Highly Trained Immigrant Physicians Are Being Blocked From Saving Lives

Immigrant physicians are essential to the U.S. healthcare system, providing life-saving care to patients across the country. Yet, many are currently blocked from practicing, not because of lack of skill or misconduct, but due to the ongoing USCIS adjudication pause under USCIS Policy Memorandum PM-602-0194 affecting professionals from 39 countries. Immigration applications and work authorizations for many physicians have been effectively frozen. This delay is not just bureaucratic, it directly affects patient care and puts lives at risk.

Hospitals are losing surgeons. Clinics are losing specialists. Patients are losing access to life-saving treatment. Ensuring continuity of care and protecting access to essential health care services are matters of national importance.

The American College of Physicians (ACP) has formally written to USCIS, expressing deep concern over the pause and highlighting the urgent need to allow these highly trained doctors to continue their work. These physicians are critical to hospitals, clinics, and communities, especially in underserved areas where patient care depends on their expertise.

Physician Shortage:

The U.S. is already facing a major physician shortage, and it’s getting worse. We simply do not have enough doctors to meet the demand. Immigrant physicians are indispensable to strengthening the nations primary care infrastructure.

About 1 in 4 doctors in this country is an immigrant physician.

Many work in:

• Rural hospitals
• Underserved communities
• Areas where access to care is already limited

For some patients, losing even one doctor means losing access to care entirely.

What This Looks Like in Real Life:

• In a local hospital, a surgeon is suddenly pulled out of the schedule due to these delays. Overnight, remaining surgeons are asked to take on more patients, more call, and longer hours. The system doesn’t adjust smoothly, it strains.
• In a rural community, a cardiologist is no longer able to work. There is no immediate replacement. Patients with serious heart conditions now face delays in care, longer travel times, or uncertainty about where to go in an emergency.
• In a major city, oncology physicians are removed from coverage. The result is immediate: fewer doctors on the floor, more patients per provider, and rising pressure on teams already stretched thin.

When Physicians Lose Work Authorization or Cannot Renew Their Immigration Status:

• Hospitals immediately lose trained specialists
• Patients lose continuity of care they depend on
• Surgeries and lifesaving treatments are disrupted
• Essential services wait times increase, sometimes dangerously 

These physicians are not easily replaceable: training a new physician takes over a decade; critical sub specialized physicians like orthopedic surgeons, oncologists, and intensivists require even more years of training.

“The American Medical Association wrote to the Department of Homeland Security that one doctor estimated their work suspension left more than 900 patients without sufficient care.” — Axios (March 24, 2026)

Our Urgent Request:

We call on the federal government and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to:

1. Immediately resume adjudication of immigration applications for affected physicians
2. Provide transparency regarding any policy pauses or additional vetting procedures
3. Ensure physicians who are present can continue providing care while their applications are processed
4. Protect hospitals and patients from disruptions caused by immigration processing delays

Call to Action:

America cannot afford to sideline the doctors who keep our healthcare system running. Immigrant physicians are not just applicants, they are surgeons, specialists, and frontline caregivers treating millions of Americans. Every day these doctors are stalled, patients suffer.

We urge USCIS to lift the adjudication pause immediately, allowing immigrant physicians to provide the care our communities desperately need.

We call on Members of Congress and policy makers who have expressed support of physicians and the American people in need of care to act now.

Sign this petition to protect immigrant physicians, restore fair and timely immigration processing for immigrant physicians and ensure patients continue receiving the critical care they deserve.