International鈥揢nited States medical graduates (I-USMGs)
are non鈥揢S citizen graduates of US medical schools. Although
academically equivalent to US-citizen peers, they are subject to the
same visa requirements as non鈥揢S citizen international medical
graduates. We hypothesized that visa sponsorship policies of general
surgery programs (GSPs) may be discordant with the enrollment patterns
of I-USMGs. A total of 196 GSPs participated in a telephone survey
regarding visa sponsorship policies. Whereas GSPs preferred J-1 to
H-1B sponsorship (64.2% vs 32.6%), I-USMG enrollment favored programs
supporting H-1B sponsorship (72.1% vs 7.5%) (P听=听.01). University-affiliated programs were more likely
to sponsor H1-Bs than independent programs (39.6% vs 24.4%) (P听=听.03) and trained a greater proportion
of I-USMGs than independent programs (40.6% vs 14.0%) (P听<听.01). Restrictive policies against H-1B sponsorship
may limit GSPs' I-USMG applicant pool and restrict I-USMGs' surgical
training options.