Your application is
read on 23 September.
As it is.
For doctors who earned their medical degree outside the US or Canada and are applying through ERAS for a US residency post — the paid training every doctor has to complete before practising here.
Not as you meant it. Programs open every application submitted since 2 September at the same moment, and programs generally do not tell you what was wrong with yours. This does — eligibility, timing, evidence and list strategy, checked against a rubric a practising physician wrote.
The reviewed version is $49.
Only one of those fits inside the window that is left.
Who this is for
- 1You earned your medical degree outside the US or Canada — US citizens who studied abroad included.
- 2You are applying through ERAS for a US residency position.
- 3You are aiming at the 2027 Match, or deciding whether to be.
If that is not you, this will not help — it reviews one specific application, for one specific system.
in ERAS, ECFMG and NRMP fees to apply to 100 programs — before a single interview, and none of it refundable.
AAMC · ECFMG · NRMP, 2027 seasonof non-US citizen IMGs matched to a PGY-1 position last cycle, out of 11,944 who applied.
NRMP Results and Data, 2026from payment to a diagnostic that a physician has read, corrected and signed.
Real hours, not business hoursThe path, and where it breaks
If you are new hereA doctor who trained outside the United States cannot simply apply for a US job. To practise here you must first be accepted into a residency — a training post at a US hospital — and there is exactly one way in, once a year, run to a fixed national calendar.
- 01Graduate from a medical school outside the USYour school and graduation credentials must meet ECFMG eligibility requirements — which Pathway applies depends on licensure, graduation date, accreditation and prior clinical-skills history
- 02Pass the USMLE Step 1 and Step 2 CKThe same licensing exams US students take
- 03Earn ECFMG certificationVia a "Pathway", which now also requires an English proficiency exam
- 04Get US clinical experience and lettersWeeks spent in a US hospital, and a letter from a physician who watched you work
- 05Apply through ERAS, in SeptemberOne application, sent to as many programs as you can afford
- 06Interview, October to JanuaryInvitations arrive without warning, or they do not
- 07Rank your programs, FebruaryThey rank you too, in secret
- 08Match Day, MarchAn algorithm decides. One result, no appeal, no negotiation
About 11,900 international graduates go through this each year. Roughly four in ten finish with nothing — and programs generally do not explain why.
Programs do not give feedback. There is no score, no rejection letter explaining itself, no way to ask. You send the application, you wait, and in March you get a single word. People often fail on things that were fixable in September and invisible until it was too late — a certification that landed late, eight weeks of experience that produced no letter, a program list that was never realistic to begin with.
A second opinion on your application, not another database
What this isYou already know your Step scores. What you do not know is how the pieces read together to a program director in September — whether your certification will land in time, whether eight weeks of observership actually did anything for you, whether your program list survives contact with visa and graduation-year filters.
Every finding you get back has three parts: what the issue is, why it matters, and one specific thing to do about it — written against your own answers rather than general advice.
What has to be right before the 23rd
Where an IMG application quietly failsEligibility
Your school's World Directory listing and ECFMG Sponsor Note, which Pathway applies to you, English-proficiency evidence, and three separate dates that are often confused: the Pathways application deadline, the day programs begin reading, and NRMP's rank-list certification deadline. The gates that make everything else irrelevant if you get them wrong.
Checked firstTiming
Where you sit against the ERAS calendar right now, and what it costs you to submit after programs have already begun reviewing on a rolling basis.
Measured in daysEvidence
US clinical experience, whether it was hands-on, and — the part that decides its value — whether it produced a letter from a US physician who watched you work.
The part programs readStrategy
Specialty realism against your profile, how many programs you are genuinely eligible for once sponsorship and graduation-year filters apply, and where to spend your signals — the small number of programs ERAS lets you flag as a genuine first choice.
Before you pay the feesYour own red flags
Gaps, failed attempts, a change of specialty. Anything you already worry about will be read by a program without your explanation attached unless you attach one.
Named, not hiddenReapplication
If this is not your first cycle, what has to be materially different this time — and whether it currently is.
Different, or notStart today, and this is your calendar
Every week you wait moves this line to the right. There is no version of this that starts in December — by then the only decision left is whether to reapply.
Ten minutes of intake. Every finding rated, with no card and no call.
Everything sent between now and the 23rd reaches programs at the same moment.
MSPE and transcript uploaded, so they transmit with your application.
What is in the application that morning is what most programs first read.
Match 2027 at a glance
Every finding in a diagnostic is measured against these dates — that is what makes "you have five weeks" mean something specific rather than a feeling.
- Jun 4, 2026 2027 ERAS season opens — you can start building the application
- Sep 2, 2026 Applications may be submitted. Everything sent between now and Sep 23 reaches programs at the same moment
- Sep 11, 2026 MSPE and medical school transcript should be uploaded, so ECFMG can transmit them on Sep 23
- Sep 23, 2026 Programs begin reviewing — the deadline that actually matters
- Oct 2026 – Jan 2027 Interview season. Invitations are issued on a rolling basis, with no fixed start date season
- Jan 31, 2027 ECFMG Pathways application deadline
- Feb 1, 2027 Rank order list entry opens (12:00 pm ET)
- Mar 3, 2027 Rank order list certification deadline (9:00 pm ET) — an uncertified list does not enter the Match
- Mar 15, 2027 Match Week begins
- Mar 19, 2027 Match Day
- May 31, 2027 2027 ERAS season ends
Every date above is confirmed against the primary source — AAMC for the ERAS timeline, ECFMG for Pathways and document processing, and the NRMP 2027 Main Residency Match applicant calendar for ranking and Match Week. Times are US Eastern. Calendars still change: do not plan around a date you read on somebody's website, including mine. Confirm against NRMP, AAMC and ECFMG directly.
Built for the IMG path, not adapted to it
Who this is for- 01Applying to the 2027 Match and unsure whether your application is ready to be read
- 02Needing visa sponsorship, and unsure how much that narrows the field
- 03Carrying something you expect to be asked about — a gap, an attempt, a late graduation
- 04Reapplying, and not certain what to change
- 05About to spend thousands on program fees and wanting a check first
It does not predict your interviews. Nothing here pretends to.
The AAMC's Residency Explorer does that, from first-party ERAS and interview data covering the great majority of programs, and it is free. Use it. This sits above that and answers a different question: whether the application you are about to send holds together.
It is not immigration or licensure advice, and it guarantees no Match outcome. Anyone promising you one is not being straight with you.
Know what is actually wrong with your application, while you can still fix it.
Applying to 100 programs in one specialty costs roughly $2,700 in ERAS, ECFMG and NRMP fees before a single interview — and none of it is refundable. Most IMGs spend it without ever getting a straight answer about where their application is weak. This is that answer: a structured read of your eligibility, timing, evidence and list strategy, reviewed and signed by me before it reaches you.
I am an international medical graduate myself.
Dr. Rafia Khan, MD · Internal Medicine
- Now
- Site Director of an Internal Medicine residency training program. She leads the clinical education of resident physicians and evaluates their competency against training and accreditation standards — the side of the table an applicant is trying to reach.
- Practice
- Practising internal medicine in California since 2019, in a large integrated health system.
- Medical school
- Medical College for Women & Hospital, Bangladesh. She came to the United States after graduating, which is what makes her an IMG.
- Residency
- Internal Medicine, St. Barnabas Hospital, Bronx, New York.
- Board certified
- Internal Medicine, American Board of Internal Medicine.
- Licensed
- California, licence A161761 — active. NPI 1942659594.
Check all of it. The licence at the California Department of Consumer Affairs, the NPI at NPPES, and the board certification at ABIM. You are being asked to pay for one physician's judgment; you should be able to confirm whose.
Three steps, and you never wait on a call
How it worksTell me where you stand
A short intake — exams, certification, US experience, letters, targets, timing. Ten minutes, and there is no call to schedule.
The rubric runs
A fixed set of checks I wrote, applied identically to every applicant. No model writes your result, and no part of your application is generated for you.
I review it
I read every finding, correct what the rubric got wrong, and add what it missed. Nothing reaches you unreviewed.
Your report arrives within 48 hours of payment — real hours, not business hours. You keep a PDF copy. Your details are used to prepare your own diagnostic and nothing else; they are never sold, and never shown next to your name anywhere.
What the intake asks you
Every question optionalSo you know before you start, and so nothing in the form is a surprise. Skip anything you cannot answer — the report tells you what it could not assess rather than guessing.
Your cycle
- Target specialties
- Prior application cycles
- Geographic ties
- Applying to more than one specialty?
- I have already submitted my ERAS application to programs
ECFMG and Pathway
- Your school in the World Directory
- Which ECFMG Pathway applies to you?
- Pathway application status
- Credentials submitted for primary-source verification?
- Prior clinical-skills (Step 2 CS) failure?
Exams and score timing
- Step 3
- Will your Step 2 CK score be reported before programs begin reading?
ERAS documents
- ERAS token obtained and MyERAS active?
- USMLE transcript authorised for release?
- MSPE
- Medical school transcript
- ECFMG Status Report requested?
- Personal statement
- Photograph uploaded?
- Registered with NRMP?
Clinical experience and letters
- Total USCE weeks
- Of those, hands-on weeks
- Most recent USCE year
- Letters from US physicians
- Letters uploaded to ERAS
- Letter from a physician who supervised you?
- Letters assigned to every program?
- Specialty-specific letter format met?
- I have research experience at a US institution
Your program list
- Programs on your list
- Of those, how many sponsor the visa you need?
- How many accept your graduation year?
- How many accept your attempt history?
- How many require ECFMG certification at application?
- Programs you plan to apply to
Signals and geographic preference
- Signals your specialty gives you this season
- Signals you have assigned
- Signals on programs you are not eligible for
- Geographic preference selected in ERAS?
- Preference explained?
Gaps and previous cycles
- Year of your last clinical activity
- Currently working clinically?
- Any gap explained in your application?
- Programs applied to last cycle
- Interviews received last cycle
- Anything materially different this cycle?
Anything you already know is a problem
- In your own words
47 questions across 9 sections, and every one of them is optional. Anything you skip is reported as “not assessed” rather than guessed at.
A real report, for someone who does not exist
17 findings · 4 pagesGenerated by the live rubric from a made-up applicant, reviewed and released the same way yours would be. Nobody's real answers are in it.
What the rubric produced
usce_without_supervising_letter
You reported 12 weeks of US clinical experience but no letter from a physician who supervised you.
What you receive
US experience has not produced a letter from a supervisor
The value of US experience is largely realised through the letter it produces. Weeks without a letter from the physician who supervised you deliver little of what programs are screening for.
You reported 12 weeks of US clinical experience but no letter from a physician who supervised you.
What to do: Ask directly for a letter from the strongest supervisor you have worked with, and do it before the cycle closes.
The engine detects; the physician's rubric explains why it matters and says what to do. On the free tier you get the left-hand column and the rating. The What to do line, the reasoning around it and the PDF are what the $49 adds — along with a physician reading every finding before release and signing the report.
What this does not do
Before you payStated plainly, because the gap between what people assume they are buying and what this is would otherwise be discovered afterwards.
It does not read your letters. Letters of recommendation are confidential between the writer and the programs. The rubric asks how many you have, whether they are assigned and whether your specialty needs a particular format — it never sees their contents.
It does not read your personal statement or CV. It asks whether the statement is final and whether your application tells one story; a physician comments on coherence from what you describe, not from the document.
It works from the program counts you give it, not from your actual list. If you tell us 41 of 82 programs sponsor your visa, the finding is only as good as that count.
It cannot guarantee a program's policy is current. Visa sponsorship, graduation-year limits and attempt limits change, and are often unstated. Verify with the program before you rely on it.
It is not immigration, legal or licensure advice. For those you need a licensed attorney, and no part of this substitutes for one.
It does not predict interviews or the Match. AAMC Residency Explorer estimates interview likelihood from real data and it is free. This answers a different question.
Scores alone do not tell it whether you are competitive. Competitiveness depends on the specialty, the programs and the year, and the rubric says "program-dependent" where that is the honest answer.
Where you leave a question blank, it says so. Unanswered areas come back as “not assessed” rather than as a guess, and some of them need a physician's interpretation rather than a rule.
Questions people ask first
Straight answersDo I need to be ECFMG certified before applying?
No. You can apply through ERAS without being certified. But your status is visible to programs, some screen on it at application, and NRMP requires examination requirements satisfied by the rank-list certification deadline — three separate things the diagnostic reports separately, because conflating them is how people are told they are ineligible when they are not.
Can you assess more than one specialty?
Yes — list them in priority order. Applying to a second specialty is a reasonable strategy and a visible one, so the diagnostic flags whether each has its own statement and letters rather than a shared one.
Can you review my actual program list?
Not the list itself. The intake asks how many programs you listed and how many clear each filter you face — visa, graduation year, attempts, certification timing. That produces the most useful finding in the report, but the numbers are yours to supply.
Can you review my personal statement or CV?
Not as part of this. The diagnostic asks whether the statement is final and whether your goal, experiences and list agree with each other; the physician comments on coherence from your answers. If you want a document read line by line, that is mentorship, not this.
Do you read my recommendation letters?
No. They are confidential between the writer and the programs. The rubric asks about count, whether they are assigned to every program, whether one came from a physician who supervised you, and whether your specialty expects a standardised format.
What if my documents are still processing?
Say so — “requested” is one of the answers. Documents that depend on your school or ECFMG move at their pace, and the report treats a requested MSPE differently from one nobody has asked for.
What happens if I leave things blank?
Every question is optional, and a blank is reported as “not assessed” rather than guessed at. The trade is real: a rule with no input produces no finding, so the more you answer the more you get back.
Is this still useful after 23 September?
Yes, and the findings change. Before that date the emphasis is on submission readiness; afterwards it moves to what can still be fixed — certification timing, letters, signals, and the rank-list deadline in March. It stops being useful when nothing is left to change, not on a date.
Is it for US-IMGs as well as non-US IMGs?
Both. If you do not need visa sponsorship, the sponsorship rules simply do not fire — you are not shown findings that do not apply to you.
What if I disagree with a finding?
Tell us. On the reviewed tier a physician has already read and corrected every finding, so a disagreement is worth a conversation rather than a correction form — write to us and you get a reply, not a template.
Can I get an updated report after changing my application?
Yes — run a new diagnostic. It is a fresh assessment against the rubric version current at that time, not an edit of the old one, so you keep both and can see what changed.
What exactly does the free version leave out?
Both tiers run the identical rubric and produce identical findings, each rated and explained. The free one withholds the recommended action for each finding and the downloadable PDF, and no physician reads it. Free tells you what is wrong; paid tells you what to do about it, in her words.
Is the 48 hours measured from intake or from payment?
From payment. The clock starts when the money clears and is fixed at that moment — 48 real hours, not business hours. Changing the policy later never moves a promise already made.
Find out what is wrong for free
Same rubric, both tiersBoth identify issues using the same fixed rubric, applied the same way to every applicant. The paid one adds physician review: corrections, prioritisation and recommended actions, signed before anything reaches you.
Risk Check
- The full rubric run against your profile and intake
- Every finding the rubric produces, rated and explained
- Not what to do about it
- No physician review, no PDF
Application Diagnostic
- Everything in the Risk Check
- I read every finding and correct it in my own words
- Findings reprioritised for your situation, not the average one
- Anything the rubric missed, added by hand
- Downloadable PDF report, signed
What the cycle already costs you. ERAS 2027 charges $11 per program for your first 30 in a specialty, then $30 each — and the count resets for every additional specialty. The ECFMG token is $185; NRMP is $85 to register plus $30 per program ranked beyond 20. Applying to 100 and ranking 40 comes to roughly $3,300, and ERAS states plainly that it does not refund it for any reason. A $49 diagnostic is under two per cent of that, spent before the rest — and finding out whether you need one costs nothing.
Card declined? It happens constantly with international cards and it is almost always the bank, not you — message me and we will use PayPal or Wise. If you are in a lower-income country, ask about regional pricing before you pay. A family member abroad paying on your behalf is completely fine.
The 23rd arrives whether the application is ready or not.
Invitations go out on a rolling basis from that date. Almost everything a diagnostic finds is fixable in September and expensive to discover in January. The Risk Check is free and takes no card — if it finds nothing, you have lost ten minutes and gained the only straight answer anyone will give you this cycle.
Not sure it applies to you? Message me on WhatsApp first — I will tell you honestly if it would not help. And if you want a person rather than a report, mentorship and a discovery call are on the main page.
This is an assessment of your residency application. It is not legal, immigration or licensure advice — for those, consult a licensed attorney. It does not predict interview invitations, and it does not guarantee or imply any Match outcome. Verify every date and eligibility requirement against AAMC, ECFMG and NRMP directly.