What are the branches in residency any foreign graduate can get through USMLE?
Is it true that they are refrained from getting higher branches like surgery?
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Foreign medical graduates (IMGs) can match into many US residency branches via USMLE, including Internal Medicine, Family Medicine, Pediatrics, and Psychiatry, which are generally more IMG-friendly.
While highly competitive, it’s not impossible for IMGs to get into surgical specialties like General Surgery, Orthopedics, or Neurosurgery. It just requires exceptional USMLE scores and extensive US clinical experience.
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Internal medicine, pediatrics and a certain extent family medicine - are the ones typically majority of IMGs get into. I’ve seen surgeons, radiologists, ophthalmologists and anesthesiologist, OBGYN coming here and getting into internal medicine/ peds etc.
Getting into surgical branches, derm, radio etc is exceedingly difficult. Not because IMGs are less brilliant in any way, but because AMGs clearly get preferences and also visa issues play out.
Caution: Do not accept J1 visa as in long-term it hurts. H1B visa is a good choice, provided Trump is happy with you.
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