Immigration issues in hiring alien physicians as teachers

Although U.S. immigration laws give favorable treatment to college and university teachers, hiring of alien physicians by medical schools and health sciences universities remains problematic, reflecting the impact of the 1976 Health Care Professions Act and the Immigration Control and Reform Act of 1986. The authors outline the steps in the hiring process to provide a useful reference for department chairpersons and division heads and to help them deal with the school administrators, attorneys, and immigration officials they will encounter during the hiring process. Of particular importance is understanding recruiting procedures, visa classifications, and the prohibition in hiring physicians directly from their U.S. residency and fellowship positions without having them first return for two years to their home countries. A common error is to recruit medical school faculty without first considering that the final candidates might be aliens; when they are, the process of hiring aliens must be dealt with retroactively. Immigration law currently does allow hiring an alien physician (as a teacher) if that physician is the most qualified candidate.