a Canadian but as I understand it they don't make it particularly easy for a foreign grad to match in residency there either, even if you're a citizen.

What I would do if I were you is sit down with my SO and discuss priorities.

Yeah it's actually easier to match to US even if it's not the top residency or anything so the match rates are almost 100% for US and around 60-75% to Canada depending on the year (the specialty can make or break this but we don't plan on going into the most competitive ones anyways). I'm pretty sure I could make it back to Canada in internal med as I have a lot of good academic doctors supporting me there + research. if my SO does family med in Canada it will make it more straightforward for me otherwise everything will be up in the air but can't control everything in life gotta go with the flow. I was just a little clueless about the US until now.

Generally Canadian IMGs who want to practice back home apply to US just in case they don't get it (having to get a J1 is the downside but they often move back to Canada anyways if that was their original goal). Also I can do an internship in Europe if I have to re apply to Canada which is a good option if you're really dedicated to going to a certain place.

Just trying to make sure no stone is unturned at the moment but getting married at a young age was pretty extreme after I thought about it. A lot go things could go wrong. Just gonna enjoy the ride no matter what happens🧘