State License Before Board Exam

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amnat

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Hi everybody.
Im an IMG in my 4th year of residency in Ohio. I have to pay application fees of 700$ by Feb 17 if I want to give my Board Exam this September. This means I need to have to have an unrestricted State License by September.
I have not yet applied for and given Step 3 (my bad). If I apply now and give Step 3 by April-end, I hope to have scores in hand by May end. This is not enough time for an IMG to complete the compulsory FCVS application to the Ohio State Board for an Unrestricted License.
Is it a good idea to apply for the PA license once I have my step 3 scores? I really want to give the Boards this September for several personal reasons. Can anyone advise me. Is is okay (legal) to apply for the PA license because its the fastest license? Apparently it arrives in 2 months, even for an IMG. Please advise....

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Hi everybody.
Im an IMG in my 4th year of residency in Ohio. I have to pay application fees of 700$ by Feb 17 if I want to give my Board Exam this September. This means I need to have to have an unrestricted State License by September.
I have not yet applied for and given Step 3 (my bad). If I apply now and give Step 3 by April-end, I hope to have scores in hand by May end. This is not enough time for an IMG to complete the compulsory FCVS application to the Ohio State Board for an Unrestricted License.
Is it a good idea to apply for the PA license once I have my step 3 scores? I really want to give the Boards this September for several personal reasons. Can anyone advise me. Is is okay (legal) to apply for the PA license because its the fastest license? Apparently it arrives in 2 months, even for an IMG. Please advise....

You can apply for a license in any state you wish.
 
Im confused. You dont need an unrestricted licesen to write the abim board exam or even step 3. You also cant work in ohio with a Pennsylvania license.

You will need the step 3 for any unrestricted license.

Addendum: i dont know if an unrestricted license is required to write the board exam for fields apart from IM.
 
Im confused. You dont need an unrestricted licesen to write the abim board exam or even step 3. You also cant work in ohio with a Pennsylvania license.

You will need the step 3 for any unrestricted license.

Addendum: i dont know if an unrestricted license is required to write the board exam for fields apart from IM.
This is explicitly not true for ABIM (or any other board that immediately comes to mind, but I don't know the requirements for all 20+)

http://www.abim.org/certification/policies/general/policies.aspx

"ABIM candidates and diplomates for Board Certification and Maintenance of Certification must possess a permanent, valid, unrestricted and unchallenged medical license in the United States, its territories or Canada. Physicians practicing exclusively abroad and who do not hold a U.S. or Canadian license must hold a license where they practice and provide documentation from the relevant licensing authority that their license is in good standing and without conditions or restrictions. Restrictions include but are not limited to conditions, contingencies, probation, limitations and stipulated agreements."

Basically, the OP is saying they will meet all criteria for board certification in their specialty come this fall except a permanent unrestricted license, and that he meets all requirements for licensure except Step 3.

At this point, they really should take Step 3 as soon as would be feasible. Most people would probably be fine with <1 month of studying for that test (as the score really, truly doesn't matter), but if the OP is in a specialty that isn't well-represented (lets say the OP is in Pathology and forgot all his clinical treatment algorithms), it may take up to a couple months. The score will be back 3-4 weeks after the test is taken.

Then the OP needs to apply for a permanent license. Two options come up at that point:

A) Apply in the state that they currently practice and plan to work in after residency (which appears to be OH). This may not occur in time for boards this year depending on the policies of the licensing board (how long it takes) and the certifying board (how far in advance you have to have a license to be able to sign up for the exam in time). That said, FCVS should not be the limiting step here, as the OP could open an FCVS profile today and start verifying his diploma and fill out every bit of the licensing application except the Step 3 scores. Step 3 scores are transmitted electronically to the licensing boards, so if you do everything else ahead of time (FCVS, fingerprinting, etc), you should be able to have a complete file the day you get your score back.
B) Apply in a state that is efficient with processing applications so that you are sure to get an unrestricted license ASAP. This has the upside that you can take the boards that year, but a downside that you'll probably "waste" ~$800 (no clue what PA charges for a license, but that's what each of mine cost) as well as potentially making all future licenses somewhat slower (every new license has to confirm with all prior states that your license was in good standing).
 
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ABP also requires an unrestricted license, which is giving some of my friends going into fellowship headaches. OP, take step 3 as soon as humanly possible so you can apply for your license.
 
I stand corrected.

I applied for the unrestricted license as a 3rd year only because i had to get a dea for my fellowship (even though i have now both a trainee and an unrestricted license). I dont remember my co-residents who also went into fellowships and wrote the exam last year talking about applying for the unrestricted license. Maybe something new, or something i overlooked as i was applying for it anyway. Sorry for the wrong info.

But as said above - get step 3 out of the way asap
 
I stand corrected.

I applied for the unrestricted license as a 3rd year only because i had to get a dea for my fellowship (even though i have now both a trainee and an unrestricted license). I dont remember my co-residents who also went into fellowships and wrote the exam last year talking about applying for the unrestricted license. Maybe something new, or something i overlooked as i was applying for it anyway. Sorry for the wrong info.

But as said above - get step 3 out of the way asap


Pa charges around $30-40 for the initial license, and then about $350 every even year for renewal. The inital app fee for imgs is slightly higher $85. They are fairly quick with turnaround.
 
Thank you @ThoracicGuy - that is what I needed to be sure about.
@Raryn and @mvenus929 , thank you. I'm sorry I forgot to mention I am a Neurology Resident. Yes, an unrestricted license is required to take the Neurology Board Exam. I will be applying for the expensive and slow unrestricted Ohio license anyway through FCVS and expect the whole process to take anywhere between 6-12 months as I am an IMG. I expect I will be working in Ohio after fellowship.
Meanwhile @Raryn thank you for both suggestions. I did not know I could begin an FCVS app without Step 3, I will look into that. I hope to schedule Step 3 by April. I am trying to do B) and chose PA because I hear its the cheapest and fastest. Please elaborate on B) if you know more. Will I always need to hold a PA license and remain "in good standing"? I had no plans to renew it.
@geripalgal I will be wasting about 85$ I know, but based on what everyone is saying here, I will apply now for the PA license just because of the quick turnaround. No plans to renew it annually. This is just to give the boards this September!
 
The PA license is not through FCVS. You only have to submit your ECFMG status report as well as other documents yourself. So the PA license is much faster than using FCVS which is compulsory in Ohio, where I eventually need an unrestricted medical license.
@Raryn, if I apply to PA and OH at the same time, do they need a letter from each other? I hope not. Then should I just apply to PA first once I have my Step 3 score? Open an FCVS account after as I do not need an Ohio unrestricted license for atleast a year. I can continue my Ohio training license in fellowship anyway. Regarding your point A), when I begin to create an FCVS profile I must choose where I want the first one sent (freebie included in the hefty 450$ fee!) . That is why I did not begin the profile, thinking that I would complete Step 3 and then choose "State Licensing Board-Ohio" rather than choose "Self" now and waste a large sum of money in then selecting a second sender. Cannot have FCVS send my profile to the Licensing Board without a Step 3 score.
 
The pa license Renewal fee is every two years on Even years (2016, 2018,2020 etc). If you applied for it this year you wouldnt have to renew it till dec 2018. At which point you can choose not to, especially if you have the ohio license then.

You will need to report all of your existing (including trainee) licenses when you apply and they might need a letter of good standing. Not a big deal but something that if you overlook may put a delay on your applications
 
Thank you @ThoracicGuy - that is what I needed to be sure about.
@Raryn and @mvenus929 , thank you. I'm sorry I forgot to mention I am a Neurology Resident. Yes, an unrestricted license is required to take the Neurology Board Exam. I will be applying for the expensive and slow unrestricted Ohio license anyway through FCVS and expect the whole process to take anywhere between 6-12 months as I am an IMG. I expect I will be working in Ohio after fellowship.
Meanwhile @Raryn thank you for both suggestions. I did not know I could begin an FCVS app without Step 3, I will look into that. I hope to schedule Step 3 by April. I am trying to do B) and chose PA because I hear its the cheapest and fastest. Please elaborate on B) if you know more. Will I always need to hold a PA license and remain "in good standing"? I had no plans to renew it.
@geripalgal I will be wasting about 85$ I know, but based on what everyone is saying here, I will apply now for the PA license just because of the quick turnaround. No plans to renew it annually. This is just to give the boards this September!

The PA license is not through FCVS. You only have to submit your ECFMG status report as well as other documents yourself. So the PA license is much faster than using FCVS which is compulsory in Ohio, where I eventually need an unrestricted medical license.
@Raryn, if I apply to PA and OH at the same time, do they need a letter from each other? I hope not. Then should I just apply to PA first once I have my Step 3 score? Open an FCVS account after as I do not need an Ohio unrestricted license for atleast a year. I can continue my Ohio training license in fellowship anyway. Regarding your point A), when I begin to create an FCVS profile I must choose where I want the first one sent (freebie included in the hefty 450$ fee!) . That is why I did not begin the profile, thinking that I would complete Step 3 and then choose "State Licensing Board-Ohio" rather than choose "Self" now and waste a large sum of money in then selecting a second sender. Cannot have FCVS send my profile to the Licensing Board without a Step 3 score.

I did not know the initial PA license was an order of magnitude cheaper than other states. I think that would be reasonable to pursue then.

What order to do everything with the FCVS and OH board is up to you. FCVS is notoriously slow with things like the med school verification, so starting it ahead of time is reasonable, but it's understandable if you want to save some $$$. I've never actually had to use their product so I can't speak to what the way to best expedite the process would be. That said, I know subsequent profiles are much cheaper than the initial ones, so if you do end up having to send it twice, the second time is <$100.
 
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