If you are an international medical graduate (IMG) facing ECFMG, USMLE, or Indiana Medical Licensing Board issues, then you need our attorneys' skilled and experienced representation. Whether you are located in Indianapolis, Fort Wayne, Evansville, South Bend, Carmel, Fishers, Bloomington, Hammond, Lafayette, Noblesville, Gary, Muncie, Greenwood, Kokomo, Terre Haute, Anderson, Elkhart, Mishawaka, Columbus, Jefferson, Lawrence, Westfield, West Lafayette, or any other Indiana location, the Lento Law Firm's premier Professional License Defense Team is available to provide you with the strategic and effective representation you need. Call 888.535.3686 or complete this contact form now before your Indiana IMG licensing issues impact your medical licensure, practice, and career.
The Risk of Indiana IMG Licensing Issues
Understand and respect that your ECFMG, USMLE, or Indiana Medical Licensing Board issues may severely impact and even prevent your Indiana medical licensure and your medical employment and practice in Indiana. Indiana is a great place to practice medicine, in any of the above fine towns or other towns, with the state's vibrant economy, temperate seasonal weather, stable and friendly population, and sophisticated healthcare system. Indiana University Health University Hospital, Ascension St. Vincent Indianapolis Hospital, Parkview Regional Medical Center, Deaconess Midtown Hospital, Community Hospital Munster, Methodist Hospitals–Northlake Campus, and Franciscan Health Indianapolis as the largest among many other Indiana hospitals offer the finest of medical facilities supporting abundant practice opportunities. Your Indiana medical residency may have been in one of those fine hospitals. However, your ECFMG, USMLE, or Indiana Medical Licensing Board issues put those practice opportunities at risk. You could lose your ability to practice in Indiana and any other state if you can't meet IMG licensing requirements with the ECFMG, USMLE, and the Indiana Medical Licensing Board. Get our help if you face Indiana IMG licensing issues.
Indiana IMG Requirements
International medical graduates seeking an Indiana Medical Licensing Board license must meet ECFMG, USMLE, and Indiana Medical Licensing Board requirements. You may have issues with any one, two, or all three of those certifying organizations. Our attorneys can help you with those issues, no matter which of those three organizations your issues involve and no matter when or how your issues arose. Consider each organization's requirements in turn.
Indiana Medical Licensing Board IMG Licensure Requirements
Under Indiana Code Section 25-22.5-3, Indiana, like other states, requires international medical school graduates to:
- earn their medical degree from an approved school;
- pass the USMLE Step 3 exam;
- satisfy the state's graduate medical education (GME) requirement, referring to your U.S. or Canada medical residency; and
- prove good character and fitness for medical practice.
Like many but not all U.S. states, Indiana recognizes the World Directory of Medical Schoolsapproved school list. If the Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates (ECFMG) approves your international medical school for the duration of your attendance, then the Indiana Medical Licensing Board should approve your international medical degree and education. Indiana is among the states that recognizes ECFMG Fifth Pathway approval of a medical degree issued jointly between a foreign and U.S. medical school.
As to graduate medical education, the Indiana Medical Licensing Board requires that international medical graduates complete between one and two years, depending on Board discretion in individual cases. Indiana Code Section 25-22.5-3.2 permits the Board to waive the second year of GME. Other U.S. state medical licensing boards require anything from no graduate medical education up to three years of graduate medical education to license international medical graduates. The Indiana Medical Licensing Board may also require you to appear before it if it has concerns over your character and fitness or other issues. We can help, including preparing you for the hearing and appearing with you, if you face Indiana Medical Licensing Board issues proving that you have met their requirements.
ECFMG Requirements for Indiana IMGs
While the above Indiana Medical Licensing Board requirements depend on Indiana law, different in small or large respects from the law of other states, your ECFMG requirements should be the same as the ECFMG requirements for international medical graduates applying for licensure in other U.S. states. The ECFMG is the organization that both the USMLE and many U.S. states use to collect and certify IMG credentials. The ECFMG requires you to use its Electronic Portfolio of International Credentials (EPIC) service to collect and share your transcript and other credentials with ECFMG officials, USMLE officials, and, in Indiana's case, state medical board officials. In addition to showing ECFMG that you graduated from one of its World Directory of Medical Schools approved schools, ECFMG requires documentation of your lawful U.S. citizenship or immigration status. ECFMG has a service assisting with visas for non-citizen applicants. We can help if you face ECFMG issues collecting, submitting, or proving the authenticity or sufficiency of your credentials or if you have related medical school or immigration issues.
USMLE Requirements for Indiana IMGs
The USMLE has the same requirements for Indiana IMGs as it does for IMGs seeking licensure in other states. To take the USMLE Step 3 exam, you must generally obtain ECFMG certification. Once you obtain ECFMG certification, you must sit for the Step 3 exam and receive a passing score on the exam without violating any USMLE rule before, during, or after the exam. Those rules require honesty and accuracy in your USMLE application submissions, respect for USMLE rules on exam conduct, and respect for the confidentiality of USMLE exam questions and answers in your pre-exam studies and post-exam communications. As in the case of the Indiana Medical Licensing Board and ECFMG, we can help you if you face USMLE issues qualifying for the exam or obtaining your validated passing score.
Indiana IMG Pitfalls and Problems
The following discussion lists the kinds of pitfalls and problems you may face as an international medical graduate seeking Indiana Medical Licensing Board licensure when dealing with either the Medical Licensing Board itself or with the ECFMG or USMLE. You may have one or more of these issues or other Board, ECFMG, or USMLE issues this summary does not directly address. Do not hesitate to contact us for prompt and astute evaluation of and skilled representation of your issues.
Indiana Medical Licensing Board IMG Issues
The pitfalls and problems you may face in obtaining your Indiana Medical Licensing Board license to practice medicine in the state begin with having to show the Board that you passed the USMLE Step 3 exam. We address USMLE issues invalidating or withholding a candidate's passing score below. The Indiana Medical Licensing Board will also require you to have obtained ECFMG certification. We likewise address ECFMG certification issues below.
Your remaining Indiana Medical Licensing Board issues are likely to involve one of two things. You may face issues proving to the Board that you completed its two-year GME (U.S. or Canada medical residency) requirement or that you should have the Board's waiver of the second year so that your one year residency meets the requirement. Or you may face character and fitness issues. In that respect, Indiana Code Section 25-22.5-3 prohibits licensure of a candidate who has a criminal conviction that “has a direct bearing on the applicant's ability to practice competently.” The same code section also requires you to be “physically and mentally capable of, and professionally competent to,” practice medicine safely. As indicated above, the Board may require you to appear before it to prove your character and fitness. Let us help by preparing you and appearing with you.
Indiana IMG ECFMG Issues
The pitfalls and problems you may face with ECFMG have primarily to do with satisfying ECFMG that your international medical school was on its World Directory of Medical Schools approved list during your attendance and that you graduated from that school. Presumably, you wouldn't have sought ECFMG certification if you hadn't graduated from an approved school. However, your medical school may not have updated your transcript with your graduation and completed course information. ECFMG's EPIC service may also reject your transcript due to issues with its transmission and authentication, requiring a signed, sealed, or attested transcript or its direct submission from the school. You may also have issues providing ECFMG with your authenticated U.S. birth certificate or passport or obtaining a visa to pursue your medical residency or licensure in the U.S.
If your ECFMG submissions contradict one another or appear to be falsified or altered, ECFMG may accuse you of misrepresenting your qualifications. ECFMG maintains Policies and Procedures on Irregular Behavior to investigate and reject international medical graduates who subvert ECFMG certification. ECFMG may divert your application to its irregular behavior procedures, requiring you to prove your innocence of any effort to mislead ECFMG officials. ECFMG may delay or deny your certification for any of these documentation or authentication issues. We can help address and resolve these issues.
Indiana IMG USMLE Issues
The pitfalls and problems you may face with the USMLE and its Step 3 exam are generally twofold. You may, on the one hand, have issues with your application and communication to USMLE officials qualifying for and scheduling or rescheduling your exam. USMLE rules in its Bulletin of Information require your submissions and communications to be accurate and non-misleading. USMLE officials may construe contradictions, alterations, or omissions in your representations to be deliberate efforts to subvert its processes. Or you may simply not be able to convince USMLE officials that you qualify to sit for the exam because of incomplete or unauthenticated documentation. We can help you with these USMLE submission and qualification issues.
The other USMLE issues you may face have to do with your conduct in preparing for and taking the exam that USMLE officials construe as cheating. For instance, USMLE rules in its Bulletin of Information prohibit you from disclosing, soliciting, offering, or using actual USMLE exam questions or answers. USMLE rules also prohibit common test misbehaviors such as bringing unauthorized materials or devices into the exam room, disobeying proctors, asking someone to impersonate you to take the exam, or soliciting or sharing answers during the exam. USMLE policies also prohibit you from reproducing exam questions after the exam. Your USMLE issue may be allegations of these or other forms of cheating or suspicious behavior. USMLE rules permit officials to invalidate your passing test score if you engage in suspicious or irregular behavior. Let us help you favorably resolve your USMLE issues.
Procedural Protections for Indiana IMGs
Do not give up your dream of practicing medicine in Indiana if you face one or more of the above issues. Our attorneys have the knowledge, skill, and experience to pursue avenues of relief for you to favorably resolve your issues. The Indiana Medical Licensing Board, ECFMG, and USMLE must generally afford international medical graduates due process when threatening to interfere with your liberty and property interests in your medical degree and practice. The Indiana Medical Licensing Board, for instance, must follow elaborate protective procedures codified in Indiana Code Sections 25-1-7-1 et seq. The ECFMG offers similar protective procedures to IMGs facing ECFMG irregular behavior charges. USMLE officials will follow the same ECFMG irregular behavior procedures after their own preliminary investigation, which itself offers you the opportunity to submit your account in an interview. These procedural protections will generally involve:
- your right to prompt, fair, and detailed notice of the allegations and charges against you;
- your right to answer those allegations and charges with a disclosure and account of your exonerating information;
- your opportunity to advocate and negotiate with officials in pre-hearing conferences and communications;
- your right to a formal hearing before an independent decision maker to present your evidence and challenge adverse evidence;
- your right to appeal adverse decisions to a higher authority for a review for legal and factual error; and
- your right to seek civil court review of violations of your due process rights or bias, conflict of interest, or other error in the decisions.
Premier Indiana IMG Defense Available
The Lento Law Firm's premier Professional License Defense Team can appear on your behalf to exercise and pursue each of the above rights for the best outcome to your Indiana IMG issues. Call 888.535.3686 or complete this contact form now.
