Conrad 30: Opportunity for foreign medical graduates

The Conrad 30 program, named for Sen. Kent Conrad of North Dakota is meant to address physician's shortages in primary care in rural and urban areas by granting visa waivers. There are many parallels to the technology industry where foreign graduates are trained in the US and then due to immigration restrictions, must return to their home country leaving the US with a "brain drain." To qualify for the program, graduates of US residency programs must have an offer of full-time employment and serve for a period of no less than three years. These are physicians which the institution failed to recruit an American citizen for. Some of the states allow for specialists but the focus is primary care and general psychiatry. An immigration lawyer typically would be involved in this process.