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sharvil
Forum Junior  Topics: 23 Posts: 202 |
Here is what is the content of this post... 2. HIS REPLY TO MY POST 3. HIS EARLIER POST ON H1b 4. H1B VISA DOCUMENTS 5. IMMIGRATION LAWYERS (SOME OF THEM) 6. J1 DOCUMENTS AND PROCESS As far as J1 vs H1 is concerned, Nirav ( my senior who is doing cardiology on H1 at a prestigious california university) has posted two messages yesterday, which need to go to the archives section of the forum...in usmle.net Here is what he thought of my (INACCURATE?) post... OK, Kris, all your postings are vey useful in general, but this one, I have different views and most of them are based on my own experience. And no offence; I just want to put some more information here as it is vital that everyone makes an informed decision about visa issues attached with residency. if you need further information, you can visit immigration forum at www.immigration.com or www.murthy.com Here are the issues I have with this info . H1B visa: Pros: 1." It is an immigrant visa...H1B visa can be changed to greencard after residency or fellowship if employer sponsors a green card" LEGALLY H1B IS NON-IMMIGRANG VISA. (IMPORTANT TO REMEMVER WHEN YOU FILL VISA FORM!). BUT IT IS EXCLUDED FROM SEC 214 (B) SO YOU DONT HAVE TO PROVE "NOT A INTENDING IMMIGRANT" AND SO, CHANCES OF REJECTION ARE LESS AS MOST REJCTIONS ARE BASED ON THAT SEC 214 (B). AGREE WITH THE FACT THAT IT CAN BE EASILY CHANGED TO GC. 2. Valid for six years with one year extension after that ONE YEAR EXTENSION OF H1 IS MORE COMPLEX ISSUE AND IS DETAILED IN MY ANOTHER POST NEXT TO THIS ONE TITLED "IMPORTANT VISA INFORMATION"; I POSTED IT IN PAST, AND WILL POST AGAIN FOR THOSE WHO DID NOT SEE IT IN MARCH/APRIL. IN SHORT H1 CAN BE EXTENDED TILL YOU GET GC REGARDLESS OF DURATION, BUT UNDER CERTAIN CIRCUMSTANCES, DETAILED IN THAT MSG. 3. Not neccesary to renew every year AGREE WITH THIS. RENEW EVERY THREE YEARS. CONS: 1. Severe compromise on quality of training DON'T COMPLETELY AGREE. DETAILS IN MY OTHER POST ABOUT "IMPORTANT VISA INFORMATION" 2. Only community hospitals offer H1B...very few good programs offer H1b DISAGREE. AGAIN DETAILED IN "IMPORTANT VISA INFORMATION" 3. Subsequent fellowship opportunities lesser since residency is done in small community programs which do not have fellowships...so you will not have letter from attendings from Cardio/ GI when you apply for those fellowships....plus residents from community hospitals are not preferred for fellowships since the community programs concentrate on patient care than research, presentations or publications that are important when applying for fellowship.,.. DO NOT COMPLETELY AGREE. 4. If you cannot find fellowships immediately after residency, then you have to find a job, get GC in 2 years and then do fellowship... TOTALLY AGREE ON THIS. BUT IT TAKES ABOUT THREE YEARS GAP IF YOU DONT GET FELLOWSHIP IMMEDIATELY, AND THAT GAP IS RELATED TO FACT THAT YOU HAVE TO APPLY ONE YEAR IN ADVANCE FOR FELLOWSHIPS. 5. Spend close to $ 4000 (if program does not pay for it) for H1B processing (plus $ 1000 for premium processing) TYPICAL EXPENSE IS ABOUT $700-1200 (DEPENDING ON LOCATION) PLUS $1000 FOR PREMIUM PROCESSING. 6. Long time for paperwork by Lawyer, labour department and USCIS so start date of July 1 maybe delayed. DISAGREE, TIME IS ACTUALLY LESS THAN J1. TOTAL 7-10 DAYS OF USCIS PROCESSING TIME AND PAPER WORK WITH LAWYER TAKES ANOTHER WEEK. IF PROGRAM IS NOT UNDER CAP, NO CHANCE OF DELAY 7. Your husband or wife who comes as dependent on H4 cannot do a residency until he/ she changes to H1 or you get a gc/ EAD. AGREE ON THIS ONE, SPOUSE HAS TO GET HIS/HER OWN H VISA TO WORK. J1 visa PROS: 1. Most important: MUCH BETTER QUALITY OF TRAINING DISAGREE...DETAILED IN "IMPORTANT VISA INFORMATION" 2. Get into competitive programs DISAGREE...DETAILED IN "IMPORTANT VISA INFORMATION" 3. Get into University based programs DISAGREE...DETAILED IN "IMPORTANT VISA INFORMATION" 4. Can get into fellowships (competitive and good universities) DISAGREE...DETAILED IN "IMPORTANT VISA INFORMATION" 5. Minimal visa processing expenses AGREE ON THIS ONE, AS MOST OF THE PROCESSING CAN BE DONE BY ONESELF...NO NEED FOR LAWYER. BUT THEN YOU SPEND AT THE TIME OF WAIVER...OVERALL SIMILAR AMOUNT, BUT IT DOES SAVE ABOUT $2000 BEFORE THE RESIDENCY, WHEN NO ONE HAS MONEY. 6. Shorter time frame for visa processing IT DEPENDS, AND USUALLY NOT TRUE, SEE ABOVE FOR H1 PROCESSING TIME. 7. Maximum period of seven years TRUE 8. Spouse can do residency or work on dependent J visa TRUE. CONS: 1. Cannot do MOONLIGHTING TRUE IN MOST CASES 2. Cannot convert GC immediately....whatever you do...J1 visa marries citizen...TWO YEAR HRR (HOME RESIDENCY REQUIREMENT) applies TRUE 3. Two choices.,..J1 waver (serve in Medically Underserved Area (MUA) for 3 years to change to H1B and then two years in MUA to change to GC)...these five years do not look good on CV unless the waiver is at a good place...for this, you may need to spend thousands on the lawyer and number of waiver opportunities are not many...but most people can get waivers...the two options after J1 residency are...to go ahead with fellowship, go back to home country for two years and come back...meanwhile, find GC sponsor employer and get GC in two years...many people have done that...and I know them personally...even couples...so if you are single or close to 25 years of age, this will be a very good option...second choice...finish residency, get a waiver- 5 years, then do fellowship on GC and then start practising...all this is assuming you are applying for Internal Medicine...all other specialties, esp surgery it is much more complicated... AGREE ON THIS ONE. HERE COMPARE THE FACT THAT YOU CAN 'RESET H1 VISA CLOCK" WITH JUST ONE YEAR OUT OF US, AND GET ANOTHER SIX YEARS ON H VISA...JUST BY STAYING ONE YEAR OUTSIDE US. 4. Needs to be renewed every year TRUE, BUT USUAULLY IT IS NOT A BIG DEAL ANYWAY. 5. Chances of rejection possible in home country since it is a non-immigrant visa like B1/B2 TRUE, BUT MOST PEOPLE GET IT. BUT CAN BE REJECTED UNDER SEC 214(B) AS MENTIONED ABOVE. TO COMPLEMENT THIS, I AM POSTING SOME OTHER USEFUL THINGS ABOUT VISA AND HOW TO GO ABOUT IF YOU HAVE H VISAAND NEED FELLOWSHIP. I POSTED THAT INFO FEW MONTHS BACK, REPOSTING IT FOR THOSE WHO MISSED IT. GOOD LUCK TO EVERYONE. AND HERE IS WHAT HE HAD POSTED EARLIER ABOUT H1b VISAS... And here again I am posting my old post: I have seen a lot of posts about visa issues on the forum; comparing H1 and J1 visa and questions about H1 visa duration. I think I have something to add here for all of you who are looking for some kind of visa. I have personally through the process and currently doing cardiology fellowship on H1 visa; and I have gathered a lot of information about this issues that may be helpful for those of you who are just preparing to apply. 1. A very good number and mixture (meaning big universities to small community) programs sponsor H visa. Those programs who do not sponsor H visa do it as they do not know what it is and how easy it is to do it. Legally it is never a big deal. Only handful of programs really ever had legal issues; and that too due to their laxities and now they do not sponsor H visa any more. I have seen many times, even programs that say they will offer only J visa eventually sponsor H visa after the match! (all you have to do is to let them know that process is actually simpler than J visa!). Programs that do not sponsor H visa are not BETTER programs; they just dont know the process. 2. The biggest advantage of H visa is that at the end of residency/fellowship you have much better chance of a better employment opportunity compared to J visa and also you have to do that job only for 1-2 years; not 5 years. I will explain this by examples: at the end of residency many of my collegues who were going for jobs/greencards were offered job at institutions like Cleveland clinic, William Beaumont hospital etc. who will sponsor their green card. (these are not extraordinary candidates). I dont think you can get J waiver at such top notch places! they are getting a great start of their job career; and that too they have to do only for 1-2 years; after that they may stay there or do something else. You do not have that liberty with J visa. (the way this 1-2 year duration works is: they start green card process right away; it takes 4-5 months for labor certification PERM processing, then another 6 months for I140 and once I 140 is approved you can change employers on portability while awaiting I 485 which takes variable time from 1-3 years. Also once I 140 is approved you can travel in and out of US without any visa on Advance Parole document and you can also get EAD). With J1 visa, you simply have to do at least three years of waiver (only few people are lucky to get it at a decent place) and then you start with the same H visa unless you are at a VA hospital where you can work for another two years and file for Green card under NIW category...so at least 5 years of working in underserved area and may be more. 3. Another important question is what do you do after six years on H visa: There are a lot of options!! Option 1: If you are in a three year fellowship program, and if you find an employer 18 months in advance to file for green card (which is not difficult at all) then you can get your labor certification done and I 140 Filed (not approved) before the beginning of last year of fellowship; then you can keep extending your H visa till GC gets approved totally and again same rules apply for the process as I described above. Option 2: If you have a lot of publications, you can file for EB1 category green card on you own during fellowship and if that gets approved, Bingo..! you got it. Not for everyone but many people do meet the criteria (there are ten criteria and you should meet three of them, they are listed on www.uscis.gov). Option 3: Lets talk about the worst case scenario: you get employer just close to the end of your fellowship (and trust me, you will get that!! even in internal medicine people get 4-5 local employers hunting behind them) you still can file for green card and start working, all you can not do is; you can not extend your H visa and so you can not travel outside US till I 140 gets approved (total one year from the start of process), at which time you will get EAD and Adavance Parole and then you can travel freely. During this entire period you are not on any status; just pending greencard. Compare to what will happen with J visa: You still have to find waiver job, that usually is in primary care; and again you have to do it at least 3 years and then go for H visa and green card processing just as mentioned above OR another 2 years and NIW greencard. Option 4. "Reset the H visa clock". All you have to do is to stay out of US for one year (it does not matter where you go, you may go to your home country, or any other coutry doing job or just go for world tour!!) and you get another six years on your H visa!! Option 5: OK, if nothing works, this is universal solution: Go back to your home country or any other country outside US for one year and your H visa clock resets...you get another six years on H visa! 4. Getting fellowship on H visa: It is not impossible or even more difficult to get fellowship on H visa. I can tell my own experience: out of 170 cardiology programs in the country 90 sponsors H visa and similar number soponsors J visa!! If you are a good candidate, visa is not an issue. Even the programs that do not sponsor H visa for internal medicine will sponsor H visa for fellowship!! (example SUNY Syracuse and there are quite a few on this list). Good Luck. So, that is the final verdict.... UNIVERSITY PROGRAM PLUS H1B= IMGs DREAM= NIRAV TODAY This post is for... 1. People who may have just read my post and not Nirav's reply 2. Any IMG who needs a visa and needs information on making an informed choice... DOCUMENTS FOR H1B: Get an immigration lawyer first... 1) Application for H1B visa 2) USMLE score reports – step 1, 2, 3 3) ECFMG certificate 4) Medical diploma 5) Medical school transcript 6) Copy of passport 7) Copy of driving license 9) Resume 10) Reference letters 11) I-94 card 12) I-20 13) Current master’s schedule 14) Contract letter 15) Training certificate Immigration lawyers famous on usmle.net... George S. Newman Blumenfeld, Kaplan & Sandweiss, P.C. 168 N. Meramec, 4th Floor St. Louis, MO 63105 (314) 863-0800, Ext. 133 (314) 863-9388 email address: GSN@bks-law.com Mdgreencard.com Carlshustermann Steven perlitch 212840 3878 Ted Sherman Findlaw.com Simin H Syed. P.C. Call 212-594-6657 for an J1 visa process and documents.... ONLY THE FIRST STEP!!!!!! BEST OF LUCK!!!! this is the best algorithm for anyone to get J1 visa easily---the Dates are approximate-FOR 2006!!!!. STEP 1 -- march 15th-did u match??? if yes goto next step if no exit and try for postmatch. STEP 2---march 17th-where did u match? contact program immediately and ask to send contract + application for training liscence by fedex or express mail!!! the fastest way possible.(warning:- if u wait for the program to contact u , they will take their own sweet time.) STEP 3- march 25th---by this time u shud have posted all the signed contract and application for state liscence by fedex or express mail to hospital. Phone hospital saying that u have sent the material and they shud forward it to ECFMG for getting ur DS2019 by fedex or express mail. STEP 4--april 1st---by this date u shud have recieved confirmation on ur OASIS that ECFMG has recieved ur material from ur hospital. STEP 5--- WAIT-during this time fill out your application form I-539 available on USCIS website. this form enables u to change from current status to J1 status while in the USA itself. also attach photocopies of listed materials asked in the form and keep package ready. ask program to mail u as soon as DS2019 comes. STEP 6- DS2019-AS SOON AS ur program says DS2019 has come ask them to forward it to you as soon as possible by fedex or express. at the same time go to USCIS website and check under processing dates for I 539 for ur center(ur center means either the center under which ur present residential address falls or the center under which ur hospital falls-whichever is faster)also please ask ur program director to include a small letter saying that she thinks that u r a good candidate and she wants u in the program so please give J1 as soon as possible.this letter shud be addressed to the concerned official, USCIS and the address of ur center as given in ur I539 form. STEP 7- DECISION TO SEND i 539 OR NOT- for example - if the hospital recieves DS2019 on april 15th!!! the current processing dates for I 539 for change to J1 visa in ur center shud be -----NOT MORE THAN TWO MONTHS i.e. Feb 15th or later(NOT EARLIER!!!!) example 2- if u get DS 2019 on april 25th - date shud be feb 25th. Q) is ur centers processing dates within this time frame? if yes--- immediately put your DS2019 in your pre-arranged package for I -539 form and post it by fedex or express with delivery notification. HOPE FOR THE BEST AND WAIT FOR UR NEW I-94.GOOD LUCK AND EXIT THIS LOGORITHM. if no--- then u shud not send the DS2019 along with ur i-539 form. we cannot take the risk of losing the seat as many many program directors will not wait for ur J1 after start of orientation as many green card holders are waiting for ur seat!!!! believe me - one of my friends from gujrat lost a seat like that.GOTO next step. STEP 8 - WERE U ALWAYS IN STATUS IN usA , HAVE A CURRENT VISA(NOT EXPIRED) AND I 20 AND I 94??? yes------ book consulate date in mexico border post- thru VARS.com- only 15 dollars, contact mr.Victor garcia thru his website for transportation across the border and mexican entry permit--- only 200$, book greyhound bus from wichita to border city and back--- only 200$, hotel stay 2 days- 150 dollars, food 100$. total expenditure ------- under 700 dollars only.BEST OF LUCK-100% u will get J1 visa easily in mexico n come back within same evening thru mr.victor garcias bus. NO!!!!!!!----sorry u got to go to next step.if u still go to mexico u will get stuck n spend a lot of days and money in mexico. STEP 9--- book flight tickets to ur home country- immediately. get a visa appointment at same time thru net. keep appointment as early as possible or ull be in trouble- for example if they say that they need one more document before they can issue visa!!! if u have an early appointmnet u can get another appointmnet and still be on time!!!! if u get an appointment for example on june 15th and u get the same problem then ull misss ur residency!!!! go to india, tell visa officer the whole truth, explain that u want to study and become a doctor, tell that after j 1 expires u will not stay or try to stay back in usa but come back to home country and do good work here. best of luck--- i got my visa in step 9!!!!! some people get it easily while sitting here in step 7 itself!!!! but thats luck!!! SOME MORE POINTS-- CHECK CHECK CHECK UR FORMS AGAIN- UNFILLED ITEMS OR CONFUSING ITEMS IN FORM MEANS USUALLY THE FORMS WILL BE RETURNED BACK!!!! AND EVEN WHEN UR PROCESSING DATES ARE IN TIME UR PROCESSING WILL BE DELAYED!!! ALSO SINCE U WILL SEND UR ORIGINAL I -94 AND DS2019 WITH UR I 539 FORM--- THERE IS NO WAY U CAN USE STEP 8 OR 9 !!!!! ONCE U HAVE SENT UR i539---- U R STUCK WITH WAITING FR IT TO B PROCESSED!!!!!!SO THINK 100 TIMES BEFORE SENDING FORM I 539--- IS THE PROCESSING DATES OF UR CENTER FAVORABLE???? ONE PERSON WENT TO MEXICO EVEN AFTER BEING OUT OF STATUS!!!! HE WAS DENIED AND HAD TO SPEND 10,000 DOLLARS BEFORE HE CUD MANAGE TO GO HOME!!!!!! PLEASE REMEMBER THAT HOME COUNTRY IS SAFEST AFTER STEP 7. And please remember to give back to the forum and IMGs who come in the next few years when you are settled in a residency!!!!!! special thanks to viagra for posting this on usmle.net from where i picked this information _________________
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ARJ
| Forum Guru  Topics: 133 Posts: 792
Thanks Sharvil for the great Info.
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docaloksurana
| Forum Newbie Topics: 1 Posts: 4
Hi, its many years since you posted this wonderful information, but I am hoping somebody can throw some light on how can I find which programs accept H1b for cardiology fellowship?
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