J-1 Visa Waiver

[Shazbot]

I wonder if this has ever been exploited? It would be pretty sad, though, to can the program altogether...

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,128198,00.html

After the Sept. 11 attacks, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (search) scaled back the visa waivers for the doctors from overseas, made possible by the J-1 Visa Program (search). But that program lapsed on June 1, which has health care advocates and small towns very concerned.

More than a thousand small-town communities across the country, like Jasper, Texas, rely on foreign educated doctors because many American doctors would rather not work in rural areas.

But small-town America is at risk of losing its doctors to deportation if Congress doesn’t reauthorize the visa program.

Health care experts say the terror-related risks with the doctors’ visa policy are minimal. But some immigration analysts say the program has little oversight, and rural communities should instead focus on making small-town medicine more appealing to American doctors.