USDA Waiver Program Canceled

The Immigration and Naturalization Act ("INA") requires that many foreign nationals in the U.S. participating in a J-1 educational exchange program (including graduate medical training) must return to their home country for a minimum of two years at the end of their J program before they will be allowed back in the U.S. in H, L or lawful resident status. The Attorney General can grant a waiver of this requirement in many circumstances. Congress authorized certain U.S. government agencies to act as Interested Government Agencies ("IGA") which allows them to request a waiver of the two year foreign residence requirement for a foreign national if doing so would be in the public interest. The U.S. Department of Agriculture ("USDA") is one of the agencies which has been given the authority to act as an IGA.

For many years, there has been a dearth of quality medical care in rural America. In response to this critical need, the USDA has been issuing requests for waivers for foreign medical graduates so that they could work in these medically underserved areas of the U.S. These rural communities have come to rely on qualified foreign physicians to care for their people.

Last fall, the USDA apparently began an internal review of its role in the waiver process and its procedures for requesting waivers. According to a press release issued by USDA in early March, as of February 27, 2002, the USDA will no longer act as an IGA for foreign medical doctors. According to the USDA’s press release, the agency did not believe that it had the authority or the funding to screen applicants to its satisfaction, and it felt that it could not rely on other federal agencies to screen applicants for it.

This surprise move has met with resistance and criticism from congressional members who serve rural areas of the country. Several congressmen, who were particularly upset by the lack of notice the USDA provided on this program termination, have been vocal in expressing their resistance to this change, and have requested that the agency review this decision.

The press release also stated that USDA did not intend to even adjudicate the waiver requests it currently has in its system, some of which had been pending for more than six months. Recently, the USDA has indicated that it may reconsider this position, and may ultimately adjudicate all applications that are currently pending. Estimates claim there are 72 applications in the system. While it does not look like the USDA will reconsider their position, individual states will need to fill the need and create state sponsored (State 20 programs) quickly.

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