More foreign-trained doctors are opting for a H1-B, which allows them to practice in urban areas:
Today hundreds of doctors from India, Pakistan and other countries are bypassing the J-1, which gives doctors eligibility for a green card if they first spend three years in an underserved area. Instead, many foreign doctors are securing an H1-B, which doesn’t require the rural stint, and are working in the big urban areas they prefer for professional and lifestyle reasons.Like their American counterparts, foreign doctors say working in rural areas often means few chances to hone their specialties or work with cutting-edge technology. Working in an underserved area can also mean long and lonely hours. “It’s like serving jail time,” says Minoo Kavarana, a Mumbai native working in Appalachia as a heart surgeon on a J-1 waiver. While Dr. Kavarana calls his work rewarding, he says he will leave London, Ky., after his required three years unless the hospital builds a new heart-surgery facility.
