Responding to an Illinois Dispensary Application Deficiency

Illinois Dispensary Application Deficiency – did you receive an Illinois Dispensary Application Deficiency? Keep in mind, Applicants only have ten (10) calendar days to respond.  Are you prepared?  This article will review How to Respond to an Illinois Dispensary Application Deficiency using the Illinois Department of Financial & Professional Services (IDFPR) portal. As a result, engage the cannabis licensing consultants at Quantum 9 today for a free 15-minute review of the Illinois Dispensary Application Deficiency notice. Contact us today.

For more reasons on why Applicants get deficiencies, check out this article previously published: Here

Most Common Illinois Dispensary Application Deficiency Notices 

Exhibit P – Evidence of Status as a Social Equity Applicant

• Firstly, include a cover letter at the start of the Illinois Dispensary Application Deficiency response. To expand on this, give the graders an overview of how the Applicant’s Principal Officers conform with social equity applicant status;
• Secondly, make sure an Operating Agreement/ By-Laws outline the equity percentages held by the Principal Officers who comply with Social Equity Applicant status. The total equity held by those individuals needs to equate to 51% or more with ultimate control of the company.  Avoid voting rights given to other individuals that direct the company.  Applicants need to prove that the Social Equity Applicant Principal Officers retain control; and
• Lastly, the Social Equity Principal Officers then need proof indicating they have lived in Illinois for five of the last ten years. This proof can take one of many forms, including: 
  • Other forms of residency proof – Utility bills, insurance forms, bank statements, pay stubs, pension payments, records from public assistance agencies, or school records.
  • Provide monthly statements if possible. The cannabis consultants at Quantum 9 suggest using the first two pages of the tax returns.

To find out if you or an applicant qualify for participation in the Illinois Adult-Use Social Equity Program, check out this map of Disproportionately Impacted Areas.

Exhibit N – Principal Officer Application Form(s)

• Ensure the Applicant submits a three-page resume for each of the Principal Officers outlining cannabis experience, if possible;
• Exhibit B, including employment agreements, signed contracts (inked by that Principal Officer), and a supplier agreement with one of the current cultivation license holders.

Example of an Illinois Dispensary Application Deficiency Notice

The Illinois Dispensary Application Deficiency Notice e-mail looks like the below:

Dear Applicant,

This e-mail serves as your notification that one or more deficiencies have been identified in your application for a Conditional Adult Use Dispensing Organization License.  Please carefully read the instructions below and submit the information addressing the identified deficiencies.

You have 10 calendar days beginning the day after the date this e-mail was sent to submit the required information in the manner described below. Submissions delivered to the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulations by any other means or after this timeframe will not be accepted. In your submission, do not include any supplemental information related to your application other than that required to address the identified deficiencies. Such supplemental information will not be considered in the review and scoring process. Please note that deficiencies identified are not comprehensive of all applicable statutes identified in the Cannabis Regulation and Tax Act (410 ILCS 705/).

IMPORTANT: If you do not submit the required information in the required manner within 10-calendar days, your entire application will not be scored and will be disqualified. (410 ILCS 705/15-30(b)). You will NOT receive a refund of your application fee.

Below, are the deficiencies in your application that have been identified at this time. This may not be a complete list of all deficiencies in your application, so please continue to monitor your e-mail account for additional correspondence regarding other deficiencies that may be identified in the future.

Instructions for Submitting Information to Address Deficiencies:

1. Review the list below to learn which deficiencies apply to your application.
2. Prepare responses in PDF format addressing each deficiency. A separate PDF document should be created for each Exhibit in which a deficiency has been identified. Unless the deficiency is that an entire Exhibit is missing, only submit supplemental information and materials that address the deficiency identified. For each corrected Exhibit, title the document “Exhibit [letter of exhibit]_[Organization FEIN Number or Organization Name]_Deficiency_[Region ID(s) separated by underscores].” 

File Naming Convention Example: Exhibit N_81-3780373-Deficiency_1_4_10_17

Region IDs:

(1) Bloomington. (2) Carbondale-Marion. (3) Champaign-Urbana. (4) Cape Girardeau. (5) Danville. (6) Davenport-Moline-Rock Island. (7) Decatur. (8) Kankakee. (9) Springfield. (10) Rockford. (11) East Central Illinois nonmetropolitan. (12) South Illinois nonmetropolitan. (13) Peoria. (14) Northwest Illinois nonmetropolitan. (15) West Central Illinois nonmetropolitan. (16) St. Louis. (17) Chicago-Naperville-Elgin.

3. Once you’ve assembled your PDF responses, you will access the Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP) file as described in the information below with the following username and password. For SFTP related questions only, please contact the following email address: us-advIDFPR@kpmg.comand a resource will get back to you promptly. We recommend logging into the SFTP as soon as possible to determine any access issues as extensions to submit your content beyond the 10 calendar days will not be provided.

<<Everything above is sent to all Applicants, the information below pertains to the Applicants Illinois Dispensary Application Deficiency>>

Primary Contact Username: {Client Email}

Primary Contact Password: Password

Secondary Contact Username: {Client Email}

Secondary Contact Password: Password

Listing of alphabetical deficiencies in your Application as provided by Section 15-30(b) of the Cannabis Regulation and Tax Act: 

BLS Region:

Chicago-Naperville-Elgin

{Redacted Deficiency }

In your response please provide all relevant documents, combined in one searchable PDF file, by the exhibit to support your assertion(s)

Confidentiality Notice

Illinois Dispensary Application Deficiency Portal Instructions

The Illinois Dispensary Application Deficiency e-mail comes with a .pdf file shown below. This document gives Applicants instructions on how to use the state upload portal. Here

Using the State Illinois Dispensary Application Deficiency Portal

The following information gives Applicants a step-by-step guide on how to use the state upload portal.

Step 1

Firstly, obtain the Applicant’s EIN number and the BLS Region you submitted in.  Then, open the deficiency e-mail to obtain the username and password.  Lastly, open the pdf, pictured above, and click the blue hyperlink. Or, click the following link to enter the state upload portal: Here

Step 2

Secondly, Applicants are taken to the login screen shown below.  Enter the username and password from the deficiency email.  The system will prompt Applicants to change the assigned password for security reasons, nonetheless.

Step 3

Next, click the purple text “IDFPR” to access the IDFPR folder.

Step 4

Once in the IDFPR folder, click the purple text indicating your “Company Name“.  

 

Step 5

Next, the file upload screen will appear. This screen will allow Applicants to click the upload button or drag and drop your files into the system.

Step 6

Lastly, once the files have completely uploaded, ensure the file is named correctly based on the naming conversion in the content above. Then, an upload date will appear to the right of the files, as shown below.

In Conclusion

In conclusion, now that all of your files are uploaded, simply exit out of the portal.  Firstly, the state will contact Applicants if additional information requires uploading.  Secondly, if you are not comfortable with how you are responding to the deficiency. Thirdly, as mentioned above, Quantum 9 offers a free 15-minute consultation review of deficiency notices.  Lastly, in the event the Applicant requires additional help, the expert cannabis consulting team at Quantum 9 can provide additional services upon engagement.

Lastly, the ten (10) calendar days start from the day the email was sent, and not the day the applicant opened the e-mail.  However, make sure to contact us today to get started. info@quantum9.net, include in the subject line “Illinois Dispensary Application Deficiency Notice”.