Trump's Bans on 7 Muslim Nations Bedevils National Resident Matching Program

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Melanie Evans, Ban Ails Doctor Programs; Hospitals play a guessing game as foreign physicians seek US training slots. Wall Street Journal, Feb 13, 2017.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/hos ... ertainty-1486900805

four consecutive paragraphs:

(a) "Roughly 1,000 doctors who applied for US residency slots this year are from the seven countries included in the White House's travel ban, out of a total of 56,530 applicants, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges, which manages the application process. In recent years, about 14% of the more than 20,000 doctors who join US training programs aren't US citizens.

"The final, pressure-filled decisions about who will train where begin this month, when doctors and residency programs rank each other in order of preference. The rankings, due Feb 22, are fed through a computer algorithm that matches applicants with hospitals. Residents are the workhorses of many U.S. hospitals, heavily relied upon to evaluate and treat patients.

"Hospital officials say Mr Trump's late-January executive order on immigration, on hold after a federal appeals court ruling last week, leaves them with a difficult choice: forgo strong candidates from countries included in the ban or risk vacancies should rapidly shifting US immigration policies bar foreign doctors from entering the country.

"At Cook County Health & Hospitals System in Chicago, 'We try to be relatively blind to the nation of origin or the visa status of an applicant' for about 120 training spots open each year, said Chief Executive Officer Jay Shannon. 'But this has added a huge layer of complexity' to the process.

(b) "Disrupting the pipeline of foreign medical graduates could make it harder to find doctors in coming years in US communities where physicians are already scarce. International doctors can apply to remain in the US if they agree to work in high-need communities for three years, a program that 'has worked exceptionally well for American communities,' said Dr Darrell Kirch, president and CEO of the AAMC.

Note: Regarding quotation (b).
(a) Conrad 30 Waiver Program. Citizenship and Immigration Services, US Department of Homeland Security, undated.
https://www.uscis.gov/working-un ... d-30-waiver-program

Quote: "The Conrad 30 Waiver program allows J-1 medical doctors to apply for a waiver for the 2-year residence requirement upon completion of the J-1 exchange visitor program. See section 214(l) of the Immigration Nationality Act (INA). * * * The J-1 medical doctor must * * * Obtain a 'no objection' letter from his or her home country if the home government funded his or her exchange program

(b) The Conrad State 30 J1 Waiver Program. undated.
www.conrad30.com/basics.html

Quote: "In 1994, Senator Kent Conrad ( North Dakota ) addressed the issue of physician shortages in rural and urban areas of the United States by formulating the Conrad J1 visa waiver program. The Conrad program allowed each State's Department of Health to sponsor up to a certain number (initially 20, and now 30) international medical graduates (IMGs) each year for waiver of the two-year home residency requirement of the physician's J1 visa. The approved Conrad J1 waiver applicants would be required to serve in federally designated shortage area (either rural or urban).