Temporary Medical License issues due to Covid

[jlay449]

I’m an IMG currently applying for a temporary medical license for residency. The state of IL is asking for a form to be signed and sealed by my medical school, but it has closed down due to Covid and won’t be open until June. The state hasn’t given any official instructions on other alternatives, which means they possibly won’t process incomplete applications and ultimately push many foreign residents off-cycle.

Any other IMGs running into similar problems in IL or other states? If so, are other States giving their IMGs alternatives or will this be a country wide problem?

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[ThoracicGuy]

Turn in everything you can. If that one form is the only thing that is left, then your school can get it in ASAP and hopefully it won't stop you starting on time. Make sure your program is aware as well.

 

[Mass Effect]

Contact your program. Surely you're not the only one experiencing this. Your program should know what to do.

 

[Raryn]

Call the registrar's office from your med school. Perhaps they're working from home - mine is (my wife, who also graduated from there, needed a form filled out last week).

 

[AMEHigh]

You can’t be the only one with this problem.
People need this paperwork from their med schools for their licenses of course.
Did you call your med school? There’s no way they’re just not responding to these requests.

 

[CalmAndCollected]

Not sure if illinois is any different, but my program made it clear we don’t need the temporary license to start (only in progress). Since many US grads finish quite close to the starting date, and processing generally takes weeks, I would presume many people will be in your same boat.

I would also not he surprised if different state medical boards start making exceptions and allow you turn in certain forms after the fact in the coming months to not stop interns from starting. My state board has told us we don’t need to get our fingerprints scanned until further notice.

 

[Smurfette]

You can’t be the only one with this problem.
People need this paperwork from their med schools for their licenses of course.
Did you call your med school? There’s no way they’re just not responding to these requests.

The OP is an IMG, so the school may not have the same expectations and staff support that US MD schools do during this time with whatever govt restrictions are there right now.

 

[jlay449]

Thanks for all the responses, everyone! So as of right now I have sent all the forms I could fill out to the Department. I had contacted my medical school asking if there was anyway I could get this form done, but they replied with “nothing can be done at the moment”, because they are pretty much under martial law right now. I actually had someone get in touch with the dean to see if I could possibly get the form filled out and signed by the dean at least, but IL won’t accept it without the official seal as well.

I had asked my GME coordinator if IL had given them official instructions about what to do for those residents who can’t get that form in, but for some reason the instructions that they had given my GME coordinator was being contradicted when I had called into the Department. Seems like there is a big miscommunication going on.

So basically I’m just waiting now for IL to call me back when they figure out what are the official instructions to follow for residents in my position. I’m just worried because IL has a bad record of taking a long time to process paperwork and not to mention this is the year where they are making ALL physicians renew their licenses. I don’t think IL will allow residents to start without a temporary license, so if they aren’t offering alternatives or making exceptions, some of us might have no choice but to start off-year. Seems a little unfair and nonsensical considering we’re in dire need of physicians and this setback would only be making our shortage worse, but I understand that these are unprecedented times.

 

[K2020]

Most state medical board will issue a letter stating you are allowed to work (valid for 120 days) in case they cannot issue a temp license by July 1. As long as you submitted the application and its pending or in review. Training license applications shouldn't take time to process once they have all your documents in, unlike the full unrestricted license. For me and most of my friends, it took us about 2.5-3 weeks maximum to get one issued. So even if school turns in the paperwork in June, you should still be fine. But definitely there should be a way to issue a letter or something to practice in the meantime until the paperwork is processed within 120 days.