Texas is plainly a great place for international medical graduates (IMGs) to seek medical licensure and practice. However, Texas IMGs face similar ECFMG and USMLE licensing obstacles as IMGs seeking licensure in other U.S. states. The Texas Medical Board has similar character and fitness requirements. Don't let ECFMG, USMLE, and Texas Medical Board issues derail your medical licensure and practice. Instead, retain the Lento Law Firm's premier Professional License Defense Team for the strategic and effective attorney representation you need for your best licensing outcome. We are available in Dallas, Fort Worth, Austin, Houston, San Antonio, El Paso, Corpus Christi, Plano, Lubbock, Laredo, Irving, Garland, Frisco, Amarillo, Arlington, and at every other location across Texas. Call 888.535.3686 or complete this contact form now.
The Benefits of Texas IMG Licensure
Texas has some of the best and biggest hospitals in the world, including Houston Methodist Hospital, Memorial Hermann – Texas Medical Center, University Hospital, Parkland Memorial Hospital, Methodist Hospital, Baylor University Medical Center, and Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas. Texas also offers world-leading medical research education, the most sophisticated healthcare systems, and comprehensive coverage. You have abundant medical practice opportunities in Texas. You also know the other charms of Texas, including its diverse natural environments, large and dynamic population, and leading arts, culture, and entertainment. You could have a dozen other good reasons for having chosen to pursue a medical practice in Texas. You know the professional and personal opportunities and the financial rewards. Let us help you preserve them.
The Impact of Texas IMG Licensing Issues
Texas IMG licensing issues can indeed severely impact and derail your Texas medical practice and career. If you cannot obtain ECFMG certification, obtain a validated passing USMLE Step 3 exam score, and get your Texas Medical Board license, you won't practice medicine in Texas. You may not practice in any other state, depending on the grounds for denying you a Texas Medical Board license. Conversely, your licensure in Texas can open the door to practice elsewhere, in other U.S. states. You have that much riding on resolving your ECFMG, USMLE, and Texas Medical Board issues favorably. If you allow those issues to linger without addressing them promptly and responsibly, you could lose everything for which you've worked relating to your international medical education. You could lose your medical career and all the rewards it offers. Don't let that happen. Retain us as your best available legal representation for highly qualified professional license defense.
Texas IMG Licensing Requirements
Your professional future and fate are in the hands of three organizations, each with a different role and different rules, requirements, and procedures. The Texas Medical Board ensures your good character, fitness, and competence in medical practice. The Texas Medical Board, though, relies on the Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates (ECFMG) to certify that you graduated from an approved international medical school. ECFMG certification is also your ticket to sit for the United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE). The USMLE Step 3 exam establishes your competent medical knowledge and skills. Consider the following summary of each organization's requirements and how we can help you meet those requirements.
Texas Medical Board IMG Licensing Requirements
The Texas Medical Practice Act created the Texas Medical Board, authorizing it to adopt rules for licensing physicians to practice in the state. The Texas Medical Board's Rule 163.2 details the requirements an international medical graduate must meet for a full Texas medical license. Those requirements include good professional character, ECFMG certification of graduation from an approved international medical school, completing two years of medical residency, and passing an approved medical examination. The Texas Medical Board recognizes international medical education from schools included on ECFMG's World Directory of Medical Schools approved schools list. Let us help if you face issues meeting Texas Medical Board requirements.
ECFMG Requirements for Texas IMGs
Texas Medical Board Rule 163.2(b)(8) requires international medical graduates to “possess a valid certificate issued by the ... ECFMG.” You must meet ECFMG certification requirements to get a Texas Medical Board license. The first ECFMG certification requirement with which you must be concerned is that you graduated from an international medical school on its approved list, as the World Directory of Medical Schools reflects. The Texas Medical Board may approve other schools that are not listed, but ECFMG certification is your surest route for school approval. Presumably, you knew ECFMG approved your international medical school when you chose that program. Let us help, though, if you face issues over school approval.
Your greater ECFMG certification challenge may have to do with its online portfolio requirement. The ECFMG requires you to use its Electronic Portfolio of International Credentials (EPIC) system to create an online portfolio of your international medical school transcript, citizenship or lawful immigrant documentation, and other information and documentation required for ECFMG certification. Getting the right documents from the right recordkeepers into your EPIC portfolio in the right form and with the required authentication can lead to significant, even disqualifying, issues. You may fail to meet ECFMG requirements even if you have all the right credentials if, instead, ECFMG officials believe you misrepresented your credentials, altered your documentation, or submitted false documentation. Let us help you meet ECFMG requirements without raising fraud issues.
USMLE Requirements for Texas IMGs
You must also meet USMLE Step 3 exam requirements. Texas Medical Board Rule 163.6 defines the required medical examination to include USMLE Step exams, FLEX, or NBME exams, or combinations of those exams. But most if not all international medical graduates will wisely choose or have to pursue USMLE Step 3 examination because of the nature of their international medical program, the availability of USMLE Step exams, and the unavailability or inconvenience of FLEX and NBME exams. Your required ECFMG certification also qualifies you to sit for the USMLE Step 3 exam, adding to the incentive to pursue the USMLE examination.
Passing the USMLE Step 3 exam depends on your diligent studies. But you face other USMLE requirements. Your application to schedule the exam and your other representations to the USMLE must be complete and accurate, or you could face irregular behavior charges for false or misleading information. You must also comply with USMLE exam rules. Allegations from proctors, other examinees, or test center staff that you cheated in some manner maybe your greatest obstacle. Even if you pass the Step 3 exam, USMLE officials may withhold and invalidate your passing score based on cheating allegations or anomalous patterns reflected in your answers. Let us help you meet USMLE rules and requirements.
Texas IMG Problems and Pitfalls
You know the issues you already face. You may not yet appreciate the full breadth of the related pitfalls, problems, and concerns. Following are some of the common issues Texas IMGs face with the ECFMG, USMLE, and Texas Medical Board, and how our highly skilled and effective attorneys may be able to help you favorably resolve those issues.
Texas Board of Physicians IMG Issues
Your Texas Medical Board issues may arise out of your inability to obtain ECFMG certification to qualify for the USMLE Step 3 exam or obtain your validated passing score. We address those ECFMG and USMLE issues below. But you may, at the same time, need to communicate to the Texas Medical Board that you are diligently addressing those issues. Otherwise, the Board may reject your application and close your file prematurely when you are still at work resolving those issues. We can communicate to the Board that we are acting on your behalf toward that resolution to ensure that you get the chance to complete your Board application.
Your bigger issue with the Texas Medical Board may be proving your good professional character. Texas Medical Board Rule 163.1(8) further defines the required good professional character as meaning that the candidate must not have violated any provision of the Texas Medical Practice Act or Occupations Code. Those provisions include such things as disqualifying criminal convictions, mental or physical impairment, drug or alcohol intemperance, malpractice, and unprofessionalism. Drunk driving charges, domestic violence restraining orders, and records of your hospitalization for mental illness or addiction issues can trigger character concerns. We may be able to show that you don't have the issues the Board suspects, that you have addressed those issues through treatment or other measures, or that your conviction or condition is not disqualifying, not affecting your fitness for medical practice.
You may also face issues with the consistency, completeness, and integrity of your statements, representations, and documentation. If Texas Medical Board officials believe that you made false statements or misleading omissions or submitted falsified or altered documentation, they may deny your license on that basis. Let us help you clear up documentation issues before the Board accuses you of subverting its licensing process.
Texas IMG ECFMG Issues
ECFMG issues generally involve your international medical school attendance and graduation, as well as your citizenship or lawful immigration status. The ECFMG is constantly adding international medical schools to its approved list and removing those schools from the list on various grounds. The ECFMG may deny your certification if it believes your international medical school was not on its approved list when you graduated. The ECFMG may alternatively deny your certification if it believes you did not graduate from the school you represent. We can help you address both issues. If your school's registrar has not updated or cleared your transcript to show your graduation in good standing, we can communicate with the registrar to make that effort promptly. If the registrar hasn't gotten your updated transcript to the ECFMG in the proper form or by the proper route, we can assist in resolving that issue, too. If, instead, your issues have to do with documentation of your citizenship or lawful immigration status, we can help resolve those issues, too.
You may instead have all the right approvals and statuses but face ECFMG issues over the authenticity, consistency, and completeness of your documentation, complying with ECFMG standards and protocols. Getting authenticated documents from international officials can take considerable communication, advocacy, and administrative skills. Our attorneys have those skills. We can also help you clarify your ECFMG representations if ECFMG officials claim that you attempted to subvert ECFMG processes. The ECFMG Policies and Procedures on Irregular Behavior authorize officials to deny certification on that basis. Let us help you invoke ECFMG protective procedures to prove your good faith and innocence of any such charges.
Texas IMG USMLE Issues
One of the most challenging issues that candidates for Texas Medical Board licensure can face is that they cheated on the USMLE Step 3 exam or other qualifying medical examination. The USMLE Bulletin of Information indicates that cheating can include using confidential exam questions, unauthorized devices or materials in the exam room, impostors or unauthorized assistance during the exam, or removing exam materials and sharing confidential questions after the exam. Allegations often come from proctors, test center staff, or fellow examinees. The USMLE will investigate those allegations, generally including your interview or other response. We can help prepare you for the interview to make your best case to dismiss the charges and release your validated, passing Step 3 exam score.
Procedural Protections for Texas IMGs
The ECFMG and USMLE Policies and Procedures on Irregular Behavior authorize a Credentials Committee to hear charges that you cheated or otherwise attempted to subvert certification or examination procedures. The same policies and procedures authorize a Review Committee to hear appeals from adverse Credentials Committee decisions. The Texas Medical Board likewise follows due process to ensure that you have an opportunity to learn what the Board believes disqualifies you from licensure and give us the opportunity to invoke and represent you at a hearing, showing the Board evidence of your character and fitness. Let us help you invoke and navigate these and other protective procedures for your best Texas IMG licensing issue outcome.
Texas IMG Licensing Representation
The Lento Law Firm's premier Professional License Defense Team is available across Texas to help you address and favorably resolve your ECFMG, USMLE, and Texas Medical Board issues. Call 888.535.3686 or complete this contact form now.
