J-1 Waiver Use by IMGs : Facts, Figures & Statistics

Today I feel buoyed by the fact that we may soon be able to deposit checks from the comfort of our homes - giving me more time for blog for ya'll.....not that I keep depositing checks too frequently - since none of you pay me for reading this premium material, do you ? ;-) He he he he..(pardon my poor-humored, non-modest side)

A bigger reason I feel upbeat is getting my hands (or rather my mouse) on some J-1 waiver usage figures. A report published by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) provides some data on the usage of J-1 waivers by IMGs from 2003 to 2005 under the Conrad-30 Program.

Before you read on, note that though the United States has 50 'States', there are four more additional regions that are are a part of the United States governance and are treated like a 'state' under the Conrad-30 program, i.e. are allowed to get their own 30 J-1 waiver positions each year. These include:

- District of Columbia
- Guam
- Puerto Rico and
- US Virgin Islands

That would mean a total of 54 X 30 = 1620 possible J-1 waiver positions under the Conrad-30 program each year. Besides the Conrad-30, there are other additional agencies that can request J-1 waiver positions - which I have covered before. This report speaks only about the Conrad-30.


Here are some facts for 2005 from the GAO Report:

Utilization:

- All 54 states together requested a total of 956 J-1 waivers - i.e. only used 60% of their total 1620 J-1 waiver job capacities that could have been granted.

Specialty Distribution:

- More than 90% states in 2005 allowed specialist IMGs (post-fellowships) to apply, but some states limited specialist applications
- 44 % waiver requests were for exclusive primary care positions (Internal Medicine, Family Medicine, Ob-Gyn and Peds excluding psychiatry)
- 41 % waiver request were exclusively for specialty-positions
- 7% went to psychiatry positions (read report why psychiatry was not included in prim. care)
- 5% mix pf primary care and specialty care work
- 3% responses were blank on the question

Unfortunately, this report did not have a split-up of positions by specialty - that would have been great information

Location:

- A Majority were employed in either private practice or Hospitals


Still that leaves us with questions about competitiveness and whether everyone is successful in finding J-1 waiver jobs each year. Since only 60% of the total capacity of positions were actually requested, you might tend to think that it is fairly easy for any IMG on a J-1 visa to find a waiver job - but I am not so sure of that for the following reasons:

- It wasn't 60% per state ! Only 14 States used up the total quota of 30 waiver jobs, which included AZ, CA, FL, GA, IL, IN, KY, MO, NY, TX, OH, RI, MA. & MI.
(In case you are planning to apply in these states, your J-1 waiver job search must start real early...)

- Many of the unfilled states reported that less than 30 of the total IMG applicants that applied to their positions, were actually qualified to meet their state-specific eligibility criteria for the waiver positions OR they did not find the right specialty-match in the applicant pool.

- Other unfilled states said that they did have as many positions open (low demand)

Having said that J-1 waiver positions do not seem to be a problem for the primary care group, since as per the report most states had waiver job openings for family medicine...and often other primary care docs are employed to work in family medicine settings i.e. they have the advantage of expertise transferability. While fellowship trained specialists might have a harder time finding a for their exact specialty and meet the specific state criteria.

Hmmm - probably a uniform quota of 30 per state was a wrong idea, it should have rather been a quota based on need - since some states needed had more J-1 waiver jobs, but could not fill them since they reached the 30 limit - while the states with unfilled limits either did not find eligible physicians or simply did not need them.

A Quota redistribution system has been suggested, but not yet implemented.

Well..That was a thumbnail preview from me - to look up the entire original report - Download Here [PDF]


[ Most article threads on these blogs you see on USMLEtoMD.com are more like categories where information can be updated as things change and more information is available. Once I get more recent years' data, updates will follow on this post, or if anyone of you do - leave me a comment.]



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