Guides and research on licensing, the NAVLE, the TN visa, and hiring across the border.
A recruiter finds you a doctor who already works somewhere else. A relief agency rents you one by the shift. International placement brings in a licensed doctor who is not in the US market yet. With veterinarian unemployment at 0.7 percent, that difference decides whether your seat gets filled.
Replacing an associate veterinarian runs about $86,000 at today's median salary, before you count a single lost appointment. The latest AVMA data says the doctors thinking about leaving are driven by mental health and work hours far more than money, which puts most of the fix in an owner's hands.
The FMVZ at UNAM held AVMA accreditation from 2011 until the end of 2025, and the school withdrew from it voluntarily. Graduates of those cohorts skip the equivalency certification entirely. With the ECFVG clinical examination fee rising to $12,804 for the 2026 cycle, that window is worth considerably more now than when it closed.
Three separate things, not one: the legal right to work, a licence in the state where you will practise, and, if your school was not AVMA accredited, an equivalency certification before that licence is possible at all. Here is the complete list, and the order worth doing it in.
Relief coverage runs roughly $600 to $1,000 a day in general practice, and more when you book last minute. A permanent associate costs about $180,000 a year fully loaded. The day rates look comparable until you price everything the day rate does not buy. Here is the honest side-by-side.
Domestic recruiting moves veterinarians between clinics. It does not create them. This is the full picture of the one channel that adds doctors instead: who is eligible, how the visa and licensure actually sequence, what it costs against a domestic placement, and the mistakes that turn a nine-month hire into a two-year one.
Son tres cosas, no una: el derecho legal a trabajar, la licencia del estado donde vas a ejercer y, si tu escuela no está acreditada por la AVMA, una certificación de equivalencia. Esta es la lista completa, en el orden en que conviene hacerla.
The NAVLE is the licensing examination every veterinarian must pass to practise in the United States or Canada, whatever school they graduated from. What it covers, who can sit it directly, what the pass rates actually look like, and where it fits in a realistic timeline.
The median US veterinarian earned $125,510 a year according to official Bureau of Labor Statistics data. That single number hides enormous differences between states, practice types and years of experience. Here is what actually determines what you will be paid, and why the highest-paying state is often the wrong choice.
The average US veterinary practice generated $554,982 per veterinarian in 2024. That works out to roughly $46,000 a month, or $288 an hour, walking out the door while a DVM seat sits open. Here is the full arithmetic, including the costs that never show up on a P&L.
New York lets a qualified veterinarian who has not yet passed the NAVLE practice under supervision on a limited permit. It is the single most useful and least understood tool an independent practice has for hiring internationally trained doctors. Here is what it makes possible, and what it does not do.
The visa is the part of international hiring that scares clinic owners most, and it shouldn't be. Veterinarian is one of the professions covered by the TN visa: no lottery and no annual cap. Here is why it is simpler than its reputation, and where the real work actually lives.
La mediana salarial de un veterinario en Estados Unidos fue de $125,510 dólares al año según los datos oficiales del Bureau of Labor Statistics. Pero ese número esconde diferencias enormes entre estados, tipos de práctica y años de experiencia. Esto es lo que realmente determina cuánto vas a ganar.
Recruiter fees, relief staffing markups, international placement models, and the questions that expose a bad agency contract. An honest guide to what clinics actually pay to fill a DVM seat, and what an empty one costs you in the meantime.
In a rare move, the Justice Department told a federal court that veterinary accreditation is subject to antitrust law, and pointed at the numbers behind the profession's supply problem. Here's what it means for clinics that can't hire.
Our first annual report compiles the latest BLS, AVMA, AAVMC, ICVA, APPA, Mars, and Merck data on veterinary demand, pay, burnout, the education pipeline, and the overlooked cross-border talent supply.
Your job posting has been up for months and the few applicants you get are fielding multiple offers. Here's the hiring channel most US clinics haven't tried: licensed DVMs from Mexico and Canada on TN visas.
A clear overview of the pathway from a Mexican veterinary degree to practicing as a licensed DVM in the U.S., including the UNAM accelerated route.
The TN visa is one of the most direct ways for Mexican and Canadian veterinarians to work in the U.S. Here's how it works and why it's different from the H-1B.
La medicina veterinaria es una de las profesiones que califica para la visa TN del T-MEC. Sin lotería, renovable, y con un camino claro para ejercer en Estados Unidos. Aquí te explicamos cómo funciona.
El NAVLE es el examen que todo veterinario necesita aprobar para ejercer en Estados Unidos o Canadá. Qué evalúa, cuándo se presenta y cómo prepararte desde México.
La FMVZ-UNAM estuvo acreditada por la AVMA de 2011 a 2025. Si egresaste en ese periodo, puedes ejercer en Estados Unidos sin la certificación ECFVG. Esa ventana ya cerró para las generaciones siguientes.
