Medical Assistants from Other Countries

Foreign Trained Medical Assistant Immigrants

Year after year medical assistants that have received their training, degrees and other course work outside the USA are entering the USA to continue their career as immigrants, or under a Permanent Residency green card. An employer that sponsors a foreign-born person to work in the United States pays about $2,400 in application and legal fees to bring the person over. This employee is then the employer's responsibility for two years, unless another American company agrees to take over the terms of the sponsorship.

Immigrant Medical Assistants

Others arrive because they have married a US citizen abroad and are now joining their new spouse in the USA. Many arrive from Canada, Mexico and overseas, such as France, Italy, Spain, Portugal and Germany. Based on the overall the lack of regulations and absence of licensing requirements nothing is stopping immigrants working as medical assistants in the USA, however, if the medical assistant lacks the ability to speak English, or cannot translate medical terminology, or safely operate certain medical office equipment then even their otherwise best occupational skills will not be helpful at all! Although basic patient care, clinical techniques and medical practice management routines may be essentially the same here or elsewhere, different rules and regulations, as well as the language barrier will definitely be something medical assistant from another countries must consider and familiarize themselves with.

The one thing that opens doors is documentation of qualifications!

Why? Because other countries have different systems, for example, Spain, Germany and Canada have a social democratic government that provides healthcare coverage for everybody. These countries do not have HIPAA, OSHA, or Joint Commission for the Accreditation of healthcare Organizations, so their rules and regulations are fundamentally different. Also, their medical billing and coding, and healthcare insurance claims procedures are completely different. While the use of computers would be helpful, the different key commands and paperwork may still present a stumbling block to be overcome first.

International Degree Equivalency

An immigrant or foreigner on a temporary work visa coming to the United States to work as a doctor, registered nurse, occupational and physical therapist, speech language pathologist, audiologist, or any other licensed healthcare professional, or practitioner that is subject to healthcare worker licensing, registration, or certification requirements will need to have an international degree equivalency completed by the overseeing authority in the United States. This may also apply to Military spouses and dependents from other countries who are who seek employment as a licensed healthcare professional in the USA.  

Foreign U.S. Immigrant healthcare Workers:

• Commission on Graduates of Foreign Nursing Schools (CGFNS)
  CGFNS International is an immigration-neutral nonprofit organization, globally recognized as an authority on credentials evaluation of the education, registration and licensure of nurses, healthcare and other professionals worldwide. Evaluates and authorized to issue certificates to all 7 healthcare occupations.
  
  
• National Board for Certification in Occupational Therapy
  Authorized to issue certificates for occupational therapists
  
  
• Foreign Credentialing Commission on Physical Therapy
  Authorized to issue certificates for physical therapists

• Medical Assistsants from Other Countries
  
  Information and resources for those who completed their training, degrees, master's, or doctoral level course work outside the USA.
• Medical Assistants (Artzthelferin) in den USA
  
  Arzthelferinnen in den USA sind Medical Assistants. Mehr Frauen als Männer ergreifen diesen Beruf. Sie arbeiten unter der strickten Anweisung des Arztes.
• ¿Qué es un asistente médico?
  
  Los asistentes médicos lo hacen todo! Un asistente medico bien preparado es una adición perfecta para cualquier oficina médica, sea esta grande o pequeña.
• Medical Assistant Schools in Canada
  
  You can be 18 and Canadian, or 65 and German, or 35 and French and be a medical assistant, medical assisting is medical assisting whether in Canada or USA.