IMG residency-applicant interviews: Follow these do’s and don’ts

In 2024, 9,045 international medical graduates (IMGs) obtained first-year residency positions in accredited U.S. physician residency programs. But the process of landing one of those coveted positions is not easy. 

The Match rate for IMGs lag is lower than that of residency applicants who attend medical school in the U.S. In 2024, 67% of U.S. citizen IMGs matched, as did 58.5% of non-U.S. citizen IMGs. The figure is typically between 90–95% for graduates of U.S. medical schools. 

More than a decade ago, AMA member Kamalika Roy, MD, made the journey from India to continue her medical training in the U.S. as an IMG. She went through the Match process twice. After not landing a residency position on her first attempt, she worked as a research assistant in the interim. 

“Staying in the country, understanding the network, understanding the system, it actually improved my interview and the chances next time,” said Dr. Roy, now an associate professor of psychiatry at Oregon Health & Science University. 

With residency interviews underway, Dr. Roy and Victor Kolade, MD—both members of the AMA International Medical Graduates Section (AMA-IMGS)—offered these tips for IMGs.

When an interview question arises that gives you pause, don’t give the answer you think an interviewer is looking for. Instead, be yourself. 

“During an interview, it's very important to stay genuine,” Dr. Roy said. “It's better not to try to cram answers or say something that you read somewhere. It's always good to be genuine and give the answer that comes to your mind and that actually describes you as a person—because the people who are interviewing you, they are pretty smart. They have been doing this every year, but with hundreds of doctors.”

The AMA helps medical students master the residency-application process so you can make the right decisions about your career, prepare for a knockout interview, explore residency opportunities—all so you can successfully match.

Dr. Kolade is a U.S. citizen IMG who spent 20 years in Nigeria, where he completed medical school prior to returning stateside to pursue an internal medicine residency. During an episode of the “AMA Making the Rounds” podcast, he highlighted the importance of knowing what’s on your CV and being able to explain differences in training and your previous work experiences to interviewers. 

“Sometimes when you hear what IMGs are talking about with their work experience, they don't seem real to the way that we practice in this part of the world,” Dr. Kolade said. 

“If somebody writes in his bio that he was seeing 40 patients a day in the job he took in the first year after residency, that's unusual for somebody who's first year out of anything over here. So, somebody may ask, 

‘Tell us more about that. What did that mean?’”

Dive deeper:

• Meet Your Match: An IMG's guide to residency selection with Victor Kolade, MD
• How IMGs successfully navigate the Match process
• The IMG path: overcoming big barriers to practice medicine in U.S.
• Key advice for IMGs to succeed in U.S. medicine

If you are a non-U.S. citizen IMG, programs are aware of your visa status going into an interview. Still, Dr. Roy says, it doesn’t hurt to broach the topic. 

“It's always advisable to ask that question directly, just to remind that person that you still need the visa sponsorship and how would that process be dealt with,” she said. “Generally, the program director will be able to answer the question by themselves or direct you to the person who would be able to address it.”

Dr. Roy is a former chair of the AMA IMGS Governing Council, which produced the AMA IMG Physician Toolkit. She also serves as the minority and underrepresented Trustee on the Board of the American Psychiatric Association. 

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From Dr. Roy’s experience, practice made for a more seamless interview process the second time around. 

“I did practice with my own answers,” said Dr. Roy, now an alternate delegate for the AMA Academic Physicians Section. “And I practiced doing interview questions with a couple of colleagues before booking for the interviews.” 

Dive deeper:

• Meet your Match: Assessing program culture during virtual residency interviews
• Interviewing for physician residency programs
• What residency applicants should know before interviews
• When should you expect physician residency interview invites?
• These are the interview questions you should prep for

“Programs want to get to know how you function and operate,” Dr. Kolade said. “At the same time, they want to be assured that you can process clinical knowledge.”

He shared an anecdote about being corrected during an interview for providing outdated clinical information on a health condition. Dr. Kolade recommends UpToDate as the go-to resource to ensure your clinical knowledge is accurate and current.

“You may find different websites that say different things,” Dr. Kolade said. “You may even find publications, journal articles and so on that say different things. You need to be careful about the fact that information turns rapidly over in our information system here in the U.S.”

Dr. Roy also found that working with people on interview prep and in a clinical setting created more stakeholders in her success. 

“All of these experiences came up during the interview process and my mentors, my teachers who I had worked with doing that almost an eight-month period [between the two matches], they actually reached out to the programs,” she said. “They were contacting program directors asking if the program director needed any other information, supporting my interview or supporting my application.”