For many good reasons, Florida can be an outstanding state for international medical graduate (IMG) licensure and practice. Yet the Florida Board of Medicine has the same duties as medical boards in other states to protect the public against unqualified medical care. The Florida Board of Medicine will require you to meet its strict ECFMG, USMLE, and character and fitness requirements. The Lento Law Firm's premier Professional License Defense Team is available in Jacksonville, Miami, Tampa, Orlando, St. Petersburg, Hialeah, Port St. Lucie, Cape Coral, Tallahassee, Fort Lauderdale, Pembroke Pines, and across Florida to help you address and favorably resolve your IMG licensing issues. Call 888.535.3686 or complete this contact form now for the skilled and experienced attorney representation you need.
The Benefits of Florida IMG Licensure
You have many rewards and benefits to obtain in your Florida IMG medical practice. The beauty and recreational opportunities of Florida's natural environment are well known. So are the arts, entertainment, and culture of Florida's large and vibrant cities. Florida has a great economy and many great towns in which to live. Florida also has a large and senior population in substantial need of skilled medical services. Physicians also have large and well equipped hospitals like Jackson Memorial Hospital, Orlando Health Orlando Regional Medical Center, AdventHealth Orlando, Tampa General Hospital, UF Health Shands Hospital, St. Joseph's Hospital in Tampa, Baptist Hospital of Miami, Sarasota Memorial Hospital, and Lakeland Regional Medical Center. Those hospitals and others like them offer abundant employment opportunities and support thriving medical practices. Florida also has outstanding medical schools and professional development opportunities for physicians. We can see why you chose Florida for IMG licensing. Let us help you reap the due benefits of your considerable IMG labors.
The Impact of Florida IMG Licensing Issues
Take seriously your ECFMG, USMLE, and Florida Board of Medicine licensing issues. Those issues could prevent your practice in Florida and elsewhere. If you cannot obtain a Florida Board of Medicine license, you won't practice in Florida, and your license denial may affect license applications elsewhere. You made huge investments of time, trouble, and expense in your international medical education. You rightly expect substantial returns on those investments. Florida residents also need and deserve your skilled medical service. However, you must overcome your ECFMG, USMLE, and Florida Board of Medicine licensing issues to reap your due rewards. And if you don't gain a license and enter practice, the collateral consequences not only on your medical career but also on your finances, obligations, and relationships can be staggering. Let us help you avoid the substantial adverse impacts of licensing issues.
Florida IMG Licensing Requirements
You must satisfy the requirements of not just one but rather three regulatory bodies to obtain your Florida Board of Medicine license. The Florida Board of Medicine requires that international medical graduates first obtain Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates (ECFMG) certification. ECFMG certification qualifies you for the United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) Step 3 exam that the Florida Board of Medicine also requires. You must thus also meet USMLE requirements. The Florida Board of Medicine has its own documentation, character, and fitness requirements. Here is a summary of those requirements.
Florida Board of Medicine IMG Licensing Requirements
Florida Statutes Section 458.307 creates the Florida Board of Medicine to license physicians for practice in the state. You must have a license to practice medicine in the state. Florida Statutes Section 458.311 lists the requirements an international medical graduate must meet to obtain a license. Those requirements include (1) good character and fitness consistent with all Florida Board of Medicine requirements, (2) graduation from an ECFMG approved international medical school, (3) passage of the USMLE Step exams, and (4) one year of approved medical residency. You must also demonstrate your English language proficiency if your international medical school is taught in another language. We can help you with issues arising out of these Florida Board of Medicine requirements.
ECFMG Requirements for Florida IMGs
Florida Statutes Section 458.307 expressly requires most international medical graduates to obtain ECFMG certification. The ECFMG evaluates and approves international medical schools that meet U.S. standards, publishing its approval in the World Directory of Medical Schools. To obtain Florida Board of Medicine licensure, you must gain ECFMG certification showing that you graduated from an international medical school on its approved list. Your ECFMG certification will also show that you have U.S. citizenship or lawful immigration status to enter the U.S. for Florida medical practice.
Gaining ECFMG certification further requires that you use ECFMG's Electronic Portfolio of International Credentials (EPIC) system to prove your credentials. Your international medical school's registrar must supply your transcript showing your graduation in good standing. You must also provide the required documentation of your citizenship or lawful immigration status. Your EPIC portfolio must be complete and accurate, without errors or omissions that the ECFMG may construe as efforts to defraud officials over your qualifying credentials.
USMLE Requirements for Florida IMGs
ECFMG certification generally qualifies you to take the USMLE Step 3 exam. USMLE officials nonetheless require you to complete the USMLE application form. As with your EPIC portfolio, your USMLE application must be complete and accurate. Errors and omissions may appear to be efforts to subvert USMLE processes and could result in refusal to let you take the exam. When you do take the exam, you must also comply with USMLE Bulletin of Information rules. Those rules protect the integrity of the exam and your validated exam score. You must not use confidential exam questions in your studies, recall and share confidential exam questions with others after the exam, or cheat during the exam. Let us help if USMLE officials notify you that you have not met USMLE requirements.
Florida IMG Issues
Florida Board of Medicine, ECFMG, and USMLE issues can have a snowballing effect. Issues with one regulatory body can quickly create issues with the next regulatory body. Your failure to promptly obtain ECFMG certification can delay or prevent your USMLE qualification and exam. If USMLE denies you the opportunity to take the exam or withholds your exam score for suspected rule violations, the Florida Board of Medicine will delay and perhaps deny and close your application. Follow the following explanation not only of how these issues arise but also of how our skilled and experienced attorneys can help you resolve those issues.
Florida Board of Medicine IMG Issues
You may have your Florida Board of Medicine application in the process while you are working toward ECFMG certification and studying for and taking your USMLE Step 3 exam. If you face ECFMG or USMLE issues while applying for Florida Board of Medicine licensure, you must be sure that your Florida Board of Medicine application does not misrepresent the status of your ECFMG certification and USMLE passage. You may need to inform Florida Board of Medicine officials that you are facing ECFMG or USMLE issues and that you are diligently addressing those issues, explaining any delay with your Florida Board of Medicine application. Otherwise, officials may construe inconsistencies as your attempt at credential fraud, or they may simply close your file for failure to meet ECFMG and USMLE requirements. Let us help you explain your ECFMG and USMLE status to Florida Board of Medicine officials and reassure the Board of our diligent efforts on your behalf at a proper resolution of those issues.
The Florida Board of Medicine's good moral character and fitness requirements can also trigger significant issues. Felony criminal convictions, domestic violence restraining orders, domestic abuse allegations in divorce complaints, and arrests and police reports of endangering behavior can trigger Board red flags and review. Psychiatric hospitalization or records of disabling illness or injury may trigger mental and physical fitness issues. Substance abuse, dependency, or addiction treatment and counseling or drunk driving charges may likewise raise impairment and fitness issues. Unprofessionalism complaints or malpractice allegations in your clinical practice or residency may raise competence issues. Let us help you address character and fitness issues with a sound presentation of your recovery, rehabilitation, and fitness.
You can also face Florida Board of Medicine credential fraud issues. The Board requires candidates to complete an elaborate application questionnaire disclosing the above issues and other concerns. If your answers appear to conceal or minimize those issues in ways that are inconsistent with other documentation and information, then the Board may find that you attempted to gain a license when not qualified by subverting the Board's review process. Don't ignore errors or omissions when notified of those concerns. Instead, let us help you correct your application while providing a reasonable explanation and proof of your innocence.
Florida IMG ECFMG Issues
ECFMG issues generally arise out of international medical school issues or documentation and authentication issues. You likely assured yourself that your international medical school qualified you for U.S. state licensure when you first applied and enrolled. But the ECFMG may have subsequently taken action against your international medical school, calling into question its ECFMG approval at the time of your graduation. You must show your school's approval at your graduation, not before or after your graduation. Let us help you with those school issues.
International medical graduates can also face issues with their international medical school transcript. Medical studies can lead to financial holds, disciplinary charges, and misconduct holds, academic progression issues and similar issues appearing on your transcript. Your school's registrar should have updated and corrected your transcript as you resolved those issues and updated your transcript showing your graduation. However, registrars sometimes fail in those efforts. And you may have school issues still outstanding. In either case, let us help you work with your school's registrar and the ECFMG to ensure that you provide a correct transcript proving your graduation in good standing.
Your final area of concern may have to do with the accuracy, consistency, and authenticity of your ECFMG submissions. Credential fraud is an issue with ECFMG, just as it is with the Florida Board of Medicine. Let us help you correct any errors or inconsistencies in your ECFMG portfolio with appropriate explanations and reassurances to ECFMG officials of your innocent intentions. Let us also help you obtain the signed, sealed, attested, or otherwise properly authenticated documents you need for ECFMG certification.
Florida IMG USMLE Issues
Your USMLE application can trigger similar concerns over your alleged attempt to subvert the USMLE review of your qualifications. If your statements and communications are inconsistent with your documentation, and USMLE officials believe you intentionally attempted to qualify without the necessary credentials, they may reject your application to take the exam and bar you from future efforts at qualifying. Let us help you explain any errors or inconsistencies in your USMLE communications.
Your bigger issue is likely to be passing the USMLE Step 3 exam without raising any concerns over your conduct and integrity in preparing for and taking the exam. USMLE officials analyze exam answers, looking for suspicious patterns. You may find that USMLE officials withhold your exam results simply because of the pattern of your answers. More likely, exam proctors or test center staff may report observations of your conduct that look suspicious. You may, for instance, have inadvertently attempted to take unauthorized devices or materials into the exam room. Or you may have appeared to try to obtain answers from another examinee. Innocent discussion about the exam after having taken it may also appear to others as if you are recalling and sharing confidential exam questions, violating exam confidentiality. Let us help you answer and defend any such charges.
Procedural Protections for Florida IMGs
Fortunately, ECFMG, USMLE, and Florida Board of Medicine procedures provide substantial opportunities for our skilled and experienced attorneys to appear and advocate on your behalf. For example, ECFMG and USMLE Policies and Procedures on Irregular Behavior offer a Credentials Committee to hear disputes and a Review Committee to hear appeals. Let us invoke these protective procedures to resolve your ECFMG, USMLE, and Florida Board of Medicine issues.
Florida IMG Licensing Representation
The Lento Law Firm's premier Professional License Defense Team is available across Florida to represent you in your ECFMG, USMLE, and Florida Board of Medicine matters. Call 888.535.3686 or complete this contact form now for our help favorably resolving your IMG licensing issues.
