Frequently Asked Questions

To be Board-certified in psychiatry, neurology or neurology with special qualification in child neurology, a candidate must:

1. 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.
2. Hold an unrestricted license to practice medicine in at least one state, commonwealth, territory, or possession of the United States or province of Canada. If licenses are held in more than one jurisdiction, all licenses held by the physician must meet this requirement. For more information on license restrictions, see the appropriate Information for Applicants publication that can be downloaded from this website.
3. Have satisfactorily completed specialized training requirements in psychiatry, neurology or child neurology in programs that are accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) or approved by the ABPN or certified by the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada. This training must adhere to all Board requirements.
4. Submit a completed official application form including all required attachments and the appropriate application and examination fees by the specified deadlines. Only applications submitted on the current application form are accepted. Faxed copies of applications are not accepted.
5. Pass the appropriate specialty certification examination(s).

Physicians certified in psychiatry, child and adolescent psychiatry, neurology, or neurology with special qualification in child neurology before October 1, 1994 were granted lifetime certificates.

Between October 1, 1994 and December 31, 2011 all individuals achieving specialty Board certification by the ABPN were issued time-limited certificates that expired December 31, ten years after they were issued. Certificates issued in all subspecialties except child and adolescent psychiatry have always been time-limited. Time-limited certificates for child and adolescent psychiatry began in 1995.

Beginning January 1, 2012, all certificates are dependent upon continuous maintenance of certification based on a three-year cycle of requirements with certificates being valid as long as they are maintained. The examination cycle remains at ten years.

To ensure continuity of training, the Board requires that two of the three years of residency training, excluding the PGY-1, be spent in a single program. The 36 months of full-time specialized residency training must be completed in no more than two blocks. If completed in two blocks, the blocks must not be more than ten years apart. In addition, credit is not given for less than one-year blocks of training (including the PGY-1). The ABPN Credentials Committee considers exceptions to these rules only under extraordinary circumstances. In such cases, respective program directors should contact the Board office, in writing, prior to the transfer. The letters must outline the resident’s training content, duties, and responsibilities, including exact dates (from month/day/year to month/day/year) of training, and indicate clearly that the resident will satisfy all ACGME program requirements. Each case is considered on an individual basis.

Training may be completed on a part-time basis, provided that it is no less than half time.

The ABPN recommends that all programs allow a minimum of four weeks of leave time (including vacation, sick time, maternity/paternity leave, etc.) during training per year. These four weeks should be averaged over the four-year training period. Leave or vacation time may NOT be used to reduce the total amount of required residency training or to make up deficiencies in training.

Applicants 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 examination in psychiatry, neurology, or child neurology. However, such applicants must submit a copy of their unrestricted medical license(s) no later than the date specified in the appropriate Information for Applicants publication. These dates differ for different examinations and failure to meet the deadlines for licensure could result in delay of scheduling or invalidation of scores. Applicants holding more than one license must submit a copy of each license.

There is currently no limit on the number of times an applicant may apply for examination.

The ABPN does not recognize or use the term “Board Eligible” and does not issue statements concerning “Board Eligibility.” The Board informs an applicant of admissibility to examination only when the applicant has an active, approved application on file in the Board office.

• Effective January 1, 2012, ABPN will require a physician to become Board certified within seven years following successful completion of ACGME-accredited or ABPN-approved residency training in their primary specialty or ACGME-accredited subspecialty.
• Graduates can take the ABPN Certification Examination as many times as allowed during the seven-year period.
• Individuals who have completed an accredited residency program prior to January 1, 2012 will have until January 1, 2019 to become board certified.
• Individuals who do not become certified during the seven-year period (or before January 1, 2019 for those who completed residency training before January 1, 2012) will be required to (1) repeat the required clinical skills evaluations; and (2) complete one stage of MOC (90 CME credits, 24 self-assessment CME credits, and one PIP Unit that includes a clinical module or feedback module) in order to be credentialed to take the ABPN Certification Examination.