J1 vs H1 visa

[loku]

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Hey Guys,

So here's the story. I've lived in US for about 9 years now but I'm not a US citizen/Greencard holder. I've been on Student visa the entire time. I've done all my medical education in US and now i'm in 3rd year of med school, and asl you all know the time is close to apply for residency. I have 2 questions:

1. There are couple of hospitals that I found are willing to offer me a residency on J1 visa. Do you think its a good idea to take it? I've lived in US for 9 years, i'm not sure how I would convince a US counselor working in US embassy that I intent to return back to India for 2 years? Do you think its a problem? Has anyone else done it, did they have any problems?

2. There are couple of hospitals who are willing to sponsor H1 visa as well but they're pretty competitive. I'm confused if I should rank a hospital who's willing to give me H1 higher or one the J1. The residency at both these hospitals are pretty good and I won't mind doing a residency in either one of them.

Any advice is highly appreciated 🙂.

Thank you all! Happy Physicians day!

 

[mathnerd88]

Don't go J1. Definitely go H1. J1 is for trainees visitor exchange and it stipulates you have to return back to your home country. H1 is your standard work visa for foreigners in the US.

With J1, you can only max that out for 5 years before you need to change visas or go back to your home country, and you'll still need a waiver then to change visas.

H1 is the next step in getting a green card. With J1, it would be much more difficult to get one.