Effective October 1, 2011, all International Medical Graduates (IMGs) will be required to use the Federation of State Medical Board’s Credential Verification Service (FCVS) when applying for a full, unrestricted medical license in North Carolina.
It generally takes at least four months to complete the FCVS process, or as much as six months if the physician waits until after January 1 to begin establishing his or her FCVS profile. The NCMB advises any IMG who intends to begin work as a licensed physician by July 2012 to start the FCVS process now. Please note: Graduates of Canadian medical schools are not considered to be IMGs and will not be required to use FCVS.
FCVS was established in 1996 to provide a centralized, uniform process for state medical boards to obtain a verified record of a physician’s core medical credentials. FCVS obtains primary source verification of medical education, postgraduate training, examination history, board action history, board certification and identity. This repository of information allows a physician to establish a confidential, lifetime professional portfolio with FCVS that can be forwarded, at the physician’s request, to any state medical board, hospital, health care organization or any other entity that has established an agreement with FCVS.
Learn more about
FCVS.
