A Slowdown In Us Visa Processing Is Wreaking Havoc On Foreign Doctors’ Lives

The Trump administration is slow-walking visa renewals for foreign doctors in the United States from the 39 countries from which the president has banned visitors.

President Donald Trump says people from the countries are national security threats, but the visa pause is forcing physicians who’ve lived in the U.S. for years to stop working and exacerbating staffing shortages that are a longstanding headache for hospital administrators, more than a dozen foreign doctors told POLITICO.

The doctors, from countries like Nigeria, Venezuela and Cuba, often work in rural and underserved areas, places where American doctors are in short supply. But those physicians, numbering in the thousands, are finding themselves with no way to remain because U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has withheld visa renewals. Lawmakers’ pleas on behalf of hospitals in their districts haven’t moved the agency to speed up.

“Every health care client that I work with is experiencing more barriers to hiring than a year ago in a system that’s already overburdened and has struggled to hire,” said Samantha Wolfe, a lawyer who works with hospitals that hire foreign doctors.

POLITICO granted anonymity to foreign doctors with visa problems because they feared speaking out could affect their renewals.

The foreign doctors said months have passed without an update on their applications, even after their hospitals paid a $2,965 fee to fast-track their applications. That’s supposed to take two weeks. Some doctors said USCIS has requested more documents from them, including several years’ worth of pay stubs or further proof of their medical licenses.

Though Trump’s travel ban does not apply to visa holders in the U.S., the USCIS introduced a policy in December pausing visa renewals and updates for people from those countries. Because many medical residencies begin or end over the summer, a glut of physician visas is expiring now, forcing foreign doctors to forgo jobs and miss deadlines for fellowships.

“The United States has been a place of stability. I spent more than 10 years passing boards, trying to get certifications. I never took a single penny from a social welfare program. And now I need to change my life all out of nowhere,” said one foreign physician on the possibility of leaving a hospital job where they are the only doctor in their specialty in a rural county.

USCIS is funded by processing fees and remained open even as the Department of Homeland Security shut down over the last several weeks due to a funding impasse in Congress.

After physicians reached out to the agency via their representatives in Congress, an unnamed USCIS congressional liaison acknowledged the persistent delays and said each case would receive an “individualized review,” according to an email shared with POLITICO.

Matthew Tragesser, a USCIS spokesman, said the Biden administration failed to adequately screen foreigners, requiring more scrutiny on “countries with poor records on their citizens.”

“USCIS has paused all adjudications for aliens from President Trump’s designated high-risk countries while we work to ensure they are vetted and screened to the maximum degree possible,” Tragesser said in a statement.

Physicians on H-1Bs, which are visas for highly skilled workers, can keep treating patients for 240 days after their visa expires.

Some have now passed that date. “You have a bunch of physicians, well-trained, who are just sitting at home doing nothing,” said a Pennsylvania physician from Nigeria who cannot work because their H-1B has expired.

“For the first two weeks, I was losing my mind. It’s like being on the bench of a team, watching everyone play, and you can’t play,” the physician continued.

The American Medical Association and the American College of Physicians, both groups that represent doctors, have put pressure on DHS. They argued in February letters to the department that physicians with foreign medical degrees should be exempted from the visa pause because they are critical to national security.

“Without them, access to care for millions of Americans would be compromised,” said Renee Butkus of the American College of Physicians in a news release. “Delays or pauses can force physicians to stop seeing patients, disrupt hospital staffing and interrupt continuity of care.”

There are more than 10,000 physician H-1B visa holders in the U.S. and more than 17,000 doctors with J-1s, another type of visa also subject to the hold. Many nurses, lab techs and other health care workers are stuck in the visa pause as well.

Barb Martin, who directs outpatient care hiring for Mercy — a Midwestern health system with 55 hospitals — said that stalled visa petitions have become an “exponential administrative burden” for the system.

“We’re in a position right now where we don’t have a path to offer them employment, especially the specialists,” she said about some medical fellows in visa limbo. “Physician petitions need to be prioritized.”

The Texas Hospital Association, which has pushed Trump to exempt physicians from his $100,000 fee for new H-1B applicants, said accessible visas are vital to easing workforce shortages. The Healthcare Association of New York State likewise said their member hospitals have “deep concern” about the immigration policies.

Foreign-trained doctors have rallied against the delays and dozens have filed lawsuits in federal court. Last week, more than 100 Syrian doctors in the U.S. met with immigration lawyers to share stories of careers disrupted and to consider legal options.

“It’s not fair for those professionals to get paused while the country has a shortage in the health care industry,” said Ahmad Keichour, a Syrian orthodontist in Texas who helped lead the group, in an interview.

“I hope especially with the new secretary that things will get better,” he said, referring to DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin, who was sworn in last week.

Many physicians held out hope that USCIS would trim down their visa hold after 90 days, when the agency promised new guidance. But that update came on Monday and kept the pause in its place.