Need advice for career and medical school application as an international student

[samuel984]

Hi there,

It's really nice to see many posts and answers from friendly people here. However, I think my situation is quite unique, so I hope to find some advices here.
I'm a second year master student of computer science in a UC school, and obtained my bachelor's degree of Biochemistry from Asia (not a Permanent Resident in USA).
I've done several biomedical research internship and research assistant roles in big pharma and academic institutions across several countries in USA and Germany. I clearly know that I love the intersection of medicine and computer science research (like what people do in google brain healthcare team). Also, I have strong passion to be a doctor since my childhood.
As a result, I've been thinking to apply for medical school in USA for a long while. However, as an international student who obtained undergraduate outside USA, I know there are many obstacles, especially visa and coursework (US medical schools don't recognize the coursework outside USA). I'm thinking to work as a software engineer or go for PhD first to get green card by company or publication citations in a few years.
Here are some of my questions:

1. Would you suggest me to do (a) PhD and take pre-med classes at the same time, and apply for med school after PhD or (b) be a software engineer, take pre-med courses part time, then apply
2. For people go to industry prior to medical school application, how do you take pre-med course part-time in university? (I see several pre-med program requires full time and only provide higher-level pre-med classes)
3. For people go to industry prior to medical school application, how do you find proper recommendation letters ? Does it harm your application if you don't find professors in academics?
4. Is it doable for a PhD student to take pre-med classes?
Thanks!

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[samuel984]

@gonnif Thanks for your suggestions and information!
Do you think is it possible to finish all of this requirements with a part-time job in 5-6 years? I won't obtain my green card until 3-4 years later, so I will wait for a few years for application.
Also, is there difference between taking classes from community college and 4-year university for application? I think most 4-year universities don't provide the part-time class option? Am I right?

Thanks!