Applicants who complete the FCVS verification process establish a permanent, lifetime portfolio of primary-source verified credentials - allowing easy and cost-effective access to medical credentials whenever they are needed. These documents can be used throughout the applicant's career for state licensure, hospital privileges, employment and professional memberships. This service is especially valuable to those physicians graduating from medical school outside the United States or Canada, where verification can be time-consuming, costly and difficult. It is also extremely useful for those applicants whose postgraduate training programs have closed.

Building a portfolio of primary-source verification is inherently a time-consuming process because it involves contacting multiple sources to ensure the information that we are archiving is accurate. However, once your FCVS Physician Profile has been completed, the time required to forward subsequent requests is significantly shorter. FCVS excels at archiving data - our ability as a data archiving service is what has made FCVS so attractive to more than 140,000 users.

View a sample profile

Nearly all state medical and osteopathic boards accept or require FCVS. A list of boards that accept our Physician and Physician Assistant profiles is available to view on this website.

The total fees of FCVS usage vary from applicant to applicant, dependent upon the information required for the file. An initial application fee entitles the applicant to have a personalized Profile created and sent to one recipient. The base fee is $325 (physician) or $145 (physician assistant), with an additional $50 fee for physician applications not submitted online. Additional surcharges may apply to cover costs incurred to collect examination transcripts, ECFMG certification (if applicable) and other miscellaneous verification fees.

The Subsequent Profile (any profile sent subsequent to your Initial Profile) costs significantly lesser cost, with a base fee of $95 (physician) or $35 (physician assistant), with an additional $25 fee for physician applications not submitted online. Additional surcharges may apply to cover costs incurred to collect examination transcripts, ECFMG certification (if applicable) and other miscellaneous verification fees.

Additional profiles (the physician's profile sent to additional state medical and osteopathic boards, hospitals or health care entities at the same time as an Initial or Subsequent profile) are available for $65 each, plus any additional surcharges.

• The cycle time for processing of applications will vary and building a credentials portfolio can be a time-consuming process. It involves contacting multiple sources to ensure the information about you that we are archiving is accurate. Sometimes, we encounter delays as we work with institutions to gather the information we need. We remain committed to communicating with you if delays occur during the process.

Please remember that once your information is verified and archived, the system will then save physicians, physicians assistants, state boards and others a substantial amount of time and energy whenever vital data needs to be provided for credentialing and licensing purposes.

• Check your status online. 24-hours a day, 7 days a week, you can login to your account to check the status of your portfolio.
• Call or email us. We have established a special customer support line, open Monday-Friday from 8:00 a.m.-6:00 p.m. Central Time, to ensure your questions are answered. Please don't hesitate to call 1-888-275-3287 or email, should you need assistance of any kind. We will promptly address your concerns.

The initial request for information is sent to your medical school as soon as all of your supporting documents are received, confirmed correct, and updated into our system. For international medical schools, requests are processed in collaboration with ECFMG (based on information obtained during your ECFMG Certification). The designation of your file and the location of your medical school will dictate the total number of requests sent to your medical school. All requests are made using regular mail. FCVS recommends that all international medical graduates provide a Federal Express or DHL account number for making these requests/and receiving the verifications via courier service. This allows both FCVS and you to track the shipment. Additionally, the use of a courier service can reduce the amount of time required to obtain the necessary verifications.

Generally, a total of three (3) requests will be sent to your medical school. If the necessary verification is not received after these requests, it may be necessary for FCVS to hold your file until your medical school provides verification. In such situations, please be assured that FCVS will contact you and outline all possible options for file processing that may increase the chances of verification response.

For processing of your Initial Application to begin, FCVS requires a number of supporting documents and completed release forms to be mailed by the applicant to our offices. This includes FCVS online application submissions. Until this paperwork is received, processing cannot begin on your file (important verification information is included in these documents which are not provided in your application).

FCVS requires these documents:

• Certified Birth Certificate (i.e., certified by the issuing institution), OR Original Passport (must be current and valid) with explanation as to why an original birth certificate cannot be supplied. A passport submission will incur an additional $25 shipping/handling fee and will be sent back to the applicant using the three-day delivery via FedEx.
• If necessary - Documentation (or explanation) of Use of Alternate Name Form (should submitted name/name on medical school documents differ from name on identity document used above; located in application packet)
• 8.5" x 11" photocopy of medical school diploma
• If applicable
  • Photocopy of Fifth Pathway Certificate
  • Fifth Pathway Program Form (located in application packet)
  • Photocopy of ECFMG Certificate
  • NBME Examination History release (located in application packet)
• Completed and Notarized Affidavit and Authorization for Release Form (located in application packet)
• Photocopies of medical education documents (i.e., transcripts, compulsory internship certificates, etc.) - primarily applies to international graduate applicants
• If U.S. medical school graduate - Medical School Release Request Form (located in application packet)
• If international medical school graduate - ECFMG Release forms (located in application packet)

For any documents listed as "located in application packet" and applied to your profile, copies can be downloaded (link copies can be downloaded to the appropriate webpage) from this website if you do not already have them. Please note that not all documents will necessarily be required, as some documents do not apply to certain physician circumstances. Once obtained, please mail your supporting documents to FCVS (see address information here).

When sending your passport, FCVS highly recommends the use of a courier service such as Federal Express or DHL. (Do not use any of the services of the U.S. Postal Service). You may send the passport and your written statement to our address (see address information here).

There is a $25 shipping and handling fee required for the return of passports. Please do not send any fees with your passport. Instead, mail the fee, with a cover letter explaining the fee as payment for your passport, to our 'lockbox' address (see address information here).

Once your passport has been received, FCVS will process it in a secure, expedient manner and return it as soon as possible. It will be returned to you via Federal Express to the mailing address provided by you in your application, or an alternate address, which you can provide via written statement.

There are two addresses that you may use to submit paperwork and/or fees to FCVS dependent upon what you are sending and how you are sending it.

a. To send paperwork and/or fees, please use our FCVS 'lockbox' address:

FCVS
Attention: Wholesale Lockbox
P.O. Box 970900
Dallas, TX 75397-0900

b. To send paperwork ONLY (do NOT send fees), please use our physical address:

FCVS
400 Fuller Wiser Road, Suite 300
Euless, TX 76039

For the lockbox address, you may send the package by U.S. regular or U.S. Priority Mail. Please DO NOT use U.S. Registered, Certified, or Overnight Mail, as there is no one to sign for the paperwork at this postal box address and delivery of the package will be delayed.

For paperwork that is mailed to our physical address, using a courier service such as Federal Express or DHL is acceptable. If exercising this option, please keep record of tracking information so that we may, if necessary, use it to expedite location and processing.

In addition to the addresses, you may contact FCVS customer service by calling 888-275-3287, Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m.-6:00 p.m. Central Time, or via e-mail at fcvs@fsmb.org. On the online system, there is the capacity to send e-mails to FCVS Technical Assistance; whenever possible, please limit your e-mails using this service to questions of a strictly technical nature (i.e., difficulties with logging onto the system or specific access to information).

• Many universities offer to replace your diploma in a smaller size for a nominal fee. Contact your school's Office of the Registrar to find out if your university offers this service.
• FedEx offers services that include scanning to make reductions of your larger format documents. Most FedEx locations can scan documents that are up to 36" wide and not mounted or framed.

For your convenience, FedEx Office offers FCVS applicants a discount on many services including: photocopies and passport photos. Additionally, applicants may purchase notary and shipping services. To receive the discount on eligible services present the FCVS Preferred Customer Number 8400051717 and your account number or payment to any FedEx Office location.