The Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates
The Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates (ECFMG) is a private nonprofit organization that certifies international medical graduates to enter U.S. medical residency programs and sit for the Step 3 U.S. Medical Licensing Exam (USMLE). The Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates includes the Foundation for Advancement of International Medical Education and Research (FAIMER), through which the Educational Commission advocates for international medical graduates. International or foreign medical graduates make up approximately one-quarter of the U.S. physician workforce, meaning that about one in four U.S. physicians must have obtained ECFMG certification to complete residency and step exams and obtain U.S. state medical licensure. The Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates is, in essence, the gatekeeper for foreign medical graduates who hope to practice medicine in the United States. If you face challenges obtaining ECFMG certification, retain national school discipline defense attorney advisor Joseph D. Lento to help you meet and overcome those challenges. Your U.S. medical practice is worth pursuing.
Related ECFMG Services
The Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates does more than merely certify international medical graduates for U.S. medical residencies, the USMLE Step 3 exam, and U.S. state licensure. The Educational Commission also helps international medical graduates apply for U.S. medical residencies and, if those international medical graduates are not already U.S. citizens, obtain J-1 visas for lawful U.S. residency. The Educational Commission also conducts a verification service for U.S. medical residency programs, state medical boards, hospitals, and other agencies regarding the credentials of international medical graduate applicants. The Educational Commission's Electronic Portfolio of International Credentials (EPIC) enables individual international medical graduates to offer reliable proof of their medical education and other statuses to prospective residency programs and employers. If you are an international medical graduate, but the Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates has not properly documented and shared your credentials, then you've got a serious potential problem. You will likely have issues with obtaining a U.S. medical residency, state medical licensure, and medical practice employment. Retain national school discipline defense attorney advisor Joseph D. Lento and the Lento Law Firm's student defense team for your skilled, experienced, and effective representation.
What Is ECFMG Certification?
Certification by the Educational Commission for Foreign Graduates assures U.S. residency program directors that international medical graduates have met minimum eligibility standards. ECFMG certification tells the residency program to which the international medical graduate applies that the graduate has the knowledge, skill, and professionalism to competently examine and treat medical patients, like that of candidates who earned medical degrees at U.S. medical schools. ECFMG certification also tells the hospital or medical clinic and its patients that the international medical graduate has the qualifications to competently practice medicine under program supervision. The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) won't accredit a medical residency program unless that program restricts international medical residents to those who have obtained ECFMG certification. If you are an international medical graduate, you have no way around ECFMG certification. Your residency program cannot employ you without it.
Who Is an International Medical Graduate?
An international medical graduate has graduated from a medical school outside the U.S. and Canada. A U.S. or Canadian medical school graduate is not an international medical graduate, no matter their country of citizenship or origin. International students who graduate from a U.S. or Canadian medical school are not international medical graduates. By contrast, a U.S. citizen who graduates from a medical school outside the U.S. and Canada is an international medical graduate. Medical graduation, not citizenship or national heritage, determines international medical graduate status. Medical graduates who are U.S. citizens gain no advantage in their ECFMG certification if they are international medical graduates, having attended and graduated from a medical program outside the U.S. and Canada.
ECFMG Certification Requirements
Graduation from Approved Foreign Medical School
For an international medical graduate to obtain ECFMG certification, the applicant must first show the Educational Commission for Foreign Graduates that the applicant graduated from an ECFMG-approved foreign medical school. The ECFMG lists those approved foreign medical schools in the World Directory of Medical Schools with a special ECFMG-approved notation. Because the ECFMG periodically approves and revokes approval of foreign medical schools, the applicant must have graduated from the foreign medical school when the ECFMG approved the school, as the World Directory notations make clear. Retain national school discipline defense attorney advisor Joseph D. Lento if you have a dispute with the ECFMG over your foreign medical school's approval.
Application for ECFMG Certification
After confirming your graduation from an ECFMG-approved foreign medical school, you must next apply to the ECFMG using its online application service. You must also complete, notarize, and submit the ECFMG's Certification of Identification Form. While these steps may appear to be routine, you must ensure the strict accuracy of your ECFMG submission. Errors, oversights, or misleading information can lead to ECFMG's rejection or delay of your application. Consult attorney advisor Lento if you are unable to obtain the necessary information and documentation for your ECFMG application.
ECFMG Examination Requirements
The Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates also has a medical examination requirement. You must first pass the U.S. Medical Licensing Examination's Step 1 exam and Step 2 clinical knowledge (CK) exam. You may have taken and passed those exams already while enrolled in your foreign medical program, as a U.S. medical school student would ordinarily have done during that student's U.S. medical education. To earn ECFMG certification, you must also complete the ECFMG Pathway including its Occupational English Test (OET) for medicine or have passed the USMLE's former Step 2 communication skills (CS) component. As the next sections explain, these examination requirements can create significant certification risks and issues. Retain national school discipline defense attorney Joseph D. Lento to represent you, if you are unable to convince the Educational Commission to let you sit for an ECFMG exam, receive your score, or otherwise obtain ECFMG certification. Don't let ECFMG certification undo all the work you put into your medical education.
ECFMG Irregular Behavior
The Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates has policies and procedures to which you must agree as a condition for ECFMG certification. Those policies and procedures include prohibitions on what the Educational Commission calls “irregular behavior.” Irregular behavior includes “all actions or attempted actions on the part of applicants, examinees, potential applicants, others when solicited by an applicant or examinee, a medical school official, or any other person or entity that would or could subvert the examination, certification or other processes, programs, or services” of the Educational Commission relating to your certification. If the Educational Commission accuses you of irregular behavior, it can deny you the opportunity to sit for the exam or refuse to give you your earned score. The Educational Commission lists these forms of irregular behavior, although others may also qualify:
- submission of a falsified or altered document to ECFMG, whether submitted by the individual or a medical school or other entity on the individual's behalf;
- failing to comply with United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) or ECFMG policies, procedures, or rules regarding test taking;
- falsification of information on online or print applications, submissions, or other materials to ECFMG;
- taking an ECFMG examination when not eligible to do so;
- submission of any falsified or altered ECFMG document to other entities or individuals; and
- a medical school providing false information to ECFMG regarding its students or a medical school providing misleading information to its students regarding ECFMG Certification.
Examples of ECFMG Irregular Behavior
The Educational Commission's policies and procedures on irregular behavior give several specific examples of irregular behavior that could disqualify the applicant from taking or passing the exam. Those examples include if the applicant (a) indicates current enrollment in a foreign medical school that had already dismissed the student; (b) indicates that the applicant had not previously applied for ECFMG certification when to the contrary, the applicant had already applied and even taken ECFMG exams; (c) submits a fraudulent medical diploma while also falsifying medical graduation on the application; (d) submits a fraudulent medical school transcript and related misinformation on the application; or (e) submits a falsified passport and relating application information. The Educational Commission indicated that these irregular behaviors resulted in severe sanctions, effectively barring the applicant from ECFMG certification. The risks of irregular behavior are real and substantial. Retain national school discipline defense attorney Joseph D. Lento if you face allegations of ECFMG irregular behavior. Preserve your future U.S. medical career.
ECFMG Irregular Behavior Procedures
The Educational Commission's policies and procedures on irregular behavior include information about how the Commission's disciplinary procedures determine whether the suspected irregular behavior occurred and, if so, what the Commission's disciplinary officials may do about it. These procedures follow these stages.
ECFMG Investigation of Irregular Behavior
The first stage involves report and investigation. Any person or entity may report suspected irregular behavior, although reporters are often test center personnel, school officials responding to ECFMG verification requests, or other examinees who observe suspicious behavior. The Commission's irregular behavior policy allows ECFMG disciplinary staff to review and assess the allegations and any accompanying information. If that preliminary investigation shows cause, disciplinary staff further investigate the initial allegations and submissions. If the accused individual is an examinee and investigation continues beyond the typical period for reporting exam scores, officials notify the examinee of their delay in sharing the examinee's exam score.
ECFMG Referral on Irregular Behavior Charges
If ECFMG disciplinary staff find cause for charges, staff refer those charges and the accompanying investigation findings to the Commission's Medical Education Credentials Committee. The Committee then notifies the accused applicant of the charges. The applicant may then give the Committee a written statement disputing the charges and any accompanying evidence to exonerate the applicant or mitigate the charges. The applicant may also request that the Committee defer a review of the allegations for up to six months, presumably while the applicant addresses, if the applicant can, whatever issue gave rise to the charges. That resolvable issue could be something like confusion over the applicant's good standing with the foreign medical school.
ECFMG Irregular Behavior Formal Hearing
If the accused applicant wishes, the Educational Commission's policies and procedures on irregular behavior guarantee the applicant a formal hearing before the Medical Education Credentials Committee. The procedures expressly state that the applicant may bring an attorney representative to the hearing. Witnesses appearing at the hearing must testify under oath, and the Committee must keep a stenographic or other record of the hearing. The Committee must consider all evidence the accused applicant presents, to decide the charges based on a preponderance of the evidence. The Committee decides whether irregular behavior occurred and, if so, what sanction to impose on the accused applicant.
ECFMG Irregular Behavior Petition for Reconsideration
If the Medical Education Credentials Committee finds that the applicant committed irregular behavior, but the applicant has newly discovered evidence that was not available at the time of the hearing or another extraordinary cause, then the applicant may petition the Committee to reconsider its decision. Petitions for rehearing can correct substantial and obvious errors but are not effective for ordinary review.
ECFMG Irregular Behavior Appeal
If the Medical Education Credentials Committee finds that the applicant committed irregular behavior and sanctions the applicant, the Educational Commission's policies and procedures on irregular behavior guarantee the applicant an appeal of that adverse decision to the Review Committee for Appeals. The applicant must file the appeal within thirty days of the mailing of the adverse decision. The applicant's appeal must show either that the Medical Education Credentials Committee did not follow its published protective procedures or that its decision was contrary to the weight of the evidence before it.
Challenging ECFMG Irregular Behavior Charges
Just because you face ECFMG irregular behavior charges doesn't mean those charges will result in a finding against you. Each stage of the above ECFMG procedures in an irregular behavior dispute give you and your retained attorney substantial opportunities to defend and defeat the charges. At the investigation stage, you and your retained attorney may identify and present witnesses, evidence, and analyses that convince the disciplinary staff not to charge irregular behavior. At the referral stage, a more thorough and formal presentation under the published procedures may encourage the Committee to drop or reduce the charges. Your attorney representative may also have opportunities to negotiate voluntary dismissal on various accommodations and assurances. The formal hearing stage enables your retained attorney representative to use direct and cross-examination skills and other advocacy skills to win your proceeding. Retain national school discipline defense attorney advisor Joseph D. Lento for your effective representation before the Educational Commission's disciplinary staff and Medical Education Credentials Committee. Don't leave your proceeding's outcome to unqualified local criminal defense counsel or your own inexperienced advocacy and presentations.
Appealing ECFMG Irregular Behavior Sanctions
An appeal from the Medical Education Credentials Committee to the Review Committee for Appeals presents other opportunities for your retained attorney representative to review and correct poor, unfair, and unsupported decisions. An appeal requires special advocacy skills, much more than a simple letter or statement that the initial decision was wrong. After giving timely notice of the appeal to invoke the Review Committee's powers, your attorney representative will need to order the stenographic or other record of the formal hearing. Your attorney will then need to analyze that record for the kinds of irregularities that appeals can correct. The Review Committee cannot simply disagree with the Credentials Committee decision. Your appeal must show that the Credentials Committee didn't follow its own procedures or ignored the clear weight of the evidence. Those showings require your retained attorney to analyze, summarize, and cite the hearing record in a compelling written appeal brief that also includes the legal authority. Retain national school discipline defense attorney Joseph D. Lento and the Lento Law Firm's student defense team for those special appeal skills that an ECFMG irregular behavior appeal requires.
Collateral Consequences of ECFMG Irregular Behavior
Misconduct relating to professional education, certification, and licensure can have severe collateral consequences. It's not just a matter of losing your ability to take and pass a licensing exam or even to qualify for a U.S. medical residency. Other bad things can happen if the Educational Commission finds you engaged in irregular behavior. The Educational Commission's policies and procedures on irregular behavior expressly state that its disciplinary officials may notify the U.S. Department of State relative to the applicant's visa status. If you are not a U.S. citizen, you could lose your lawful status to remain in the U.S. If you are still enrolled in your medical school, you may also face school discipline up to suspension or expulsion. Some schools reserve the right to revoke a degree for especially serious misconduct if you have already earned your foreign medical degree. Acceleration of student loans, loss of mentor and other supporting relationships, job and career loss, and other consequences may also follow. Do not underestimate the damage that an ECFMG irregular behavior finding may cause. Instead, retain national school discipline defense attorney Joseph D. Lento and the Lento Law Firm's student defense team to defend and defeat the irregular behavior charges.
Alternative Special Relief Before the ECFMG
You may have already exhausted what you believe to be your only recourse with the Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates. You may have already lost all formal hearings before its Medical Education Credentials Committee and all appeals to its Review Committee for Appeals. Don't give up even if you believe that you have no other recourse. National school discipline defense attorney Joseph D. Lento has helped many students and graduates gain special alternative relief from disciplinary findings and sanctions, through oversight officials. Organizations like the Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates have general counsel, outside retained counsel, ombuds offices, and similar officials to ensure that they treat constituents fairly while complying with law, rule, and regulation. Your personal and professional circumstances are unique. Those circumstances may present a compelling case for relief that only oversight officials can recommend and authorize. Attorney advisor Lento has the skill, experience, and reputation to reach and negotiate effectively with those oversight officials. You could gain reinstatement for ECFMG certification even after having exhausted all other channels.
Premier Attorney Advisor Representation Available
Medical education is among the most difficult of pursuits and time-consuming and expensive of professional degrees. You know all that you've invested in your foreign medical education. You also know all that you expect to achieve using your U.S. medical residency and licensure, if you can accomplish ECFMG certification. You doubtless have the sense that your future awaits you if you can just navigate this final obstacle. With all that you have at stake in an ECFMG dispute, such as an irregular behavior proceeding, you shouldn't be considering anything other than the best available attorney advisor representation. You can do more damage to your defense case than good if you retain an unqualified local criminal defense attorney. Professional administrative proceedings are unlike criminal court cases. You need the skills and strategic insights of an attorney advisor who has substantial experience in academic, licensing, and professional administrative matters. National school discipline defense attorney advisor Joseph D. Lento has successfully represented hundreds of students nationwide against all kinds of charges in graduate and professional programs of all kinds. Attorney advisor Lento knows medical education issues and international student issues. Overcome your ECFMG obstacles by retaining the best available attorney advisor representative. Call 888.535.3686 or go online now to retain attorney advisor Lento and the Lento Law Firm's student defense team.
