orbitsurgMD
so you are saying that my chancses for ophtho residency in US are like zero?
One colleague came from Colombia, did some residency training there (and mandatory public service practice in the sticks) followed by IM at the University of Texas. He got a spot at my residency program then went to Mass Eye for fellowship.
One person I know about came by way of South Africa, a family practitioner and pickup ophthalmologist who immigrated, did a pre-residency fellowship then got a slot as a resident somewhere in California. He came from a top South African institution (rhymes with "fits".)
One person I know came from Haiti, already many years in practice as a trained ophthalmologist with a very broad repertoire of surgery skills. He got a spot. He was a professor before becoming an American resident.
One person was a top graduate at a very prestigious university in the most populous nation in North Africa (;-)) went to the Cleveland Clinic then to ophthalmology elsewhere, then teaching, then to another nearby country for fellowship. He now practices in the USA.
One was a woman from the middle east who went to university there, medical school in Canada and did a research year at Harvard before doing an internship and her residency (and then fellowship at Wilmer).
Another person was a woman from Brazil who was educated there and did a research fellowship here before getting a residency slot in Dallas, Texas.
Another person was a dual-citizen who went to her ancestral home of Argentina for medical school and returned to the USA for residency.
It isn't impossible, but it isn't easy. You must complete your USMLE, all three steps, apply to a U.S. program, be prepared to travel here for as many interviews as you receive invitations (and to secure the necessary visas for that travel), and you really ought to plan for doing something in the interim, like a year or two of residency, an ophthalmology residency in Tblisi or elsewhere, or a research fellowship, here or somewhere you can be assured of getting your work published in a significant journal (like the UK, France, Germany, Spain, or Australia).
If you are determined, and have a good record, you can do it. But don't think you are going to get this as a walk-on. That won't happen.
