AMCAS Letter Writer Portal: Letter ID and Upload

AMCAS Letter Writer Portal: Letter ID and Upload

The Request ID on the applicant's Letter Request Form, together with the applicant's AAMC ID, is what attaches your letter to the right AMCAS file. Upload one PDF on letterhead, dated and signed by hand, under the ID the applicant gave you.

This page is for the person writing the letter, not the applicant. It answers the two questions writers get stuck on: which number goes where, and which format rule wins when the services disagree. If you have not drafted the letter yet, start with how to write a letter of recommendation for medical school, then come back for the upload step. More letter guides sit in the medical school essays hub.

Every page quoted below was checked on November 7, 2026. AAMC's own AMCAS letter pages returned HTTP 403 to our scripted checks that day, so nothing on this page is quoted from AAMC. The AMCAS rules we could not confirm are listed in What we could not verify from AAMC. Everything else comes from Interfolio, TMDSAS, Liaison and school admissions pages that loaded.

The two IDs that place your letter

Interfolio, a letter-delivery service, describes its AMCAS route this way: "Confidential letters of recommendation are sent to AMCAS through a custom application that requires both the Request ID and AAMC ID to be completed." It then states the failure mode: "If the AAMC ID in the delivery does not match the ID in AMCAS, the delivery will not sync correctly with the AMCAS application." (Interfolio, Use Dossier Deliver to Apply to Medical or Dental Schools)

Read the two numbers this way:

• AAMC ID: who the applicant is.
• Request ID: which letter entry in that applicant's file your letter fills.

Schools count the entries, not the people. George Washington's MD admissions page says: "Your file will be considered complete when all of the letters designated in the AMCAS System are marked as complete." (GW School of Medicine, Application Process) The University of Vermont's Larner College of Medicine says it "participates in the AMCAS letter writer service, and letters must be submitted through the letter writer portal." (UVM Larner, Admissions FAQs)

Our view: treat the Request ID as the address on the envelope. If an applicant sends you a second form for the same letter, ask which entry the letter belongs to before you upload anything. The basis is the two sources above: the IDs decide where the letter syncs, and the school decides completeness by designated entries.

The countercase: an applicant who asks you for two different letters, for example a general letter and a research letter for an MD-PhD application, should send two forms. Then each letter goes under the ID printed on its own form.

Portal or Interfolio: which route to use

The Interfolio route has one rule writers miss. Interfolio's help page tells applicants: "Please advise your letter writer to include a physical (wet or handwritten) signature on your confidential letter of recommendation, as electronic signatures are not currently accepted." That sentence is Interfolio's statement about its AMCAS deliveries. TMDSAS takes the opposite line for Texas letters (next section).

Our recommendation: if the applicant gave you a Request ID, upload through the AAMC Letter Writer Application yourself. The Interfolio path adds a delivery step the applicant controls, and Interfolio's own page adds a handwritten-signature rule for AMCAS.

The countercase: a writer sending one letter for the same applicant to AMCAS, AACOMAS and TMDSAS may prefer to hold a single copy in Interfolio. Know two limits first. For AACOMAS, Interfolio says "Letters submitted through Interfolio cannot be updated or replaced after delivery." For TMDSAS, the service warns that "Interfolio moves your submission date for ALL submitted letters to the latest delivery date." (TMDSAS, Letters of Evaluation) If you are also writing for a DO applicant, the AACOMAS letters and Interfolio guide covers that service.

Letterhead, signature and date: the rules side by side

AMCAS's own format rule is one of the facts we could not verify. The services and schools below publish theirs. All were checked on November 7, 2026.

TMDSAS states the cost of missing an item: "letters missing any of this information may be rejected, and further delay delivery to the schools."

Our view: build the strictest version once and use it everywhere. Letterhead with your phone or email, the applicant's full name, today's date, your degrees after your name, and a handwritten signature scanned to PDF. That one file meets every row in the table. A typed name meets the TMDSAS row and fails the Interfolio-to-AMCAS row.

Interfolio's page for letter writers gives the simplest method: "The easiest way to include a handwritten signature is to Print, Sign, Scan, and Upload the letter." (Interfolio, About Adding a Letterhead or Signature to a Letter) If you scan, save the result as a PDF. Liaison's help center warns that a scanned letter saved as "an image file (e.g., JPG or PNG format)" must be converted "to a PDF before uploading." (Liaison Letters FAQs)

Constructed example: a letterhead and signature block that meets every row

Constructed example, written by us, not a real letter. The clinic, names and contact details are invented.

Riverside Family Health Clinic 1200 Example Avenue, Springfield, ST 00000 · (555) 010-0142 · i.strand@riverside-example.org

November 7, 2026

Letter of evaluation for Theo Duquette

[body of the letter]

[handwritten signature] Imogen Strand, MD Attending Physician, Family Medicine, Riverside Family Health Clinic (555) 010-0142 · i.strand@riverside-example.org

What each line does: the header is the letterhead and the contact information TMDSAS and Midwestern ask for. The date line meets TMDSAS's preference and the date floors at KCU and LMU-DCOM. The applicant's name is on the first page, which Midwestern requires. "MD" after the name lists the degree Midwestern asks for. The handwritten signature satisfies Interfolio's AMCAS line, and TMDSAS accepts it too.

Fixing a mistake after you upload

Check the letter against the request form before you press submit. On the services we could read, the correction path after upload is narrow:

• AACOMAS (Liaison Letters). The applicant help page says: "Many programs have strict guidelines and completed evaluations cannot be removed or replaced." (AACOMAS, Evaluations) Liaison's writer help adds: "If available, you can edit completed recommendations by clicking Edit in the top right of your completed recommendation." (Liaison, Edit Completed Recommendations) "If available" means the button may not be there.
• Interfolio. For AACOMAS, "Letters submitted through Interfolio cannot be updated or replaced after delivery." For every service, "Note that replaced letter will not be automatically sent to AMCAS, AACOMAS, TMDSAS, AADSAS, or DO schools".
• TMDSAS. A rejected letter can be fixed. TMDSAS tells applicants to "Reach out to your evaluator so they can update their letter" and "Have your evaluator re-submit a revised letter."
• AMCAS. How a corrected upload replaces the first one is not verified; AAMC's page returned 403.

If you uploaded the wrong file for the wrong applicant, tell the applicant the same day. They hold the account and its status page.

Committee letter, packet or individual letter

Ask the applicant which kind of entry your letter fills before you write it. The answer changes who uploads it.

• AACOMAS counts a committee letter as one evaluation: "a committee letter only counts as one evaluation and the individuals who contributed to the letter may not be used as additional evaluators." If you wrote a paragraph for a committee letter, you cannot also be a separate AACOMAS evaluator for the same applicant.
• TMDSAS accepts three packet formats, from a committee letter with letters attached to "Collection of individual evaluation letters which may also include a cover letter from an advising office". Packets are uploaded "via the TMDSAS Advisor Portal, not the TMDSAS Evaluator Portal."
• AMCAS packet handling is not verified (AAMC page 403).

The medical school committee letter explainer covers what goes inside one.

What we could not verify from AAMC

AAMC's AMCAS letter pages returned HTTP 403 to our checks on November 7, 2026. These AMCAS facts are therefore not verified on this page, and we do not state them as rules:

1. Which file types and sizes the Letter Writer Application accepts for a direct upload.
2. Whether a writer can upload as a guest or must register.
3. When a direct upload shows as received.
4. Whether uploading a new file under the same Request ID replaces the version schools see.
5. How AMCAS handles letter packets once received.
6. The maximum number of letter entries an applicant can create.
7. Any AMCAS rule on letterhead, signature or date.

For each of these, the instructions printed on the applicant's Letter Request Form and in the AAMC Letter Writer Application are the source. Ask the applicant to forward the form itself, not a retyped ID.

Pre-upload checklist for writers

1. You have the Letter Request Form, and the Request ID on it is the one you will enter.
2. The applicant's full name on your letter matches the name on the form.
3. The letter is on letterhead with your phone or email.
4. It carries today's date.
5. Your degrees follow your name.
6. It is signed by hand and scanned, or signed in a way every school on the applicant's list accepts.
7. It is one PDF, under 5MB if the applicant is sending it through Interfolio.
8. You read it once more against the request form, because completed AACOMAS evaluations and Interfolio deliveries to AACOMAS cannot be replaced.

Questions writers ask about AMCAS letters

What is an AMCAS letter ID?

It is the Request ID on the applicant's Letter Request Form. With the applicant's AAMC ID, it tells AMCAS which letter entry your file fills. Interfolio's help page names both IDs as required for its AMCAS deliveries.

Can I upload a Word file instead of a PDF?

For a direct AMCAS upload, we could not verify the accepted file types. Liaison Letters accepts Word, PDF, RTF and plain text, and TMDSAS's evaluator instructions say to "Save your letter as a PDF file type". Send a PDF.

Does a typed name count as a signature?

For TMDSAS, yes: "if the evaluator has typed their name at the end of the letter, it will be considered a valid electronic signature." For letters sent to AMCAS through Interfolio, no: Interfolio says "electronic signatures are not currently accepted." Sign by hand and you meet both.

The applicant's deadline passed. Should I still upload?

Yes. Liaison's writer FAQ says the Requested By date "may or may not be the same date as the actual deadline. If the due date has passed, submit your recommendation and contact the applicant to confirm deadline dates." The late letter of recommendation guide covers what a late letter does to the applicant's file.

I never got the request email. What now?

The request comes from the service, and the applicant controls the address it goes to. The recommender who did not receive the link page covers resends and spam filters service by service. For advisors, writing the committee letter itself covers how each service counts it.

Writing for a Texas applicant too? TMDSAS does not take AMCAS letters, and its letter requirements are stricter on letterhead, date and signature.

Asked by the student for a copy? See applicant asked to read my letter of recommendation?

Get a free review of the letter

Get a free Quick Review of your letter against GradPilot's Medical School Letter of Evaluation rubric before you upload it under the Request ID. It reads whether the letter states your vantage on the applicant, backs each quality with an incident you saw, and closes with an endorsement whose strength a reader can check. For a PA, dental, pharmacy or veterinary applicant, use the health professions evaluation letter rubric.

If you want a model to compare against, the constructed physician letter sample annotates one line by line.

Sources

Retrieved November 7, 2026, except where noted.

• Interfolio, Use Dossier Deliver to Apply to Medical or Dental Schools (no cycle stated): Request ID and AAMC ID, ID mismatch, 5MB limit, handwritten signature, 3-5 business days, AACOMAS replacement rule.
• Interfolio, About Adding a Letterhead or Signature to a Letter (For Letter Writers) (no cycle stated): print, sign, scan, upload.
• TMDSAS, Letters of Evaluation (dates letters to May 1, 2025): format requirements, typed-name signatures, Interfolio date rule, rejected letters, packet formats.
• TMDSAS, Evaluator Support (no cycle stated): save the letter as a PDF.
• George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Application Process (no cycle year stated): file complete when designated AMCAS letters are complete.
• University of Vermont Larner College of Medicine, Admissions FAQs (2026-27 timeline on page): letter writer portal; letterhead and signature.
• Midwestern University, AZCOM admissions, 2026-2027 catalog: letterhead, current date, degrees, applicant name and AACOMAS ID.
• Lincoln Memorial University DCOM, Letters of Recommendation (no cycle stated): letterhead, signature, three-year limit.
• Kansas City University, DO admission requirements (July 2027 entry): letter date floor.
• Liaison, AACOMAS Evaluations, Edit Completed Recommendations and Liaison Letters FAQs (no cycle stated): committee letters, removal and editing, file types, due dates.
• AAMC, AMCAS letters of evaluation pages: HTTP 403 on November 7, 2026; not quoted.