Omitted Legal Residence on AMCAS

[TheHikingLife]

So I'm freaking out a little bit. I just received an email from an MD program I applied to telling me that my legal residence was not reported on my AMCAS application. I checked back and noticed that I am listed as "Not a Legal Resident of the US." I think I misinterpreted the question as whether I was a green card holder, permanent resident, etc. I am a US-born citizen, and am concerned that my application may be erroneously handled due to the fact that I do not have my country, state and county of legal residence correctly listed on my AMCAS.

I have emailed AAMC to correct my application, any thoughts on whether or not this is actually going to be an issue? Should I email schools to inform them of the error?

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[areserine]

I'd say this is important enough to warrant a call to AAMC vs an email. Ask them if you should inform schools or if it is something they can fix. But yeah, it may be a problem for you since some schools don't accept international students. You'll want to get this fixed.

 

[TheHikingLife]

Thanks @areserine, I did call and am having the issue corrected. Hopefully it hasn't caused my app to be incorrectly sorted at too many schools.

 

[johnnytest]

After AAMC fixes it make sure you update ALL your schools. They may not have realized it but it's better to be safe than sorry. Call them.

 

[TheHikingLife]

After AAMC fixes it make sure you update ALL your schools. They may not have realized it but it's better to be safe than sorry. Call them.

Good call, thank you for the suggestion.

 

[Fidget]

I did the exact same thing as the original poster and I was also notified by an MD admissions office of my failure to declare my state of residence. I called AMCAS and I have submitted the required "change of residence" information by email.

I share your worries TheHikingLife. I am a California resident with my primary app verified about a month ago and I have received not one secondary from the UC schools that I applied to. The UC's have a heavy screening process for primary apps and I am afraid I may have lost out on my residency advantage.

It looks like AMCAS sends data changes to the schools, but I will be contacting each school individually to ensure my application is properly considered.

 

[TheHikingLife]

Well glad to hear I am not the only one who made this mistake, Fidget. Sorry you are still waiting on the UCs, but thankfully we both caught the problem relatively early in the process. I personally think that the question is not clear at all on the AMCAS. "Legal Resident of the US" is not a commonly used designation, whereas "Legal Permanent Resident" is a fairly common designation for greencard holders.

Either way, I contacted AAMC and had the problem resolved on my AMCAS. I was verified early July, and have received two II's so far, one from one of my state schools and another from a private OOS school so I am assuming this is only an issue at some schools (two of my other state schools may have been considering me an OOS applicant because my state of residence was not specified on AMCAS).

I emailed every program to which I applied and informed them of the mistake, some said they already had my legal residence correctly listed, others just thanked me for the update. I think this is likely only a problem at some schools who use automated sorting from info on the AMCAS.

 

[teeheety]

Sorry for digging up this old thread. But I'm in the exact same situation because I used to be a green card holder before I became a citizen. Do you remember how long it took AMCAS to fix the mistake?

 

[CrunchyPeanutButter]

Sorry for digging up this old thread. But I'm in the exact same situation because I used to be a green card holder before I became a citizen. Do you remember how long it took AMCAS to fix the mistake?

I just became a citizen this past week. AMCAS told me the can NOT change my status from permanent resident to citizen.



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[teeheety]

I just became a citizen this past week. AMCAS told me the can NOT change my status from permanent resident to citizen.



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Congratulations!!! I became one last year. I wasn't very clear in my question, but I was saying that like @TheHikingLife, I also mis-selected that I was NOT a legal resident because I thought it only applied for permanent resident status (silly, I know!). I already contacted AMCAS a month ago when I realized this, but they said they could only change my residence status after verification. So I was just asking if the mistake was fixed soon or it took them a while, because I'm waiting for it to be fixed before I forward my primary to the rest of the med schools I'm applying to.