Tips for IMGs Seeking US Clinical Research Jobs

I am gonna let this thread build up over time - as of now, I am putting up cues posted on the Harvard Medical school website:


"Foreign medical graduates who have not obtained ECFMG certification can be admitted to the United States for the purpose of observation, consultation, teaching, and for research not involving responsibility for patient care. These applicants should identify an area of research in the discipline in which they wish to work, then identify scientists working in that field in a number of medical schools and hospitals in the United States (possibly through papers published in medical journals). At Harvard, each basic and social science department and each clinical department recruits its own researchers, so applicants should apply directly to the scientist with whom they would like to work, informing him or her of their qualifications and enclosing a copy of their curriculum vitae and an overview of their longterm professional goals.

Applicants should also identify funds to support themselves and their research projects while they are in the United States. These funds might be available from home institutions, from governments, or from international fellowship sources. Applicants who have identified sources of support have a better chance of acceptance. Once the scientist has been accepted by a United States educational institution, a certificate of eligibility for a J-1 research visa, good for three years can be issued by this institution. Applications for a J-1 clinical visa cannot be made while a foreign medical graduate is on s J-1 research visa. "

Source


You can disregard the last line in the segment above about visa issues - we already discussed about transferring from Research J1 visa status to Clinical J1 visa status.



Another thing to do is check out research related positions on career sites of individual websites of universities known to carry out lotsa clinical research - a good way to get a list of such places would be the to look up the USnews ranking for Top-50 US Medical schools for Research.

Research positions for visa-needing IMGs could be:

- J1 Research Positions
- H1b Research jobs
- Volunteer Positions (Visitors visa)
- International Scholar Program cum Residency positions - example - University Pittsburgh's ISP - and thats the only one I know :(



Also Read:

- Clinical Research Advantages for IMGs
- Does Clinical Research Help for Residency