Question about Canadian doing IM residency on J1 visa

[The One Who Knocks]

Hello all,

I am currently a second year Canadian student at a U.S. medical school with interests in Internal Medicine. If I were to do a 3-year IM residency in the U.S. on a J1 visa, what would happen afterwards? I know that, since I would be on a J1 visa, I would have to come back to Canada after residency, but the IM residency in Canada is 4 years. So, would I be able to work right away, or would I have to do something to match the "4 year" training since by that time I would only have 3 years of training. (Also, what if I am interested in doing a Canadian or U.S. fellowship? How would that work?)

Any insight would be very much appreciated!

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[Iris42]

You would need 1 year of any ACGME accredited fellowship and then you can go to Canada and practice. You can do any fellowship you want for a max of 4 years after 3 yrs of IM residency in the US on J1.

 

[The One Who Knocks]

You would need 1 year of any ACGME accredited fellowship and then you can go to Canada and practice. You can do any fellowship you want for a max of 4 years after 3 yrs of IM residency in the US on J1.

Iris, thanks for the response.

Are you sure you can do any fellowship you want on the J1 visa? Check out this thread and let me know what you think:

Canadians not allowed J1 visas for subspecialties anymore.

Also, what if you do an EM residency in the U.S. on a J1 visa? (3 years in the U.S. vs 5 years in Canada) What would you do after residency?

 

[Iris42]

You're welcome!
There was a restriction from 2015 to 2018, they just lifted all limits on specialty and subspecialty last month. So now you can do anything!
However, for EM, only 4 year programs are recognized by the Royal College, meaning, even if you do 2 years of fellowship after a 3 year EM residency you cannot get certified. There are only about 20-25 4 year EM programs.