THE CALIFORNIA LETTER / PTAL : Basics

Awrite ! This is for those fellas who will take nothing less than the state of Arnold Schwarzenegger & Beverly Hills for a Residency. To be a special place means you gotta have special credentials. It's funny how this country called USA is called United States and Yet each state seems to have it's own distinctive requirements all the time :-)

For starters, the so-called California Letter is actually a slang for 'Postgraduate Training Authorization Letter' or the PTAL. Like in the US, Bob is a slang for Robert, Bill for William, Dick for Richard, Liz for Elizabeth,  and I can go and on ..but then I would lose you to other websites  ;-)

A PTAL is a requirement prior to starting residency training in the state of California  - ONLY for International Medical Graduates. It is NOT required for graduates of US or Canadian medical schools 

Yet, there are some programs that will give you an interview without the letter, but they will assume that you WILL have the letter ready before the Residency Begins.

• Kaiser Permanente MC, Oakland
• Cali Pacific Med Center, SF
• San Joaquin Gen Hosp, Stockton
• Kern MC, Bakersfield
• West LA VA MC, LA
• King/DREW MC, LA
• USSF, Fresno

Clinical Requirements to be eligible for the California Letter (PTAL):

A. Instruction in the clinical courses shall total a minimum of 72 weeks in length.

B. Instruction in the core clinical courses of surgery, medicine,family medicine, pediatrics, obstetrics and gynecology, and psychiatry shall total a minimum of 40 weeks in length

C. Specific minimum Lengh of clinical courses (you need to submit a certificate of completion as proof for these) :

• Surgery : 8 Weeks
• Medicine : 8 Weeks
• Pediatrics : 6 Weeks
• Obstetrics & gynecology : 6 Weeks
• Family Medicine : 4 Weeks
• Psychiatry: 4 Weeks

(Thanks to Abi on helping me out faster on this one...)

Q. Sweet, so How Do I get this California Letter ?

A. The official Application forms (L1A - L1E, etc) with Information on document requirements, application process and fees can be downloaded as a PDF file from Here

Official California board Site = http://medbd.ca.gov

You can request an application package by emailing to : webmaster@medbd.ca.gov

More Contact Information:

Medical Board of California
1426 Howe Ave., Suite 54
Sacramento, CA 95825-3236
Tel: 916-263-2499

Q. So How Do you use this California Letter while applying for Residencies ?

A. As ECFMG mentions : "Applicants to programs in California must submit the California Application Status Letter, issued by the Medical Board of California, for scanning as one of the letters of recommendation to California programs"

Read the complete Instructions for California Letter on the ECFMG Site Here



Note that it costs about $500 - 600/- to get the whole process done, and it's advisable to do it much before August - September to have it on time for 1st September application deadline




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