Physician associations are praising the White House’s decision to reverse the visa renewal freeze for foreign physicians but are still left with questions about how the administration will process visas.
In late April, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services updated its website to indicate physicians were no longer subject to a processing hold. The Department of Homeland Security told The New York Times that the agency will resume processing visas and work permits for medical physicians. The travel ban policy froze decisions on visa extensions, work permits and green cards for citizens of 39 countries. Although the travel ban did not apply to visa holders in the U.S., USCIS paused visa renewals and updates for people from those countries. This subjected more than 10,000 physician H-1B visa holders and 17,000 with J-1s, along with thousands of nurses, lab techs and other healthcare workers to the visa pause. Many affected physicians were put on administrative leave by hospitals while awaiting their renewal.
Here are four associations’ reactions to the change:
1. The American Academy of Pediatrics applauded the move, but said there “are unanswered logistical questions about processing these visas.”
“On the heels of advocacy alongside our partner medical organizations, we are pleased to see this promising policy reversal that would allow our international physician colleagues to continue serving the families and communities who rely on them,” AAP President Andrew Racine, MD, PhD, said in a May 4 association news release. “Now that the policy reversal has occurred, we look forward to clear guidance on how these changes will be quickly and fully implemented.”
2. The American Academy of Family Physicians told Becker’s, “Physicians and medical trainees are indispensable to the nation’s health care infrastructure. We are encouraged that UCSIS has reversed the visa freeze for international medical graduates and look forward to the agency issuing further guidance that details how this reversal will be implemented. As we wrote in our April 8 letter to the Departments of State and Homeland Security, prolonged visa processing delays and indefinite adjudicative holds are forcing physicians to abandon residency programs and leaving already strained communities without access to care.”
3. Bobby Mukkamala, MD, president of the American Medical Association, told Becker’s that “it is encouraging to see the administration thaw the physician visa freeze. International medical graduates are the backbone of many rural hospitals and independent practices. Patients in these areas have few options, and blocking these physicians from practicing was an avoidable obstacle to care. The AMA is urging the administration to lift the HHS administrative pause and exempt physicians from the $100,000 H-1B visa filing fee. The nation’s physician shortage requires focused federal policy to solve the problem, and ending the visa freeze is one step forward.”
4. Jan Carney, MD, president of the American College of Physicians told Becker’s the association “is relieved that the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services will resume processing visas for physicians who had been subject to the adjudication pause. International medical graduates and other noncitizen physicians are critical to maintaining a robust health care workforce in the U.S. We need immigration policies that recognize the benefits that noncitizen physicians and medical trainees provide to the health of the American public. We urge the administration to implement a similar categorical exemption for physicians impacted by the travel ban and increased H-1b visa fees.”
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