Foreign doctor race against time to obtain work visas under new regulations – PB/TK
Foreign doctors filling shortages, communities who need them uncertain amid visa changes – By Priya Raja / June 1 2017
A few months ago, Almatmed Abdelsalam was busy looking for a home for his family of four in the modestly-sized city of Macon, Georgia, eager to settle down after securing a job as a physician.
The city is one of the many rural and urban areas that face a severe shortage of doctors, a burden that has been relieved by foreign doctors allowed to stay in the U.S. to help. Thanks to this special visa waiver program, Abdelsalam expected to join the estimated 1,000 international physicians each year who opt to work in underserved communities across America.
However, on April 3rd, the United States Citizens and Immigration Services (USCIS) temporarily halted fast-track processing of visas for foreign doctors.
Now, with only 30 days left to obtain new visas, Abdelsalam and nearly a thousand other foreign doctors are racing against the clock, wondering whether they will have a place in the U.S. And the hospitals and communities are also waiting, uncertain if the physicians they need will arrive at all.
Abdelsalam was a practicing physician in Benghazi, Libya, until 2010. He was nominated by his government to pursue a master’s degree in microbiology in the U.S. But months after he left, the Libyan government collapsed during the Arab Spring
Continue to abcnews.go.com article: http://abcnews.go.com/Health/foreign-doctors-filling-shortages-communities-uncertain-amid-visa/story?id=47746645
