verifies every applicant’s medical school diploma with the appropriate officials of the medical school that issued the diploma
and requests that the medical school provide the final medical school transcript. Verification by ECFMG with the issuing
school may also be required for transcripts that are submitted to document transferred credits. See
Medical Education
Credentials
.
Important Note: Submitting falsified or altered documents may result in a finding of irregular behavior. For more
information and potential consequences, see
Policies and Procedures Regarding Irregular Behavior
.
Last updated: September 7, 2017
Copyright © 2017 by the Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates. All rights reserved.
Page 5
ECFMG Certification
About ECFMG Certification
|
Requirements for ECFMG Certification
| Standard ECFMG Certificate
Standard ECFMG Certificate
The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) requires international medical graduates who
enter ACGME-accredited programs of graduate medical education in the United States to be certified by ECFMG.
ECFMG issues the Standard ECFMG Certificate to applicants who meet all of the requirements for certification.
International medical graduates must also pay any outstanding charges on their ECFMG financial accounts before
their certificates are issued. Standard ECFMG Certificates are issued to applicants approximately two weeks after all
of these requirements have been met. The date that the Standard ECFMG Certificate is issued is the date an
international medical graduate is considered certified by ECFMG. Currently, ECFMG sends the Standard ECFMG
Certificate to the applicant’s address of record by Federal Express.
The Standard ECFMG Certificate includes:
The name of the applicant;
The Certificate number;
The dates that the examination requirements were met; and
The date that the certificate was issued.
Confirming ECFMG Certification to Third Parties
ECFMG offers the Certification Verification Service (CVS) to provide primary-source confirmation of the ECFMG
certification status of international medical graduates. ECFMG will confirm your certification status when a request is
received from a U.S. medical licensing authority, residency program director, hospital, or other organization that, in the
judgment of ECFMG, has a legitimate interest in such information. For status reports sent to medical licensing
authorities, the request can also be made by you. For more information, see
Confirming ECFMG Certification to Third
Parties
in Related ECFMG Services.
Last updated: September 7, 2017
Copyright © 2017 by the Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates. All rights reserved.
Page 6
Your ECFMG Record
USMLE/ECFMG Identification Number |
Your Name
|
Changing Your Name
|
Contact Information
USMLE/ECFMG Identification Number
Before you can submit an Application for ECFMG Certification or apply to ECFMG for an exam, you must obtain a
USMLE/ECFMG Identification Number. You can obtain a USMLE/ECFMG Identification Number by accessing
Interactive Web Applications (IWA)
.
The information you provide during the process of obtaining a USMLE/ECFMG Identification Number will
become a part of your permanent ECFMG record. If you fail to provide your correct and current legal name, you will
be required to submit acceptable documentation, as described in
Changing Your Name
in Your ECFMG Record, to
change the name in your ECFMG record. If ECFMG determines that the biographic information you submit is
inaccurate, not complete, or insufficient to assign a USMLE/ECFMG Identification Number to you, your request for the
USMLE/ECFMG Identification Number will not be processed.
Once ECFMG informs you of your number, you must include it on all communications, applications, medical education
credentials, request forms, and payments that you send to ECFMG. You will also need your USMLE/ECFMG
Identification Number to use ECFMG’s
on-line services
.
Your USMLE/ECFMG Identification Number cannot be changed. If you forget or lose your USMLE/ECFMG
Identification Number, you can obtain it by accessing
IWA
or by
contacting ECFMG
. Use the contact information for
General Inquiries on the Contact ECFMG page of the ECFMG website. To protect the privacy of applicants, ECFMG
will not provide USMLE/ECFMG Identification Numbers by telephone.
Important Note: As part of the process of obtaining an Identification Number, you will be asked if you
previously submitted an application to ECFMG for examination. You also will be asked if you were
previously assigned a USMLE Identification Number. If you were previously assigned a USMLE
Identification Number or have submitted a prior exam application to ECFMG, you must answer “Yes” to the
applicable question(s), even if you submitted the prior application under a different name or did not take the
exam for which you applied. You must answer “Yes” regardless of whether you submitted an on-line
application or a paper application. If you were previously assigned a USMLE Identification Number or have
submitted an application to ECFMG but indicate that you were not previously assigned a number or have
not applied previously, this may result in a finding of irregular behavior. See
Policies and Procedures
Regarding Irregular Behavior
.
Last updated: September 7, 2017
Copyright © 2017 by the Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates. All rights reserved.
Page 7