9th Circuit Rules in Favor of Doctors in Low Income Neighborhoods

A federal appeals court has overturned government rules that made it harder for immigrant doctors to qualify for permanent legal residence by working in inner cities and other areas where medical providers are in short supply.

A lawyer for immigrant doctors who sued over the rules said the decision would help hundreds of physicians and their patients.

The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco said Wednesday  that regulations adopted by immigration officials in 2000 conflicted with a law Congress had passed a year earlier to encourage noncitizen doctors to practice in areas that were designated as medically underserved.

The law allows a doctor who is in the United States on a temporary visa to qualify for a green card, and permanent legal status, by working for five years in an underserved area, typically in an inner city or a rural community. The requirement was limited to three years for doctors who had applied to a previous version of the program before November 1998. Click here.

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