On March 20, only 56.4% of non-U.S. international medical graduates matched to a post-graduate year 1, or PGY-1, position, representing a 1.6% decrease from 2025 and a five-year low for these applicants, according to the National Resident Matching Program.
Match Day 2026 recorded a 93.5% match rate for all positions and a 93.3% rate for PGY-1 positions, which are both 0.8% lower than 2025 match rates. Overall, 53,373 applicants registered, and 41,482 of 44,344 total residency positions were filled, according to the National Resident Matching Program.
The two largest applicant pools, U.S. MD seniors with 20,934 active applicants and U.S. DO seniors with 8,503 active applicants, experienced a slight increase or no change in PGY-1 match rate percentage. Among international medical graduates, the 4,210 active applicants who are U.S. citizens recorded a 70% match rate — the highest on record.
Among the 11,944 active applicants who are not U.S. citizens, their match rate declined to 56.4% — the lowest level observed in five years.
“[International medical graduates] play an important role in the U.S. physician workforce, and recent federal immigration policy changes have increased attention to visa sponsorship considerations in residency recruitment for foreign-born candidates,” the National Resident Matching Program said in a March 20 news release.
Visa sponsorship might have played a role in this trend. In 2025, foreign-born international medical graduates requiring visa sponsorship had a PGY-1 match rate of 54.4%, a five-year low, while 67.9% of this applicant pool that did not need visa sponsorship has a 67.9% match rate, a five-year high.
“The highest match rate for foreign-born IMGs requiring a visa occurred in 2023 (59.1%), while foreign-born IMGs not requiring a visa peaked this year,” the release said. “These data highlight how broader policy conditions could shape future Match outcomes for non-U.S. citizen IMG candidates and inform future recruitment strategies of programs.”
Notable specialty trends
Four primary care specialties — internal medicine, internal medicine-pediatrics, pediatrics and family medicine — saw a 9.21% fill rate, a 1.4% decline from 2025. These specialties collectively offered more than 20,700 residency positions.
Family medicine, a specialty that has struggled to attract enough medical students to meet patient demand, saw its fill rate decline from 85% in 2025 to 83.6% in 2026, with 899 positions unfilled among 5,491 available slots.
The matching program also highlighted a fluctuation in emergency medicine, which achieved a 97.9% match rate in 2025 and slightly declined to 95.6% in 2026.
“While the fill rate declined by 2.3 percentage points relative to the prior year, a total of 3,058 applicants matched into emergency medicine in 2026, representing a 1.8% increase in matched applicants,” the release said.
Psychiatry filled 97.4% of its 2,516 offered positions this year. This specialty has seen higher match rates for U.S. DO seniors and non-U.S. IMGs over the last five years.
Access Match Day 2026 data here.
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