ECFMG requires that all independent applicants participating
in ERAS submit original letters of recommendation. Letters must
be:
- on official institutional letterhead
- manually signed by the letter writer in an ink color
other than black
Additionally, the ECFMG advises applicants to ask the letter
writer to affix an institutional seal to the letter of
recommendation.
ECFMG visually inspects the letters when they are received to
determine if they are originals or copies. If ECFMG determines
that an LOR is a copy, it is stamped to indicate that it is a
copy before it is made available to program directors.
Directors of residency programs are responsible for verifying
the authenticity of LORs. In several recent cases, submitted
letters were determined to have been altered or falsified. This
resulted in revocation of ECFMG certification, making the
applicants ineligible to enter residency training. In most of
these cases, the fraudulent letters of recommendation were
detected by program directors attempting to verify the letters'
authenticity. Read the full text of a recent announcement from the
ECFMG concerning these cases.
