Coming to America
Are you a Foreign Medical School Graduate (FMG) wanting to practice medicine in the United States? If so, you’ve come to the right place. Throughout the years, I’ve assisted hundreds of FMG’s get licensed in the US. In addition to the general requirements, all states require foreign medical school graduates to complete additional examinations and most states require FMG’s to complete additional postgraduate training.
Examination Requirements
In addition to passing a qualifying examination such as the FLEX (Federation Licensing Exam, the NBME (National Board of Medical Examiners or the USMLE (United States Medical Licensing Examination); FMG’s are also required to pass the ECFMG (Education Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates) examination and hold an active ECFMG Certificate. However, North Dakota does not require graduates of medical schools located in Australia, New Zealand or the United Kingdom to have an ECFMG Certificate. The ECFMG Examination now consists of the USMLE Step 1, Step 2, Step 2(CK), Step 2(CS) and includes an examination of written and spoken English. Go to the ECFMG website or call them at (215) 386-5900 for more information about examinations. Visit the FSMB’s (Federation of State Medical Boards) website for more information about all 3 steps of the USMLE Examinations.
Postgraduate Training Requirements
You will be required to complete at least 1 year of ACGME ACGME (Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education) Approved Postgraduate Training to qualify for a medical license in the states of Wisconsin and Wyomingand 2 to 3 years of ACGME Approved Postgraduate Training for all other states. One great strategy for FMG’s is to match to a training program in Wisconsin or Wyoming, apply for the Wisconsin and/or Wyoming license during the last half of their first year of US postgraduate training and moonlight working as a physician while completing the remaining years of postgraduate training. Contact the NRMP (National Resident Matching Program) by phone at (202) 828-0566. They can help you match to an internship or residency program. The state of Maine accepts exams and postgraduate training from the United Kingdom and Ireland. Oklahoma accepts postgraduate training from the United Kingdom and Ireland.
Verifying Your Credentials
Unless you are applying based on Reciprocity in Michigan or Endorsement in New Mexico, you will be required to obtain a direct source verification of your medical education. Direct source means that your medical school will be required to send your transcripts and, in many cases, a completed Verification Form directly to the Medical Board in a sealed envelope. If you have friends or family still living in your country of graduation they may be able to help facilitate the verification. I recommend the United States Postal Service Priority Mail International to most countries; however you will want to use FedEx or DHL to ship to India and countries in the Middle East. If you don’t have anyone to help and no time to travel to get the verifications yourself, you may want to consider obtaining the services of the FCVS (Federation Credentials Verification Service). The FCVS will verify your medical education, postgraduate training, examination history, board action history, board certification and identity. It can be time consuming and costly to get an FCVS Packet; however, it may be your best option if obtaining verification of your medical school education proves to be a difficult task. Many state medical boards such as New York actually require an FCVS packet as part of the verification process, most states will accept the FCVS Packet to verify Core Credentials. The only states that do not accept the FCVS packet are California, Nebraska, Arkansas and Puerto Rico so you can use it to verify your core credentials in any of the other states.
Reciprocity and Endorsement
As I mentioned before, there are only two cases in which you will not be required to verify your medical education, postgraduate training or examinations. Michigan is the only state left that still offers Reciprocity. If you have been continuously licensed in another state (other than Puerto Rico) for 10 years or longer you only have to verify your state licenses to obtain a license in Michigan through Reciprocity. New Mexico offers something similar which they call Endorsement of another license. As long as you have been licensed and practicing in another state for at least 3 years and are American Board Certified you can obtain a license to practice medicine in New Mexico without having to verify your medical school, postgraduate training or exams. You will, however, still be required to verify all licenses, employment and staff privileges for the past 5 years and obtain letters of reference from two fellow physicians to obtain a New Mexico license based on Endorsement.
Get Some Help!
Applying for a state medical license is often a complicated process especially for foreign medical school graduates. Whether you need guidance with licensing options, help with the application process or assistance with credential verifications; we’re here to help! Contact MedPro Central today for a free initial consultation and pre-qualification
