Your choice of Wisconsin to establish your medical practice as an international medical graduate (IMG) was a good one, as your residency or other investigation of the state's practice conditions has surely already been confirmed. However, Wisconsin's Medical Examining Board applies to IMGs all the rigorous requirements other states apply, including strict character and fitness requirements plus ECFMG certification and passage of the USMLE Step exams. Those IMG licensing requirements can raise intractable issues threatening your Wisconsin licensure. Retain the Lento Law Firm's premier Professional License Defense Team if you face any such issues. We are available in Milwaukee, Madison, Green Bay, Kenosha, Racine, Appleton, Waukesha, Eau Claire, Oshkosh, Janesville, West Allis, La Crosse, Cheboygan, Wauwatosa, Fond du Lac, Brookfield, New Berlin, Wausau, Menomonee Falls, and across Wisconsin to help you favorably resolve those issues. Call 888.535.3686 or complete this contact form now for our strategic and effective representation and your best outcome.
The Benefits of Wisconsin IMG Licensure
Wisconsin has so many things that make it a great place for IMG medical practice. Wisconsin's large, stable, and friendly population, charming cities and towns, beautiful natural environment, and seasonal weather make the state an attractive place to live. Wisconsin also has an outstanding educational system and a diverse economy. For physicians, though, the state's attraction includes its many fine and well-equipped hospitals, the largest of which are Froedtert Hospital, Aurora St Luke's Medical Center, Marshfield Medical Center, Ascension SE Wisconsin Hospital–St. Joseph Campus, UW Health University Hospital, HSHS St Vincent Hospital, SSM Health Saint Mary's Hospital, and UnityPoint Health-Meriter. Those hospitals and other health systems make for abundant physician employment and hospital privilege opportunities while supporting patient health with critical services. The state's medical schools, professional associations, and research facilities provide good professional development opportunities for new physicians. In all, you made a great choice of states. Now, let us help ensure that you get to benefit from your choice.
The Impact of Wisconsin IMG Licensing Issues
Wisconsin IMG licensing issues always come at the worst time. International medical graduates are in significant transition as they enter and complete their residency programs, obtain long-term employment, and seek the state medical board licensure to enable that employment. Your Wisconsin Medical Examining Board, ECFMG, and USMLE issues instantly complicate your transition. Delays in your Wisconsin licensure can mean loss of employment security and can impact your supportive professional network. If you cannot obtain a license because of your Medical Examining Board, ECFMG, and USMLE issues, you will not be able to practice. You will lose your employment and may not be able to get a license in another state, depending on the reasons for your issues. Don't let that happen to you. Get our highly qualified representation for your best outcome. Preserve your huge investment and your substantial expected return.
Wisconsin IMG Licensing Requirements
You have three masters to satisfy, not just one, when it comes to Wisconsin Medical Examining Board licensure. The Wisconsin Medical Examining Board imposes substantial character and fitness requirements. However, it also requires you to obtain certification from the Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates (ECFMG) and the United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE). Following is a summary of the three organizations' requirements.
Wisconsin Medical Board IMG Licensing Requirements
The Wisconsin Medical Practice Act Section 448.03 requires a license from the Wisconsin Medical Examining Board to practice medicine in the state. Section 448.05 of the Wisconsin Medical Practice Act lists your IMG licensing requirements. In most cases, those requirements include (1) ECFMG certification of your graduation from an approved international medical school, (2) two years of approved medical residency, and (3) passage of the USMLE Step exams. Other Wisconsin Medical Examining Board authority, including its administrative rules, require all candidates to show their good character and fitness for medical practice. You must also complete a thorough questionnaire and application form with complete, accurate, and truthful information. Our highly qualified attorneys can help you address issues that arise, satisfying Wisconsin Medical Examining Board requirements.
ECFMG Requirements for Wisconsin IMGs
Wisconsin Statutes Section 448.05 expressly requires that you obtain ECFMG certification. ECFMG certification depends on your showing that you graduated from an approved international medical school. ECFMG accredits international medical schools as recognized in the World Directory of Medical Schools. You surely investigated your international medical school's ECFMG accreditation when matriculating. Wisconsin Medical Examining Board officials may accept other international medical schools that ECFMG has not approved. However, your ECFMG certification after graduation from an approved school is the surest way to gain Wisconsin Medical Examining Board licensure. You must also show ECFMG that you have U.S. citizenship or lawful immigration status and that you will need to practice medicine in Wisconsin.
For ECFMG certification, you must create and complete an online portfolio through ECFMG's Electronic Portfolio of International Credentials (EPIC) system. ECFMG officials examine your portfolio not only for its contents, including both your international medical school transcript and your U.S. passport or visa but also for its accuracy and consistency. As in the case of your Wisconsin Medical Examining Board submission, your ECFMG submission could result in credential fraud charges based on errors and omissions suggesting deliberate misrepresentations of disqualifying information. You must also meet ECFMG authentication requirements for your documentation, such as signatures, seals, attestations, and original rather than duplicate documents.
USMLE Requirements for Wisconsin IMGs
Wisconsin Statutes Section 448.05 also expressly requires that you qualify for and pass the USMLE Step exams. That requirement means that you must submit an application to USMLE showing that you have obtained the ECFMG certification necessary for IMGs to qualify for the Step 3 exam. As in the case of your Wisconsin Medical Examining Board and ECFMG applications, your USMLE application must be accurate and complete, at the risk of denial of your USMLE application for misrepresentations construed as credential fraud.
Your bigger USMLE requirement, though, is clearly passing the Step 3 exam without your actions raising suspicions of cheating. The USMLE Bulletin of Information states the rules with which you must comply. Evidence that you violated those charges can result in USMLE investigators demanding your interview and submission of other information, as well as a referral on irregular behavior charges. Let us help you show the USMLE that you have met their requirements without irregular behavior.
Wisconsin IMG Issues
The requirements that you and other international medical graduates must meet for Wisconsin Medical Examining Board licensure can raise significant issues around your statements, documentation, or conduct with either the Medical Examining Board or the other two organizations, the ECFMG or USMLE. Consider here how those issues arise and how our highly qualified attorneys can help you favorably resolve those issues.
Wisconsin Board IMG Issues
Because the Wisconsin Medical Examining Board requires your ECFMG certification and USMLE passage, ECFMG or USMLE issues will promptly raise corollary issues with the Medical Examining Board. You may need to promptly notify the Medical Examining Board of newly arisen ECFMG or USMLE issues to ensure that your Board application remains true and accurate. Otherwise, you may face Board credential fraud charges. The Board may alternatively close your file and deny your application if ECFMG and USMLE issues delay the timely completion of your Board application. We can help you make those Medical Examining Board communications, assuring officials that we are diligently working to resolve your ECFMG and USMLE issues.
Wisconsin Medical Examining Board character and fitness requirements are likely to be your bigger, and perhaps biggest, issue. Criminal felony convictions, convictions for crimes of dishonesty or moral turpitude, domestic violence allegations in a divorce complaint, or restraining orders relating to alleged sexual harassment, stalking, or violence can all implicate your character, triggering Board review and denial. Hospitalization for serious physical disability or psychiatric conditions, drunk driving arrests, and substance abuse, dependency, or addiction treatment can implicate your fitness for practice, as can unprofessionalism charges or malpractice allegations in your medical residency. Let us help you make a clear and convincing presentation of your rehabilitation, recovery, and fitness.
Beware, too, of Wisconsin Medical Examining Board allegations that your questionnaire answers and other application materials fraudulently misrepresented your qualifications for practice. Board officials will compare your statements and answers to your documentation and to databases they search and review. They may construe inconsistencies as credential fraud, denying your application. Let us intervene on your behalf to explain and correct any such inconsistencies while showing your innocence of fraud intentions and further showing your character and fitness.
Wisconsin IMG ECFMG Issues
Your ECFMG issues as an international medical graduate seeking Wisconsin Medical Examining Board licensure will likely have to do either with your international medical school's approval, your transcript showing your graduation, or authentication issues with your documentation. The ECFMG places international medical schools on probation and removes schools from its World Directory of Medical Schools approved list with regularity. The ECFMG may believe that your international medical school no longer had ECFMG approval by the time of your graduation or had not yet obtained ECFMG approval. Let us help you address any such issue.
More likely, ECFMG officials may find defects in your international medical school transcript that your school's registrar or other official supplies. Your transcript may not yet reflect your graduation, requiring that you induce the registrar to update and resubmit it. Your transcript may alternatively show old financial holds or pending misconduct charges that you promptly resolved, again requiring your transcript's updating. If you still have pending school issues, we can help you address and resolve them while ensuring that your transcript reflects your graduation in good standing.
Your other potential ECFMG issue is that ECFMG officials find that your EPIC portfolio contains inconsistencies or contradictions that officials construe as your deliberate attempt to subvert ECFMG certification. In that case, ECFMG officials may deny your certification and invoke ECFMG's Policies and Procedures on Irregular Behavior. We can help you respond with appropriate evidence, information, and explanation to either head off irregular behavior charges or make a compelling defense before ECFMG's Credentials Committee.
Wisconsin IMG USMLE Issues
Your USMLE communications may raise similar credential fraud issues with USMLE officials. Those officials may contact you for an interview in the course of their investigation. If so, immediately retain us to assist you so that we can help you provide accurate, complete, and exonerating information. We can also represent you through USMLE irregular behavior procedures, including at formal hearings and with appeals. If, instead, your issue is that you have repeatedly failed the Step 3 exam and are up against the USMLE retake limit, we may be able to show extenuating circumstances for your prior failures to attend and complete a prior examination, giving you an additional retake.
Exam cheating allegations are other common USMLE issues for IMGs and other examinees. Test center staff may allege that you disrupted the exam, made threats, or presented an imposter to take your exam. Proctors may report your suspicious behavior in the exam room or that you brought unauthorized devices or materials into the exam. Fellow examinees may report that you attempted to copy their answers or that you violated exam confidentiality after the exam. Let us help you answer, fight, and defend any of those cheating charges or other charges.
Procedural Protections for Wisconsin IMGs
As the above issue analysis suggests, our attorneys have substantial skill and experience in addressing and favorably resolving these sorts of licensing issues through the available protective procedures. The ECFMG and USMLE Policies and Procedures on Irregular Behavior, just referenced above, authorize the Credentials Committee to hold hearings and the Review Committee to hear appeals. The Wisconsin Medical Examining Board likewise must offer protective procedures consistent with the state's AdministrativeAdministrative Procedure Act. That act and Section 448.09 of the Wisconsin Medical Practice Act may also provide for judicial review.
Wisconsin IMG Licensing Representation
The Lento Law Firm's premier Professional License Defense Team is available across Wisconsin to help you favorably resolve your ECFMG, USMLE, and Wisconsin Medical Examining Board issues. Call 888.535.3686 or complete this contact form now for the best outcome for your IMG licensing issues.
