Shooting for residency after internship or after PG surgery?

[sakib_kmc]

Hi,
I'm from Bangladesh and this is being in my thoughts for a while. My final prof is over and internship is going to start within 2 weeks. I'm interested in doing residency in surgery (general) in the US and try to get a fellowship later.
The way I thought was, completing up to step 2 ck within 1 year after internship, then try for some USCE and also sit for step 2 CS while in the US (ok, i know it'll be very tough).
But after talking to some seniors and seeing some posts, I think what if I try for surgery PG in my country, then I apply for residency in the US? Even then I have to take the steps. And being a senior PG, will the chances of getting a residency get feeble?
But one thing is, I'll get a good surgical exposure in my country but not the research and latest technology. I'm really confused. Please suggest me which one is better? Doing pg in home country and then usmle? Or start the process after mbbs internship? And what are the suitable schools offering almost free electives to IMG during their internship?

[Sabio]

There are many factors that affect the chances of getting residency, here's some of them:

USMLE Scores
USCE
US LoRs
Year of Graduation
Need for Visa
Prior Experience

If I compare the Year of Graduation to Prior experience I would probably say that freshness is more important than prior overseas experience, also look here http://www.usmle-forums.com/residenc...g-filters.html

The reason I say that is the following:
Most surgery residency programs belong to big universities rather than simple community hospitals.
University program directors specifically look for fresh graduates and they usually do not like old grads even if the old grad has home country experience, they usually do not recognize any experience outside USA.

So I'd say shoot for US residency right after your graduation and internship and the sooner you come to US the better will be your chances.

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[sakib_kmc]

Thanks sabio for your reply. One more thing, our internship is not within our graduation, so I cannot go for any electives I guess. And that will be a great set back for me. But I can work hard for an externship in the US, if I can get the visa for my step 2 CS exam. Could you tell me about my possibility of being considered for any program (im, fm,other) coz I'm reconsidering my plans on studying surgery :-(