General Requirements

The ABPN requires that throughout the initial certification and maintenance of certification processes, physicians must have a valid, unexpired, and unrestricted license to practice medicine in at least one state, commonwealth, territory, or possession of the United States or province of Canada. If more than one license is held, all licenses must all be unrestricted to meet this requirement.

Additionally, physicians who are board certified by the ABPN (called ABPN Diplomates) must have successfully completed an approved training program and an evaluation process assessing their ability to provide quality patient care in a specialty and/or subspecialty. These evaluation processes formulate the core of our business and are encompassed in our initial certification examinations and Continuing Certification Program.

More information on the ABPN licensure and exceptions policy, requirements for Board certification, and the Continuing Certification Program may be found on this website on the Board Policies page or the specific examination page.

There are many organizations involved in taking active measures to ensure high standards of individual physicians’ and health-care organizations’ quality of care to the public. Some of these organizations may be able to provide patients and their families with information via their websites. The ABPN website provides links to other websites that contain information published by institutions and organizations independent of the ABPN. For patient information about physician board certification and what it means, the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) provides a website — Certification Matters — as a resource to the public to learn more about how continuous board certification goes above and beyond basic medical licensure.

To qualify to sit for examination, an applicant must:

Be a graduate of an accredited medical school in the United States or Canada or of an international medical school listed by the World Health Organization.
Complete all training in either a U.S. program accredited by the ACGME or approved by the ABPN or in a Canadian program accredited by the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada as well as meet the other requirements specified in the reciprocity agreement. Details of the reciprocity agreement are outlined in the ‘Canadian Training Program’ section of the Information for Applicants booklet on the website, if applicable.
Have an active, full, unrestricted medical license* in the U.S. or Canada as defined in the separate General Information and Board Policies on this website. Applicants are required to update their active, full, unrestricted medical licenses in their ABPN Physician Portal account.
Professionalism forms the basis of medicine’s contract with society. The ABPN is concerned with those aspects of professionalism that are demonstrated through a physician’s clinical competence, commitment to lifelong learning and professional improvement, interpersonal skills, and ethical understanding and behavior. In its credentialing, certification, and CC programs, the ABPN seeks to assess and document that its candidates and diplomates possess and maintain these aspects of professionalism. To show evidence of professional standing, all diplomates must continuously hold an active, full, and unrestricted allopathic and/or osteopathic license to practice medicine in at least one state, commonwealth, territory, or possession of the United States or Canada. All licenses held by a physician must be unrestricted. An active, full, unrestricted license must be maintained even if the physician is out of the country for extended periods of time. Full details of licensure requirements can be found in the General Information and Board Policies on this website. Licenses must be kept up-to-date in an ABPN Physician Portal account.
Have satisfactorily completed the Board’s specialized training requirements described on the corresponding specialty or subspecialty section of the website.
Apply online and submit an application through the ABPN Physician Portal. Required documents should be emailed, mailed or faxed to 847.229.6600 separately.

See the specific exam page for information on each exam. The exam web pages contain our requirements for admissions to examinations, examination procedures, specific training requirements, and content descriptions.

All training for initial certification in Psychiatry, Neurology, Child Neurology, and Child and Adolescent Psychiatry must be confirmed either by way of the ABPN preCERT® system or by submitting documentation noting the completion of training requirement.

If you are unable to activate your ABPN Physician Portal account, you may need to submit a request to apply for the examination. This process may take up to three business days. Therefore, we encourage applicants to allow enough time to submit the request prior to the deadline for applications. The deadline for submission of a completed application depends on the specialty or subspecialty. See more information on this website.

Supplementary Certification

Candidates may apply for certification in another specialty. A candidate may have more than one application on file with the Board if the applications are for certification in different specialties or subspecialties. Candidates completing training both in psychiatry and in neurology or child neurology may apply to sit for examinations in both specialties.

Unless otherwise specified, all training must be completed in programs accredited by the ACGME.

Applicants seeking certification both in psychiatry and neurology who began residency training prior to January 1, 1999 should contact the Board office for requirements.

The ABPN has approved programs for combined training in psychiatry and neurology. Residents interested in completing a combined residency training program in psychiatry and neurology should complete their training in one of the ABPN approved combined psychiatry and neurology training programs.

For residents entering non-ABPN-approved combined psychiatry and neurology residency training on or after July 1, 1999:

Program directors should contact the Board office for a copy of the combined psychiatry/neurology guidelines. The respective program director(s) should submit a proposal to the Board office, no later than the beginning of the PGY-3, detailing the training proposed for the resident. As stipulated in the combined training guidelines, the resident is required to complete a PGY-1 that meets the requirements for neurology.

*Applicants for specialty certification examinations who do not yet have an unrestricted medical license because they are in training are not required to submit a copy of their medical license at the time of application for the examination. However, such applicants must submit a copy of their active, full, unrestricted medical license with expiration date no later than September 1 of the year of the examination. If the Board office does not receive the medical license by September 1, the application will be denied and the Board will retain the evaluation/processing fee and any late application fees.

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