The California Medical Board has a reputation for being one of the most difficult State Medical Boards in which to obtain a license. There is good cause for this but I believe that this reputation is overstated. First we will cover the process of licensing with the Medical Board of California.

The Medical Board of California  requires that each Physician submit a set of Fingerprint cards or travel to California to participate in the LiveScan process. MedLicense.com highly recommends that the Physician travel to California to complete the LiveScan process instead of submitting Fingerprint Cards. Why? Fingerprint cards take 2 to 4 months to process. The license will not be issued until the report is returned to the Medical Board of California by the FBI. 10 to 25% of the Cards are rejected by the FBI because the prints are smudged, low quality, or indistinguishable. If this happens then new cards have to be submitted and the process is extended another 2 to 4 months. However with the LiveScan process, the report is returned to the Medical Board of California 3 days after the Scan takes place. We have handled 450 California Applications since 2003 and not one has been rejected or required to be re-submitted. 

Once the application is submitted to the Board and the Verifications have been requested, the Doctor can only wait until 45 to 60 business days have passed before contacting the State Board. The Medical Board of California has a strict policy against contacting the Board prior to this waiting period. With most of our physicians once a reviewer is assigned to the application, then the license is issued 5 to 10 days later. In the event that a verification is rejected , lost (by the USPS or Medical Board of California) while in transit, or never received by the Medical Board of California then a letter is sent to the Doctor detailing what items are still needed. The majority of our clients are complete at first review and thus receive the license 5 to 10 days later. The exception to this rule are Foreign Trained Doctors who completed Clinical Clerkships in the USA during their fourth or fifth year. Each Clinical Clerkship has to be verified by the Department of the Clerkship. Most hospitals do not have records of these clerkship and thus the process is considerably delayed by the California requirement.