Immigration Policies Are Hurting the Physician Workforce in the US

Pre-Med & Medical School
1

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/04/us/trumps-immigration-policy-sidelines-foreign-doctors-amid-shortage.html

Trump’s Immigration Policy Sidelines Foreign Doctors Amid Shortage

Physicians from 39 countries are being pushed out of U.S. hospitals as a policy blocks their ability to work.

The U.S. currently faces a shortage of about 65,000 physicians, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges. That deficit is expected to balloon over the next decade as Americans live longer and more physicians retire.

Foreign doctors currently comprise 25 percent of all doctors practicing in the country.

American medical schools do not produce enough doctors. For residency positions starting this July, there were 41,000 residency positions available, according to official data, but only 32,000 applicants from U.S. medical schools.

Some 7,000 foreign doctors were selected to fill the gap, after rigorous exams and background checks. Once they complete training, many take jobs in federally designated underserved areas.

More than 60 percent of the foreign physicians practice primary care, including family medicine, internal medicine and pediatrics, fields that Americans often shun because of punishing workloads and lower pay compared to other specialties.

Foreign physicians and residents currently working in the US are not having their work visas renewed and are being told to stop seeing patients and to leave the country once their current visa expires.

https://www.politico.com/news/2026/04/01/a-slowdown-in-visa-processing-is-wreaking-havoc-on-foreign-doctors-lives-00853010

The foreign doctors said months have passed without an update on their applications, even after their hospitals paid a $2,965 fee to fast-track their applications. That’s
supposed to take two weeks. Some doctors said USCIS has requested more documents from them, including several years’ worth of pay stubs or further proof of their medical licenses.
Though Trump’s travel ban does not apply to visa holders in the U.S., the USCIS introduced a policy in December pausing visa renewals and updates for people from > those countries. Because many medical residencies begin or end over the summer, a glut of physician visas is expiring now, forcing foreign doctors to forgo jobs and miss deadlines for fellowships.

There are more than 10,000 physician H-1B visa holders in the U.S. and more than 17,000 doctors with J-1s, another type of visa also subject to the hold. Many nurses, lab techs and other health care workers are stuck in the visa pause as well.

In this year’s (2026) NRMP Match, the match rate for foreign medical graduates declined by 56.4% from last year. It’s widely believed this is due to programs being reluctant to extend job offers to non-citizens who are unlikely to be able to get visas to enter the country and start work in June.

Non-U.S. Citizen IMG Match Rates and Visa Sponsorship. IMGs play an important role in the U.S. physician workforce, and recent federal immigration policy changes have increased attention to visa sponsorship considerations in residency recruitment for foreign-born candidates. While PGY‑1 match rates are often reported in aggregate for non‑U.S. citizen IMGs, examining differences between applicants who require visa sponsorship and those who do not provides additional insight.

In 2026, foreign-born IMGs requiring visa sponsorship had a PGY‑1 match rate of 54.4
percent, a five-year low, compared with 67.9 percent for foreign-born IMGs not requiring sponsorship (U.S. permanent residents), a five‑year high. The highest match rate for foreign-born IMGs requiring a visa occurred in 2023 (59.1 percent), while foreign-born IMGs not requiring a visa peaked this year. These data highlight how broader policy conditions could shape future Match outcomes for non-U.S. citizen IMG candidates and inform future recruitment strategies of programs.

6 Likes
2

Thank you for your post on this topic.

1 Like
3

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/07/us/texas-doctor-detained-border-patrol-visa-freeze.html

Dr. Ezequiel Veliz, one of the doctors interviewed for the NY Time story linked in the first post, was taken into custody by the Border Patrol as he and his husband were driving from the Rio Grande Valley to Houston on Highway 77.

Dr. Veliz told the agents that his husband was an American citizen and that he was a foreign physician in the process of obtaining a new visa. The officers did not seem to grasp that, Mr. Williams said, and ordered Dr. Veliz to get out of the vehicle.

After fingerprints and a flurry of calls, the agents informed the doctor that he was being detained because his visa had lapsed.

Dr. Veliz is married to a US citizen and has been practicing medicine in a medically underserved area of the Rio Grande Valley for 10 years

4

Which regardless which country you are, is exactly where most immigrant doctors end up… there is a need to be filled that locals often don’t care to do.

5

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/11/us/second-venezuelan-doctor-detained-in-south-texas-by-immigration-agents.html

A second Venezuelan physician has been arrested by ICE in South Texas. Dr. Rubeliz Bolivar is a PGY1 in emergency medicine at a hospital in a federally designated medically underserved region of the Rio Grande Valley. Dr Bolivar has resided in the US for 10 years and attended medical school in the US.

Dr. Bolivar was arrested while traveling with her 5 year old daughter, who is a US citizen. She was forcibly separated from her daughter whose whereabouts are unknown. Dr. Bolivar was traveling to catch a plane to California to attend her asylum interview with her husband.

Dr Bolivar’s husband says his wife holds a valid work permit.

ACEP has queried ICE about the whereabouts of Dr. Bolivar, but immigration officials declined to answer.

4 Likes
6

https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/quality/hospital-physician-relationships/visa-limbo-drags-on-for-hundreds-of-physicians-5-notes/

  1. In September, President Donald Trump raised the H-1B visa application fee to $100,000. Previously, the average application cost was approximately $3,500. In an executive order, President Trump said the H-1B visa program “has been deliberately exploited to replace, rather than supplement, American workers with lower-paid, lower-skilled labor.”

  2. The federal J-1 visa program is for “exchange visitors,” or nonimmigrant individuals who plan to participate in a program for teaching, studying, researching or training in the fields of education, arts and science.

    In recent years, the HHS Exchange Visitor Program reviewed waiver applications for J-1 visas within one to three weeks, according to two immigration attorneys who spoke with KFF Health News. Now, hundreds of applications are in a backlog.

  3. National healthcare organizations, such as the American Medical Association and the American Hospital Association, for months have advocated for healthcare-specific exemptions to the $100,000 fee.

    In November, the AHA surveyed its members about the new application fee. The survey represented more than 1,000 health systems and hospitals. Of those, 64% of hospitals that utilized — or planned to utilize — the H-1B visa program said they will pause, defer or limit recruitment due to the $100,000 petition fee.

  4. Internationally trained individuals account for a significant portion of the U.S. healthcare workforce. Immigrants account for 27% of physicians and surgeons, 22% of nursing assistants and 16% of registered nurses in the U.S., according to KFF.

  5. In March, four federal lawmakers introduced a bill aimed at exempting physicians and other healthcare workers from the $100,000 H-1B visa application fee. It has been in the House Committee on the Judiciary since March 17.

7
3 Likes
8

Here is a map of medically underserved areas:

1 Like
9

https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/quality/hospital-physician-relationships/no-clear-practical-pathway-where-the-physician-visa-fee-reversal-leaves-hospitals/

  1. The reversal has no implementation guidance. Although many physician associations said they are pleased with visa applications continuing to be processed, they called on the agency to provide clearer guidance on next steps.

“At present, there is no clear practical pathway for physicians or hospitals to act on this update,” American Academy of Pediatrics President Andrew Racine, MD, PhD, said in a May 4 news release. “Bridging the gap between policy language and implementation is critical to secure consistent lifting of the hold, timely adjudication, and prevention of patient-care disruptions. It’s a move in the right direction, but there’s still work to be done.”

A USCIS spokesperson told Becker’s it is processing “certain applications associated with medical physicians” but did not specify which applications were being processed.

“Screening and vetting processes for these applicants continues to exceed what the previous administration implemented, including through expanded background checks, biometric and social media screening, and new risk-based adjudication processes to close security gaps and prevent fraud,” the spokesperson said. “Applications associated with medical physicians will continue processing in the normal course of USCIS adjudications to final decision.”

The agency declined to answer Becker’s questions for further details.

2. The backlog has gotten worse. Previously, J-1 waiver applications were processed in one to three weeks, Politico reported, but now hundreds sit in a queue for processing. Although review is now in motion, it’s unclear how long it will take to clear all the applications.

Some foreign physicians have waited months for an update on their application, even after their hospital paid a $2,965 fee to fast-track their applications so they would receive it in two weeks. Because most medical residencies begin or end in the summer, the limbo made some foreign physicians miss fellowship deadlines, forgo jobs or be sidelined from their current position while awaiting renewal. Foreign-trained physicians are rallying against the delays and dozens of lawsuits have been filed in federal court.

3. The $100,000 H-1B fee is still in effect. Although applications are making moves, there has been no change to the $100,000 H-1B visa fee.

In September, President Donald Trump raised the application fee to $100,000, up from approximately $3,500. National healthcare organizations, such as the American Medical Association and the American Hospital Association, for months have advocated for healthcare-specific exemptions to the $100,000 fee. Four federal lawmakers introduced a bill aimed at exempting physicians and other healthcare workers from the $100,000 H-1B visa application fee. It has been in the House Committee on the Judiciary since March 17.

Sixty-four percent of hospitals using or planning to use the H-1B program told the AHA in November they would pause, defer or limit recruitment because of the fee.

2 Likes
10

This is so scary and so illegal and yet it’s being done.

1 Like