HER qualifications until now have always been educational and medical. But suddenly it is marital status that matters.
Dr Shoba Sasidharan was selected to complete her medical degree at Edinburgh University after obtaining some of the best exam results in her year. The 35-year-old had to achieve more than 80per cent on her course in Kuala Lumpur to be considered for a place on the special training scheme.
Crucially now, though, her partner has a highly skilled immigrant worker visa and Dr Sasidharan believes once they have married this summer, she will be able to apply for permission to continue her own career in the UK. At least, she said, she will not be deported from the country.
However, she expects by the time the paperwork is complete, her current post as a senior house officer at Glasgow Royal Infirmary will have expired and most of the jobs she might apply for in the next training cycle will be taken.
"I will stay here, but probably as a housewife, " she said. "I have got loans to pay and I have to put the financial burden on my husband."
Dr Sasidharan, who arrived at Edinburgh University in 2001, said it was her father who was keen for her to study in Britain and at first she felt depressed so far from home.
"Now I am so used to being here, when I went back to Malaysia I found it very difficult to adapt back, " she said.
The change in her ability to continue training in the UK has made her question the hurdles she has already jumped to fulfil this goal.
She said: "After all my parents' efforts building a dream that I could pursue a career here, it has just been taken away. I am quite furious because at the moment I phone up and say I want to send my CV off . . . and straight away they tell me to make sure I state my immigration status."
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