[ramillott]

(Original post by .eXe)
Yeah go for it, please do post what you find. I am hoping I am wrong to be honest. UK immigration laws have been changing quite a bit, most recently on April 6 of this year, so you never know.

Sure I'll post up any information I find out that might be helpful "and so the politics of medicine rears its ugly head"

[.eXe]

(Original post by tpxvs)
Again just curious, how do canadians (etc) get British citizenships then? (apart from marrying a national). Are you not allowed to apply for jobs here once you qualify - and hence it'd be counted towards residency? If not, how come doctors from overseas do exist here and spend a lot of their working life here and surely some take on the citizenship.

Once you graduate, if you manage to get a job, then you can apply for a work-permit and your 5 years residency requirement begins. However, it can't be just any random job, it has to pay above a certain amount.

Go here: http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/vi...u-need-a-visa/

Enter your information and it will tell you the different possibilities. In the first option, select "work".

[ramillott]

(Original post by tpxvs)
Again just curious, how do canadians (etc) get British citizenships then? (apart from marrying a national). Are you not allowed to apply for jobs here once you qualify - and hence it'd be counted towards residency? If not, how come doctors from overseas do exist here and spend a lot of their working life here and surely some take on the citizenship.

From what I've been reading, most places don't offer international students places for residency, and without residency, you can't practice. So as far as I can see, to be a doctor from overseas, you would have to have finished all your training, and then actually work (not study) for 3 years in the UK before applying for citizenship.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/story/...-overseas.html

I could be totally off the mark on this one, but that's what I'm guessing...

[.eXe]

(Original post by ramillott)
From what I've been reading, most places don't offer international students places for residency, and without residency, you can't practice. So as far as I can see, to be a doctor from overseas, you would have to have finished all your training, and then actually work (not study) for 3 years in the UK before applying for citizenship.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/story/...-overseas.html

I could be totally off the mark on this one, but that's what I'm guessing...

Well it's not entirely impossible to get residency training in the US for IMGs. If you do well in the USMLE (usually written in the 5th year of med school), then you should be able to match in US schools. If not in the best specialties, you will atleast have a chance at family or internal. Coming back to Canada however is a different story.

Unless you have a strong set of references here willing to back you, it's next to impossible.

[ukmed108]

(Original post by ramillott)
From what I've been reading, most places don't offer international students places for residency, and without residency, you can't practice. So as far as I can see, to be a doctor from overseas, you would have to have finished all your training, and then actually work (not study) for 3 years in the UK before applying for citizenship.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/story/...-overseas.html

I could be totally off the mark on this one, but that's what I'm guessing...

Ramillott, I was accepted to the St. Andrews A990 program and i'm about 80% sure I will go. After asking the university many questions about the program I was matched with the mentor for the program. He is a graduate of St. Andrews and Edinburgh as well and hes also the examiner for the licensing exams in the medical council of canada as well as the chief examiner for the alberta img program. Supposedly he is supposed to help us with our applications back to Canada. I've also spoken to someone who did go to the UK for medical school (Canadian as well) and he got a residency position in internal medicine at McMaster. He told me everyone (8 Canadians in his year) but 2 in his year matched back to Canada. The other 2 got married in the UK.

The program also has 4 months in Alberta which is supposed to make us more competitive when applying for residencies. This program really is in its infancy so its still risky to apply. Honestly, if you can I would apply to Canadian medical schools first and foremost just because it will just be so much easier. Anyways, since you are from Alberta it should be easier than for us in Ontario. Its almost impossible to enter medical school from if you lived in Ontario especially the GTA. Otherwise, if you can afford the outrageous tuition, I would really consider St. Andrews A990. It won't allow you to practice in the UK but it will try and help you get back to Canada (i hope).

[ramillott]

(Original post by ukmed108)
Ramillott, I was accepted to the St. Andrews A990 program and i'm about 80% sure I will go. After asking the university many questions about the program I was matched with the mentor for the program. He is a graduate of St. Andrews and Edinburgh as well and hes also the examiner for the licensing exams in the medical council of canada as well as the chief examiner for the alberta img program. Supposedly he is supposed to help us with our applications back to Canada. I've also spoken to someone who did go to the UK for medical school (Canadian as well) and he got a residency position in internal medicine at McMaster. He told me everyone (8 Canadians in his year) but 2 in his year matched back to Canada. The other 2 got married in the UK.

The program also has 4 months in Alberta which is supposed to make us more competitive when applying for residencies. This program really is in its infancy so its still risky to apply. Honestly, if you can I would apply to Canadian medical schools first and foremost just because it will just be so much easier. Anyways, since you are from Alberta it should be easier than for us in Ontario. Its almost impossible to enter medical school from if you lived in Ontario especially the GTA. Otherwise, if you can afford the outrageous tuition, I would really consider St. Andrews A990. It won't allow you to practice in the UK but it will try and help you get back to Canada (i hope).

WOW! I can't believe there's actually someone on here doing the program!! I couldn't really get in touch with anyone who had done it before. I know its a brand new program and the chair of our department has really been pushing people to apply for it. It's expensive though! 6 yrs! But I'm sure its worth it. Do you have an email I can contact you at? This is so exciting to actually talk to someone who might be doing the program!

[roh]

For those of you wondering how to UK citizenship I'm afraid that's just going to get harder judging by current political mood music, but you are of course assuming you have to get UK citizenship to work in the UK.... We are in the EU, whether the Mail likes it or not, so there are other possibilities.

If you have any parents or grandparents with citizenship of one of the 27 member states get it, move to that country for a period of 3 months (though check this, might be more because of the professional codes) and then return to the UK apply for jobs and demand to exercise your rights as an EU citizen. As a possible doctor they will basically put a big test in front of you and you just have to pass it.

Otherwise just try and get the citizenship of somewhere that isn't as strict in its controls, though this could be more difficult and try and avoid Romania and Bulgaria as they still have some limits on full exercise of EU rights.

Alternatively look for some loopholes around controversial political issues, for this you'll probably need to hire a brief to make sure it all goes through legit. Options include getting Irish nationality by living in Northern Ireland (though this loophole may have closed...), then getting Ireland to argue you've lived on 'their' soil for 3 months whilst actually being at QUB for example. There will be others dotted around and once you've got EU citizenship (ie. citizenship of any EU state) EU law makes it very hard to remove that citizenship.

[The International]

I am an American student studying in the UK, so I can't help with a lot of the questions here, but I can help with a bit. I think with getting UK residency, you have to live here 3 years, on a NON-STUDENT visa. So being here for medical school won't count. Also you can extend your student visa to include your foundation years. Then I think you can apply for a Tier 2 work visa for your specialty training, if you get accepted to a post. Technically I think that the place you have the post with will have to prove that no other EU workers can fill your spot. However, from talking to other international students in higher years than me, the general feeling I get is that if you do well and make a competitive application for yourself you will probably get the visa (though I don't know if this is absolutely true so don't take me word for it.) This sort of makes sense, people say that the UK doesn't like spending tons of money on international students and then losing them.

As for paying the fees, I think that it is important for you to research the costs for each school. In particular you will find that some medical schools have different tuition for clinical vs pre-clinical years. I'm currently at QUB (which is great by the way!) and tuition here is lower for the first two years, and then it goes up. When I was looking at lots of other UK schools their tuition was the higher number for all 5 years.

Anyway, I can't help with canada specific things, but let me know if I can help with anything else!

[.eXe]

(Original post by The International)
I am an American student studying in the UK, so I can't help with a lot of the questions here, but I can help with a bit. I think with getting UK residency, you have to live here 3 years, on a NON-STUDENT visa. So being here for medical school won't count. Also you can extend your student visa to include your foundation years. Then I think you can apply for a Tier 2 work visa for your specialty training, if you get accepted to a post. Technically I think that the place you have the post with will have to prove that no other EU workers can fill your spot. However, from talking to other international students in higher years than me, the general feeling I get is that if you do well and make a competitive application for yourself you will probably get the visa (though I don't know if this is absolutely true so don't take me word for it.) This sort of makes sense, people say that the UK doesn't like spending tons of money on international students and then losing them.

As for paying the fees, I think that it is important for you to research the costs for each school. In particular you will find that some medical schools have different tuition for clinical vs pre-clinical years. I'm currently at QUB (which is great by the way!) and tuition here is lower for the first two years, and then it goes up. When I was looking at lots of other UK schools their tuition was the higher number for all 5 years.

Anyway, I can't help with canada specific things, but let me know if I can help with anything else!

Unfortunately tier 2 (post-grad study) doesnt exist anymore as of april 6 this year

[The International]

(Original post by .eXe)
Unfortunately tier 2 (post-grad study) doesnt exist anymore as of april 6 this year

A post-study work visa was Tier 1, and that is closed, but there is still a Tier 2 skilled worker visa which has nothing to do with if you did a degree in the UK. You just have to have an employer willing to sponsor you.

[.eXe]

(Original post by The International)
A post-study work visa was Tier 1, and that is closed, but there is still a Tier 2 skilled worker visa which has nothing to do with if you did a degree in the UK. You just have to have an employer willing to sponsor you.

Whoops youre right i got my tiers mixed up.

For the current tier 2 is there a minimum salary requirement?

[The International]

(Original post by .eXe)
Whoops youre right i got my tiers mixed up.

For the current tier 2 is there a minimum salary requirement?

Yes, unless your employer completes a resident labour market test, or there is some sort of exemption for the job you want (it doesn't have specifics for medicine.) It is all very confusing with the way it is worded. I think they have to make the regulations very tight to keep people out where competition for jobs is high, however I think that for medical students, if they paid to train us they might not mind keeping us.

[nivea]

Hey guys, one quick question. After you are accepted into a medical school do they ask you to get all your document's certified(even if you gave them original transcripts)? So like the following:

1) highschool transcript
2) university transcript
3) passport
4) financial information to demonstrate that you are able to fund your studies.

[Glia]

(Original post by nivea)
Hey guys, one quick question. After you are accepted into a medical school do they ask you to get all your document's certified(even if you gave them original transcripts)? So like the following:

1) highschool transcript
2) university transcript
3) passport
4) financial information to demonstrate that you are able to fund your studies.

Re: 1&2 just give them the sealed envelopes. Schools typically put a seal on the envelope saying something along the lines of "official unless opened".

Re: 3&4 haven't gotten there yet so I'm not sure how official they want it.

[AbuAK]

(Original post by nivea)
Hey guys, one quick question. After you are accepted into a medical school do they ask you to get all your document's certified(even if you gave them original transcripts)? So like the following:

1) highschool transcript
2) university transcript
3) passport
4) financial information to demonstrate that you are able to fund your studies.

1. Sent an official transcript with the Province of Alberta or w.e seal on there
2. Did not go to uni
3. Took it with me during the interview
4. Thats for Visa, but since Canada is from a "low risk nation" or something, we don't necessarily have to show all that proof

With financing our studies, we can get government student loans up to 150K and also line of credits from banks ranging from 150-250K. With line of credits, make sure you look at repayment, interest and grace free period!!! Check to see when you have to start making payments for bank loans/line of credit, some of them you don't have to pay at all until after you graduate or finish your residency, some are interest only payment even during school and look at how the interest works. Weather or not its prime rate or prime + and also what the interest free period is, with government student loans no interest during school and also 6 months after graduation, some of the line of credits is the same.
Does anybody know how intercalating works as international students? Being an IMG, having a BSc could possibly help get you a residency spot in Canada or US, or maybe a better and more competitive spots.