<p>Hi everyone,
Although I hold an Indian citezenship, I've lived outside of India for almost my whole life. I'm starting 12th grade in August and was planning to go the US to study medicine. However after some research I found out that its very hard for international applicants to apply to med schools in the US which in most cases is only possible if you hold permanent residency (doing undergraduation is perfectly fine). Even if you have that, exceptional results and sometimes proof that you can fund your whole med school education is required.
Has anyone else wanting to become a doctor in the US considered this? Has it put your career path in the US on hold or are you planning to get a permanent residency and get over this problem?</p>
<p>You realize that in the US, you do not apply from 12th grade to medical school (with rare special program exceptions), right? In the US, first you go to college, and during your 4th year, you apply separately to medical school. Going to college is no guarantee of getting into medical school.</p>
<p>Yea I do realize that, which is the reason why I put in brackets that doing undergraduation is perfectly fine (if you are an international student). This post is about what happens after completing undergraduation at college.</p>
<p>well to solve that problem, try to get US citizenship while you are an undergraduate.</p>
<p>^lol, that’s not as easy as you made it sound. :P</p>
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<p>That will take years and years.</p>
<p>OP: Try doing your med school in another country, and then come to the US to work.</p>
<p>In order to get citizenship, you would have to stay in the US for the most of a given year for at least 7 years (given that you have your green card before that). It is easier to do med school in another country and then come to the US. But you have to take the very tough licensing exam which all US based med school teach around.</p>
<p>Actually, getting a green card would be useful.</p>
<p>Granted, it took my family 8 years after coming to the US to get our green card (we came in 2000). We aren’t eligible for citizenship until 2013 (5 years residency in the US qualifies me for citizenship).</p>
<p>yah but Grisam, even if you have your greeen card, they still call you a “permanent residence”.</p>
<p>^Which is hell of a lot better than being on a visa.</p>
<p>So does that mean I will only be granted permanent residency after 8 years? That means that even if I start now, I will be done with undergraduation and then have to wait 3 more years to get into med school which I really dont want to do. I guess the only option is to come back to the US after completing med school from someplace else.
Has anyone else faced this dilemma before on here?</p>
<p>Kaus123, getting green card is all about luck dude, if you apply as soon as you get here, then it might take to I don’t know years but it took my family like 10 years for our green card when we first got to U.S. But I think you can also apply by EAD card or if you just have social security. I don’t this that much.</p>