Someone told me today that Ministry of Health in ontario will now sponsor you for a J1 visa to do residency in the US and then allow you to come back to ontario and do a fellowship without having to do a prelim yr or repeat a residency in canada(provided you pass the cdn licensing exams and board certification? exams)

Is there any truth to this?? Has something recently changed? I havent heard anything about this anywhere else so im just curious if its really true if its just more rumors..

after you do a residency in the u.s.
you have to come back to canada
then you have to pass mccee, mccqe part 1, mccqe part 2 and the canadian residency boards
then you end up in some rural town for several years
. . .worst visa
and you can't get a waiver to stay in the u.s., because canada does not issue the 'no-objection' letters
. . .if you have any intelligence you will get h-1b

comparison on j-1 and h-1b

The UPSIDES of H1 visa are:


It is convertible to any other visa or immigration status, especially to a green card, with or without the approval of your employer. This is the most attractive feature of H1 Visa.
You do not need a no-objection from your country or state or province.
You do not need to return to your country or enter any waiver program. At worst, you need to renew your H1B visa when it expires.
A faster processing in 3 weeks is available now at a cost of $1000.
More and more residency institutions are accepting this visa now.
For universities and large educational institutions, there is NO cap.




The DOWNSIDES of J-1 are:


You can change your training program a limited number of times only, probably once, during your J1 visa duration.
NO OBJECTION REQUIREMENT. You need a no-objection from your country and maybe from your state or province also. A big problem if you are from Canada. Most candidates inform that they will pursue further training in a high-tech field of medicine for which the current residency is a prerequisite in the US.
FOREIGN RESIDENCE REQUIREMENT. You need to return to your last country of residence for two years after the end of J1 validity/your training/7 years. (Some countries of origin do not impose this requirement on their citizens, most do.) If you can get an employment in the US after those two years, you may come back on an employment visa or on any other permanent status. Very inconvenient to most, but manageable by using the Waiver. See below.
NONCONVERTIBILITY. It is not convertible to any other visa or immigration status until either the foreign residence or the waiver period requirment is met. This is the most inconvenient one. There is, however, a tortuous escape route - the Waiver!.