63 healthcare orgs call on Congress to extend, expand visa waiver for international medical graduates
By Dave Muoio – August 3, 2022
Sixty-three provider and healthcare advocacy organizations are petitioning Congress to pass legislation expanding international medical graduates’ ability to immediately practice in the U.S.
The two letters, sent to the House and Senate’s Judiciary Committee leaders late last week, address the Conrad 30 Waiver Program.
The program allows foreign students who come to the U.S. for medical training to forego visa requirements that would force them to return to their home country for at least two years.
Without the waiver, these graduates would be prohibited “from practicing domestically upon completion of their residency and placing their ability to ever practice in the United States in doubt,” groups including the American Medical Association, the American Hospital Association and the Association of American Medical Colleges wrote in their letters.
Those who receive the waiver are required to work full-time for three years in a medically underserved community—an arrangement that, to date, has allowed 15,000 qualified international medical graduates to deliver care to in-need Americans, according to the letters.
