ECFMG translation of medical school documents for foreign physicians

Medical school documents go to ECFMG, and later to USCIS, with a complete English translation of every page, and the degree title stays in its original language with the translation placed next to it. ECFMG reviews the papers as part of certification, and USCIS looks at the same papers again when an employer files Form I-129 for an H-1B physician.

Which medical school documents need translation for ECFMG

Physicians who studied abroad generally need ECFMG certification before they can train in the United States. Some then work on J-1 status sponsored through ECFMG, while others are placed under an H-1B petition filed by a hospital or practice. ECFMG decides which documents a particular graduate must send, and the attorney or accredited representative decides what goes into a petition.

The documents that usually carry foreign-language text are the following.

• The medical school diploma, including the supplement or annex if the school issued one.
• The transcript, with course names, hours, and grades.
• Internship or residency completion certificates from the country of study.
• The medical license or registration certificate issued by the home country's authority.
• Good-standing letters from the licensing body or the school.

Each of these needs its own certified translation of the full page. A diploma translation covers the front, the signatures, and any registration number or stamp, while a transcript translation covers every semester and every grade column. A professional license translation follows the same rule: the issuing authority, the registration number, and the dates all appear in English. ECFMG expects the translation to be literal and complete, prepared by a professional translation service, and USCIS requires a certification of competence and accuracy from the translator.

How the degree title is translated

The degree title is rendered as it reads in the original, with the original wording kept in brackets after the English. A diploma from Mexico that names the title médico cirujano becomes "Physician and Surgeon [médico cirujano]", and a German Arzt becomes "Physician [Arzt]". The translator does not change either one to "MD", because the diploma does not say "MD" and the translation records what the document says.

Six-year combined degrees raise the same question. Some countries award a single qualification at the end of six years of medical study, where the United States splits education into a bachelor's degree and a medical degree. The translation gives the title and the program length exactly as printed, and ECFMG or the evaluating body decides how the qualification compares to a US degree. A Spanish diploma translation for a Latin American graduate follows this rule. A diploma from a Russian-language medical school follows it too, and the Russian translation services page describes how those documents are handled.

Transcripts, rotations, and hospital names

A medical transcript is a long document, and the translation has to be as long. Course titles, credit or hour counts, grades, examination results, and the grading scale printed on the page are all translated. Grades are not converted to a US grade point scale, because a conversion is an interpretation, and the translation reports what the school recorded.

Clinical rotations and internship records often name hospitals, departments, and supervising physicians. Names of institutions are translated where the name has a meaning, with the original in brackets, and personal names are transliterated once and then kept the same everywhere. Stamps, seals, signatures, and handwritten entries are described in the translation, and an illegible stamp is marked "[illegible]" instead of guessed. A back page that carries anything, such as a registrar's note, is translated too. The guide on diploma translation versus credential evaluation explains where the translator's job stops and the evaluator's begins.

Enrollment and graduation dates must match across documents

A medical file contains the same dates in several places. The diploma gives a graduation date, the transcript gives the enrollment period and the final examination date, and the internship certificate gives its own start and end. When the translated dates disagree with one another, the reader cannot tell whether the school made a mistake or the translation did.

Date order is the usual cause. A date written 03/04/2012 means 3 April in most of the world and 4 March in the United States, so the translation writes the month out in words. Names raise the same problem: a surname spelled one way on the diploma and another way on the transcript looks like two different people. The translation company keeps one spelling for each name across the whole file, the one that matches the passport.

What changes when the documents go to USCIS with Form I-129

USCIS regulations require a full English translation with a signed certification that the translator is competent in both languages and that the translation is complete and accurate. A translation made for ECFMG can serve a petition only if it meets that standard: every page translated, the certification attached, and the degree title worded the same way in both places. A different English title for the same degree in the ECFMG file and the petition invites a question from the officer.

When a translation is missing, incomplete, or uncertified, USCIS may issue a Request for Evidence, and policy also allows an officer to deny a filing without one. The supporting evidence for an H-1B physician usually includes the degree, the transcript, and the license, so a gap in any one of them affects the filing. The certified document translation for USCIS service page shows how the certification and the layout of the translated pages are handled.

Before ordering, gather every page of each document, including the reverse of the diploma and any annex, and check that the names and dates agree. We prepare a separate certification for each document, and the medical records translation page lists the other records that physicians often add to a file.