Foreign (International) Medical Graduates (FMGs / IMGs)

For those students or graduates who went to Medical School outside the US, there is a steady number of people who come to the US for medical residency.

As of 2004, the aftermath of 9/11 is still having an impact on the number of IMGs who are able to come. Visas are sometimes difficult to obtain, even to come to the US for the (now extinct) Clinical Skills Assessment. This test is being replaced by USMLE Step 2 CS, so IMGs will continue to have to come to the US in order to complete the requirements for ECFMG certification.

To be able to secure a decent medical residency position, below are factors that program directors (PD) are looking for:

• Scores: no matter how good you are, bad USMLE scores will hurt your application and ruin your chances of having good interview offers. This is definitely the strongest factor that PDs consider. It is also a way of filtering out applications. But if you are stuck with low scores, focus on things that can be changed (below).
• Research: for stronger university-based programs, this is a plus. It will be particularly helpful if your research was done in the United States and if you have publications. If you have a PhD it is also a plus in some places.
• Clinical experience in the US: having at least one month of clinical experience in an US hospital is also a big factor. Make sure you get recommendation letters from the people you worked with, and remember their names. So you can have PDs talk to them (they do that very frequently).
• Resident status: if you are an US-citizen or have a green card makes a big difference. It is a burden for programs to sponsor your visa, and there is a chance you can have problems related to that. So having resident-alien status makes a difference.
• Reccomendation letters: try to get letters from american doctors who worked with you. Even during research, american letters have a huge advantage when compared to letters from your home country.
• Specialty choice: for IMGs the easiest residency positions to get are in non-surgical areas. Specifically Family Medicine, Psychiatry and Internal Medicine. The most sought-after positions currently are: Dermatology, Radiology, Radiation Oncology, Neurosurgery, ENT, Ophtalmology. Do not waste your time and money applying to these specialties if you do not have stellar scores, stellar research, stellar research letters.

Step 3 scores do not matter much, as long as you pass. The factors I listed above are the most important, and if you have good scores you should secure interviews.