The USA vs Canada for IMGs

via USA vs Canada for IMGs

 

	Canada	USA
Number of programs	Only university programs. There are 17 medical universities in Canada that offer post-grad medical training. If you exclude French programs, that shortens that number to 13-14 universities offering training programs	Both universities and community hospital offer post-grad training which translates to hundreds of programs available to apply to
Who can apply?	Only Canadian citizens or Permanent residents. Must be graduates of medical school on  World Directory of Medical Schools published by FAIMER	Theoretically, anyone who has completed the USMLEs. People can match and work on a number of visa combinations. Don’t ask me more, the US visa system is too complicated for my brain.
How it works	In the first round, IMG can only apply for seats earmarked for IMGs. All unmatched seats from the first round are opened to both IMGs and CMGs in the second round. Please note there are some provincial differences in SK and QB	All seats are open to both IMGs and local graduates. Some programs do make distinctions on how many IMG applicants they may take in total but on paper, I believe every seat is open for application
Exams required	Keeps changing. At the time of writing this article, MCCQE1 and NACOSCE are mandatory. The MCCEE is being phased out. Updates at https://www.mccevolution.ca/international-students-graduates/assessment-overview/	USMLE Step 1, Step 2 CK and CS. Step 3 is optional
Total approx exams costs	$3735 CAD	$2550 USD
Word on the street	“Impossible” to match as IMG.	Hard but worth the effort
Success rate	20% IMGs matched after both rounds in 2018 as per CARMS	56.5% IMG matched as per ECFMG in 2018