Recently matched IMG - J1 Visa Question

[Drahmajuve]

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Can a previous Green Card application interfere with receiving J1 VISA?
I got into US Medical Residency and came across that question in the application form ( Questions asks if I have ever applied for Green Card)
I have a b1/b2 10 year visa. Been to the US twice and came back without any violations.
I have applied for Green Card in previous years ( don't remember how many times, maximum twice) but without success.
If anyone has any experience with getting J1 with a history of Green Card application, please reply.
Thanks in advance
Sorry if this thread is in the wrong place.

 

[NotAProgDirector]

I'm not certain where the question is being asked, but I can speculate as to the issue here. The physician J-1 visa has a serious contradiction baked in.

The J visa is a non-immigrant visa. It is designed such that physicians / newly graduated medical students from outside the US can come to the US and train, and then take that training home with them. It's why the J has the two year rule associated with it.

But, in actual fact I expect most physicians training on a J find a way to stay via a waiver -- either a Conrad position, hardship waiver, or IGA waiver. There's no published data on this that I have ever seen so I can't be certain, but I expect a large number stay.

So you see the contradiction -- the visa is non-immigrant, yet almost everyone who gets one plans to immigrate because they know it can be done. It's crazy, but it's the way the law is. I expect the J visa was first created as a non-immigrant visa, and then the waivers were added -- all for political cover.

So what's the problem with prior GC applications? When you go for your J visa interview, you'll need to convince the embassy that you have no plans to immigrate to the US. Even if everyone knows that you will. And nothing says "I want to live in the US" like a GC application. I expect this is the concern that someone is asking after -- concerned that when you get to the interview that you'll be rejected.

The form you seem to be mentioning must have been created by your visa sponsor. This question is not on the DS-2019. I suggest you reach out to them and ask. In any case, you need to answer honestly -- any dishonesty, regardless of how minor, will get your visa rejected should it be discovered anywhere in the process.

 

[Scope guy]

talk to ECFMG, dont lie on application. it ll bite u someday