The New York Medical Board handles one of the highest volume of applications in the nation. A large number of Internship / Residency / Fellowship programs are based in New York and thus many of the Physicians completing their training opt to obtain a license with New York Medical Board to begin practice or to Moon Light. The New York Board of Medicine is unique in a number of ways. We hope to explore most of them in this article. 

For the USA, Canada, or Puerto Rico Medical School Graduate the process with New York can be abbreviated and straight forward. Licensure times of 2 to 3 months are typical. Verifications from all Colleges and Medical Schools, Post-Graduate Training, Board Scores, State Licenses, and References must be obtained before the license is issued. The New York Medical Board also requires that the Physician have two CME courses completed before the license will be issued. One in Child Abuse Identification and another in Infection Control Barrier precautions. Once the Physician's file is complete then the license will follow within a couple of weeks.

Foreign Medical Graduates will not have it so easy. The first obstacle set up by the New York Board of Medicine are the citizenship requirements. A Physician has to have a Green Card or Citizenship in the USA to license with the State of New York. No exceptions. The New York Medical Board does allow for a Physician to apply for a 3 year limited license. The Physician must meet all other requirements for Full the full Medical License with the exception of the citizenship/green card requirement. The Physician must agree to work in an "underserved area". These are pre-designated by the New York Medical Board. 

The second obstacle is the required utilization of the FCVS Credentialing service. This is for Foreign Medical Graduates only. The problem for the Physician is that the FCVS will take 4 to 6 months to complete their process. Then if they were unsuccessful in obtaining the Medical School Verifications directly from the Medical School, then the New York Medical Board will require the Physicians to have the School complete them and forward them to the New York Board of Medicine before the license will be issued. This requirement artificially delays the licensure time by 3 to 5 months. 

If the Physician attended a Medical School in the Caribbean or Mexico, then another verification is added to the process. The Physician has to have each individual clinical clerkship verified directly by the hospital in which it was performed. Most hospitals do not keep records on medical students completing clerkships. It typically takes multiple attempts to have these verified and further delays the process.

The New York Medical Board has a standard mail processing time of 3 to 5 weeks on all incoming mail. Why is this important? A verification cannot be verified as being received by the New York Medical Board until 3 to 5 weeks after it has been confirmed as being sent. Thus 3 to 5 weeks will go by after the form is mailed to New York before it can be confirmed as being received and thus completed. 

New York presents its' own problems for Foreign Medical Graduates. MedLicense.com averages 2 to 3 months in licensing Domestic Physicians. Foreign Graduates average 3 to 5 months.