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Locating a Residency
ECFMG certification does not guarantee placement in a residency
program. Indeed, in some years, only small percentages of
international medical graduates who gained ECFMG certification
have been placed in residency positions.
International medical graduates applying for residencies
must have ECFMG certification before beginning a residency,
but they may initiate correspondence with a program before
they receive certification. Information on residency programs
can be found on-line in the American Medical Association's
(AMA) Fellowship and Residency Electronic Interactive Database
(FREIDA), located
at http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/category/2997.html.
Information is also published by the AMA in print and on CD-ROM
annually as the Directory of Graduate Medical Education. Many
information and advising centers have a copy of this book,
or an order form may be requested from the AMA, Order Dept.
OP416798, P.O. Box 7046, Dover, DE 19903-7046, USA; Fax: 312-464-5600.
When corresponding with residency programs, be sure to obtain
information on such issues as salary, length of appointment,
elements of the program, hours of duty and responsibilities,
and provision of health and professional liability insurance.
Application must be made to individual programs, and, in
addition, applicants must generally participate in the National
Resident Matching Program (NRMP) or one of several other computerized
application programs in which residency programs in particular
specialties participate. An increasing number of medical specialties
are requiring use of the Electronic Residency Application
System (ERAS), administered for international medical graduates
by ECFMG. To receive an ERAS application form, applicants
should contact the ECFMG ERAS Program, P.O. Box 13467, Philadelphia,
PA 19101-3467, USA; E-mail: erashelp@ecfmg.org;
Telephone: 215-386-5900; Fax: 215-222-5641.
To take part in the NRMP, physicians must pass all ECFMG
examinations by January 1 of the year in which they plan to
enter the residency. The NRMP allows each applicant to submit
a list of their preferred residencies, which are then matched
with the preferences submitted by residency programs. For
further information, see ECFMG's bulletin, or contact the
NRMP, 2501 M Street, N.W., Suite One, Washington, DC 20037-1307,
USA; Telephone: 202-828-0566; Web site: http://www.aamc.org/nrmp.
ECFMG-certified foreign physicians who are matched with residency
positions usually are eligible to receive sponsorship from
the ECFMG for exchange visitor (J-1) visas. The period for
which J-1 status is valid varies with the medical specialty
chosen, with each specialty board determining the appropriate
length of time for graduate clinical training in that specialty.
After completion of the stipulated training period, exchange
visitor physicians must leave the United States. They are
not eligible to petition to apply to return to the United
States in immigrant, temporary worker, or trainee status,
or as an intra-company transferee, until they have resided
in their home country, or country of last permanent residence,
for two years.
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