Backlogged Green Card Indian Doctors Cannot Fill US Physician Shortages

Dr Raj Karnatak, who works in the critical care unit in Wisconsin hospital recently found himself in a situation that broke his heart.

A hospital in Iowa, was looking for an intensivist or a critical care physician and offered him a job. However, Dr is on a work visa in the US and is currently stuck in a green card backlog.

US immigration policies do not allow him to offer any help to any facility other than the one he is employed in. The hospital, unable to find any qualified physician for the job, informed him that they may have to shut down their ICU facilities.

Dr Karnatak says, “We hear this almost every other day. So many hospitals across the country are in desperate need of good, qualified physicians. There are often compelling reasons involving patients who need doctors.”

But despite a willingness to help bridge this acute shortage of doctors in US, many qualified physicians such as Dr Karnatak are unable to offer any help or expertise.

“When you are on a H-1B visa you can not take temporary assignments due to strict visa limitations.”

Indian-origin physicians make up at least 29.5% of the total physician population, with India supplying the most international medical graduates to the US.

According to statistics, every 7th doctor in the US is of Indian origin, but what nobody cares to report is that how many of them are stuck in a green card backlog.