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Sure, I appreciate the offer a great deal indeed.
There's a website called the World Directory of Medical Schools, that collates the details of individual med schools across the globe, and is pretty much the official registry recognized by most nations across the world.
In said website, you can find things like the date of establishment of an entity, its address, contact details and such.
There's a section called "Sponsor Notes", which records information such as whether the ECFMG has verified the credentials of the place and has given its stamp of approval as meeting the standards they set. I believe it's also used by a few other bodies, in places like Singapore, but the ECFMG is the most important by far. This is entirely unrelated to whether the med school is recognized by the government or licensing body of its own nation, just an additional certificate.
This is also nigh ubiquitous, you'll be hard pressed to find a med school that doesn't have it, at least when I checked, but is also not a legal requirement for a legitimate med school in India. People simply take it for granted.
My alma mater lacks this sponsor note. I suspect it's due to a tumultuous period in its founding, when even its standing with the local government was contested, and since this is India, the corrupt millionaire politician who founded it beefed with the other corrupt millionaire politician who lead the party he seceded from, the latter leaning on the government to get back at him by blocking the process of certification by the IMC.
It was eventually resolved, but either served as sufficient deterrent that the ECFMG wouldn't accept them, or far more likely, they simply didn't bother applying since it's not legally required, whereas being recognized by the IMC/NMC in India is. They also didn't have much motivation to, because the overwhelming majority of my seniors or even my classmates had absolutely no aspirations regarding going abroad, it was a very middling med school and they had their hands full getting into our own competitive postgraduate programs.
I contacted the ECFMG on my own, or rather with a friend who also wanted to give the USMLE, and they informed us that in order to pursue the matter, they need to correspond with the relevant authorities in my med school. I did my best to plead the case to them, and while the Principal at the time was sympathetic to our plight and pleased that some of her students had higher aspirations, she had to speak to the managing board who held the purse strings (it's for profit, and I don't know how much this sponsor note actually costs, the ECFMG doesn't say).
She ended up leaving and being replaced by a new one, and there the matter languished as I was too busy applying myself to the one country that would take me as is, the UK.
That's where it stands, while my friend is rich enough that she could sue my alma mater, that would be pure lawfare and I don't think we actually have a case, since it's not a legal requirement, just a nice to have that almost everyone else does.
That's about it, it's not obvious to me that legal recourse will help, but I'm not averse to finding out! I am perfectly eligible to go to the US by other routes, but the USMLE gatekeeps my ability to match into a program and thus practise there.
Please do let me know what your friends say, even if it only confirms my fears, and thank you again for offering!
I apologize for the lengthy delay in getting back to you, there was indeed a game of telephone as well as having to wait for someone to return from leave. Unfortunately the people I spoke to were of the opinion that while your issue may be resolvable, it's not something any of them have experience in. It appears you were correct in that it is more of a USMLE issue than a legal issue, and so they cannot offer any real answers to the hypothetical I proposed. That's not to say an immigration attorney would be useless to you, in fact they would probably make a good resource, but unfortunately I have come up dry on my end. Also, immigration attorneys are not cheap. I realize this was a very long wait for a very short drink of water, for which I again apologize.
Hey, I genuinely appreciate you remembering to get back to me!
It's as I feared, but that's fine, I was ready to deal with this outcome. I'll do my best to handle things from this end, and given that immigration lawyers are unlikely to help with the USMLE as you've said, it's a good thing I don't have to pay for them just yet.
Thank you, you did keep up your promise, and I hope I can find a solution on my lonesome or with the help of people in the same boat.
Glad I was able to get back to you - even if it was with less than ideal news. I will say that I wouldn't rule out all immigration attorneys as being unhelpful, merely that the ones I spoke to had never encountered your specific issue before. I also hope you're able to come up with a good solution! Best of luck.
Thank you, and I'll keep at it from my end! If it does seem to end up at a point where I could use a lawyer, I'll be sure to ask.
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