How would a 30-year-old Mexican anesthesiologist student finishing his
studies in Mexico begin to explore opportunities in a western country
(U.S., Europe, Canada)?  Where would he look for information,
agencies, or assistance in immigrating and working?

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Clarification of Question by amsterdam-ga on 11 Feb 2004 03:40 PST

Thanks - both sites are useful.  However, I'm asking this for an
acquaintance in Mexico, and I think I'm looking for more practical
information.  Who would he contact or what steps might he take.

Hi Amsterdam,
I have looked into this further, and have found two Websites that
should prove useful to your friend.

Going on the assumption that the best way for him to achieve his goal
is to first FIND a position and THEN obtain the necessary visa, I
searched "international physician recruitment."

This Yahoo page is an excellent compendium of such recruitment resources:
http://dir.yahoo.com/business_and_economy/business_to_business/corporate_services/human_resources/recruiting_and_placement/career_fields/physicians/

And within this Yahoo page, this company--CanAm Recruiting--seemed to
offer the greatest amount of useful information, not only about
positions that are open, but also about applicable immigration laws
and procedures in both Canada and the US:
http://canamrecruiting.com/

I hope these will serve as a good beginning point.
Good luck!
scribe_ga

Thanks - I will forward this informatiion to my friend - it should be a start.

Hello amsterdam,
You ask a complex question. I did begin to look into this, and have
these links for you.

This link contains the relevant section of U.S. Immigration law:
http://uscis.gov/lpBin/lpext.dll/inserts/slb/slb-1/slb-21/slb-2385?f=templates&fn=document-frame.htm#slb-act212e

This other link (again US) may be of interest to you since it
describes an interesting opportunity to faciliate admission to the US,
when the physician commits to working in an "underserved area."
http://uscis.gov/graphics/services/residency/physwaiver.htm

If these are useful and you would like to see what else I might find,
let me know and I will post an answer.
scribe_ga

This list of attorneys in several states who specialize in healthcare
provider immigration may be useful to your friend. The fact that so
many such firms do such work suggests to me that it may be difficult
for an individual to do it successfully on his own.
http://www.practicesight.com/Directories/Physician%20immigration%20attorneys.htm