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US plans curbs on programmes for foreign doctors

Washington Dec. 30. Citing terror threats, the Bush administration is cancelling or curbing programmes that encouraged foreign doctors to work in rural areas and later become American citizens, a move that could affect Indian doctors and hurt the U.S. healthcare in the long run, a report said.

The curbs began earlier this year, when the Agricultural Department, citing national security and the September 11 attacks, abolished the programme for foreign-born doctors that it administered, The Wall Street Journal reported today.

Indian doctors make a significant proportion of those willing to serve in the rural areas, as it is a gateway to the Green Card and eventual citizenship.

The programme, which sponsored more than 3,000 foreign doctors, waived ``return home'' requirements, which forced foreign doctors studying here to return to their homeland for at least two years after completing their medical training, it said.

The waiver allowed the doctors to stay in the U.S. if they worked in rural communities in America for three to five years, the paper said.

During that time the doctors' employers could sponsor them for permanent residency or Green Card by giving the Government evidence that their spots could not be filled with American-born doctors. Efforts are, however, under way to keep the programme intact.

PTI

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