Stepwise procedure for ECFMG EPIC verification

What is EPIC?
EPIC – Electronic Portfolio of International Credentials (EPIC) offers primary-
source verification of medical credentials to physicians and organizations
worldwide. Term Primary Source Verification means, verifying your certificate
from the organization itself who provided it to you. This is by far the best and the
most secured means to ensure all the firm that your certificate is a bonafide one.
GMC uses this service to ensure themselves regarding the originality of your
certificate.

What is ECFMG?
ECFMG – Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates, based on USA,
is the non-profit organization. EPIC is the service of ECFMG

When should you start this process?

As soon as possible. I would say if you have aspirations to work in UK, do this right
after obtaining your final medical graduation certificate, as this is the time-
consuming process and contains lot of things to do. Once done, it is valid for
lifetime. Benefit of doing early is, you won’t have this headache later when your
main focus should be on something else. When I did this 2 months ago, price of
credential verification was 80$, which has now increased to 90$. So, doing early
also has added benefit financially.

I already have ECFMG verification done before for USMLE, should I do this
again?
No. If your credentials are already verified by ECFMG previously.
Step Wise Procedure for ECFMG EPIC Verification of Credentials
1. Obtain a full color scanned copy of your Passport

2. Obtain a full color scanned copy of your recently taken Passport Size
Photograph (White Background)

3. Go to the following website: https://epic.ecfmgepic.org/Registration.aspx

4. Read the instructions and requirements outlined in ‘Getting Started’ tab and
then click continue

5. Then you will land up in ‘Biographic’ tab. There you will be asked about your
personal informations like Name, Contact Information, DOB, Birth address,
National Identification Number, etc. Fill it up all carefully and then click continue.

6. Now you will reach ‘Medical School’ tab. Here you have to put your educational
status (student or graduate). Then you have to fill the information regarding your
medical school like the name of your institute, your start date and end date of
your medical school and the title of your medical degree. After completing this
work, click continue.

7. Then you will reach ‘Medical Registration/licensure’ tab. Here you have to add
all the medical authorities and councils to which you were registered. Then add
‘General medical council’ as the authority to which you are applying.

8. Now you reach ‘Photo/Passport’ tab. This is the place where you have to
upload your photo in JPEG format with maximum file size of 2MB and your
Passport in JPEG format with maximum file size of 2 MB. Make sure your both
Passport and Photo is scanned with high quality scanner, as this will also appear in
your EIF form (which I will tell later). If your EIF form is not in good quality, it can
bring complications later. Besides, you also have to put your passport issue and
expiry date in this tab.

9. After you click continue, you will reach the second last page called ‘Summary’.
Here you can see everything you uploaded in a single page. If anything is missing,
just edit that part by clicking on the edit button.

10. Finally you will be directed to Payment page. You can do this with
International transaction enabled Credit Card or Debit Card. You have to pay
125$.

11. Now you will get the first email from online service of ECFMG right after the
payment with the subject of ‘Request to Establish an EPIC Account’. Here they will
confirm the payment and asks you to wait for 3 business days to establish your
account.

12. In my case, after 2 days, I got the second email from ECFMG, where they sent
me the temporary username for my EPIC account.

13. Then within few minutes of the above email, you will get the third email from
them, where they will provide you with Temporary Password to your username.

14. Now you login to your account with these details and change the username
and password first. They will ask you for at least 5 security questions, which you
should answer them even after providing your username and password each time
you login. This is just the extra step of security requirement from ECFMG.
15. Now after completing all these procedures, you will receive the fourth email
from ECFMG, saying your account has been successfully established. You will then
get the EPIC Identification number in this same email.
16. You go back to your account and go into your ‘My Identity Documents’ tab.
There you can see your EPIC Identification Form (EIF). You can download this form
and get it certified from NotaryCam (Online Notary Service that ECFMG prefers
you to use, in order to get your EIF verified).

Sample of EIF Form

17. You can get this Notarycam done from the website:
www.notarycam.com/ecfmg
You should login to this website with your EPIC Identification number and request
them to verify your EIF form. The fee for this is already included in your ECFMG
account establishment, so you don’t have to pay it again.

18. Very soon you will get an email from one of the notary public officer from
NotaryCam, saying that they are verifying your EPIC ID.

19. Then you get the second email within few minutes from NotaryCam again,
where they will ask you either to book an appointment now or in some later date
if you prefer. I wanted to complete this form asap so selected to book an
appointment NOW.

20. NotaryCam will now send you third email giving you the link to join them
online. You have to click this link. If you are using your mobile, this link will lead
you to download an app, which after successful installation will automatically
connect you to notary public officer that you communicated before.

21. This is the live video chat, where you have to get ready with your passport.
They will ask you to show them the original passport. Then after that they will ask
you open the photo page of your passport and place it close to the camera. After
that you will be asked your DOB. Then they will ask you to choose a digital
signature which they will provide in the options. You should select anyone of
them and then put the date in the designated place. They will instruct you
everything. Overall this process requires 3-5 minutes.

22. Now the notary public will send the notarized EIF form to the ECFMG. You just
have to wait.
23. ECFMG will receive your EIF form from Notary public within few minutes and
will congratulate you in successfully completing all the initial steps.

24. Now comes the second part. You have to login to your EPIC account and
upload the credentials. For AMC, it’s only the Final Medical Diploma (Graduation
or degree certificate). Just scan the certificate and upload it in JPEG or PDF
format. This will cost another 80$ (now 90$). Then you have to choose whether
you want ECFMG to send this document to your medical school to verify via
normal Airmail courier service or via DHL/FedEx. If you choose normal service, its
free but you can’t track your documents. If you choose other premium service,
you can track your documents online, but it will cost you additional 30$. However,
if your institute participates in electronic communication with ECFMG then you
are the luckiest. It will not ask you about any courier service, rather directly sends
to your institute online.

See the sample images below

25. After uploading credentials and completing the above stage, ECFMG will
review your documents. It doesn’t specify any time period this time, but in my
case took 14 days. After ECFMG completes this reviewing process, they will send
your document to your medical school either via courier or via online.

26. Then you go to your Medical School, and inform the admin or principal office
regarding such mails from ECFMG. Some institute does it free of charge, but many
asks for minimal admin charge on this process. Mine required some charges to do
it, but atleast I am assured with this charge that they will perform the verification
on my behalf.
27. After your college receives the document, they have to verify it and send back
to ECFMG. College will generally send this via normal airmail courier service. But
again you can’t track it. Rather do it yourself from DHL, but BE CAREFUL sender
should not be you, but your Medical School. If your college participates in
electronic communication, then all of these are not an issue. They will just reply
the verification request online and its DONE.
28. At last, it’s done!!! ECFMG will say that the verification has completed and a
report has been sent to GMC. Now go to “Report” tab and check the report
status. If report has already been sent, now you are eligible to open AMC
Portfolio.

*** This Total process can take 1 month to 3 months ****

AMC Portfolio//Candidate Account

Now go to: https://portal.amc.org.au/

You will have to pay 600AUD to open “AMC Portfolio//Candidate Account”

After opening candidate account, you can book a seat according to your
preferable venue and time (venue and time depend on availability)