Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates

Application Process

Research

Select your residency programs of interest. There are many things to consider when exploring potential residency programs. Your residency is important because it is a time of tremendous growth both in your clinical knowledge base as well as your professional development. To achieve your goal of entering a residency program, you should effectively research programs, compare your qualifications, pinpoint your preferences for residency training, and compare programs.
Prior to applying via ERAS^®, contact your programs of interest to determine their minimum eligibility criteria, MyERAS application deadlines, licensure requirements, and institutional policies about visas, if applicable. Much of this information can be found on each program’s website. A list of programs participating in ERAS can be found on the AAMC's website.
Review the ERAS Timeline and Fees.

Selecting a Residency Program

Before you begin the MyERAS application process, consider your career path by researching one or more medical specialties. Selecting a medical specialty is best done with the help of advisors and mentors. It may be helpful to consult physicians practicing in the specialties you are considering. You should also consider the degree to which a given specialty would be professionally rewarding. For each specialty, it may be useful to research the overall number of positions available, the degree of competition typically experienced in obtaining a position, and the experience of prior international medical graduates, particularly graduates of your medical school, in obtaining residency positions. Detailed information on the number of positions by specialty, offered and filled by the NRMP, is available on the NRMP website .

After you have selected a specialty or specialties, you must decide to which programs within those specialties you will apply. There is no limit on the number of programs to which you can apply. Factors that you may wish to consider in selecting programs include the location of individual programs, their hospital affiliations, program and institution accreditation status, and the performance of their graduates. For more information about specialties and programs that participate in ERAS, refer to the ERAS Participating Specialties and Programs on the AAMC website.

AAMC has also worked collaboratively with nine other organizations, including ECFMG, to develop Residency Explorer , a tool that allows applicants to research residency programs across 23 specialties. Applicants can use Residency Explorer to compare their own characteristics to those of applicants who previously matched to those programs. Please note that Residency Explorer does not advise applicants on where they should apply or to which programs they may match. However, it may help applicants identify programs worth researching further.

The American Medical Association (AMA) also provides a free on-line Residency/Fellowship Training Program Search through FREIDA^™ .

Register for ERAS

Obtain a Residency Token via ECFMG’s OASIS in the ERAS Support Services section.
Use your Token to register at the AAMC’s MyERAS . If you have not already done so, you will be asked to create an AAMC username.

Obtain a Residency Token

Log in to ECFMG’s OASIS and select ERAS Support Services from the menu. You will then see the option to Request a Residency Token.

When will Tokens for ERAS 2023 be available?
Tokens for ERAS 2023 became available on June 28, 2022.

How much does the Token cost?
There is a $165 non-refundable fee for this service.

How can I pay the Token fee?
When you request your Token using OASIS, you can pay on-line using a credit card (Visa, MasterCard, Discover, or American Express). You can also pay by electronic check from a checking account at a U.S. bank.

Once I request the Token, when will it be issued, and how long will it be available?
After your payment is approved, click Continue on the payment confirmation page for immediate access to your Token. Your Token will remain on the ERAS Token Request page in OASIS and may be accessed at any time during the ERAS season.

Can I use my ERAS 2023 Token to apply in future seasons?
No. The ERAS software will not recognize a Token issued for previous ERAS seasons. You need one Token per ERAS season, and you can use that one Token to apply to as many specialties and programs as you want during the ERAS season. You can also use your 2023 Token to apply for both a clinical year (PGY-1), which begins in 2023, and for an advanced position (PGY-2), which begins in 2024 (e.g., Radiology, Neurology, etc.).

I am a fellowship applicant. How do I request a Token?
Fellowship Tokens must be requested through the ERAS Fellowships Documents Office (EFDO) . Tokens requested through ECFMG’s OASIS are for residency applications only. If you are currently enrolled in a residency program and require a Token for a fellowship application, you must request your Token through EFDO.

Complete the MyERAS Application

Once you have registered at MyERAS, you can begin to work on your MyERAS application and Personal Statement. You can also create your personal list of Letter of Recommendation (LoR) authors and confirm the authors for upload.
IMPORTANT NOTE: You will be required to certify your MyERAS application on-line at MyERAS. Do not certify your application until you are absolutely sure the information that you have provided is accurate and complete. Once you certify your application, it cannot be changed. ERAS Support Services at ECFMG does not have access to your MyERAS application.

Submit Supporting Documents

Begin submitting your supporting documents to ERAS Support Services at ECFMG. See Submission At-a-Glance for details on submitting ERAS documents.
Refer to your list of confirmed LoR Authors in MyERAS and provide your letter writer(s) with the Letter Request form. The Request Form includes all information your letter writer(s) will need to submit an LoR through the AAMC’s LoR Portal .
If you participated in ERAS 2022, you are eligible to reuse documents that were available in your previous application. For information, please review Reusing Documents.
If your medical school participates in the ECFMG Medical School Web Portal (EMSWP) ERAS program, the school must submit your medical school transcript and Medical Student Performance Evaluation (MSPE) via EMSWP ERAS. To find out if your school participates in EMSWP ERAS, contact the Dean’s office of your medical school.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Supporting documents may take up to five business days to process once submitted. You should make every effort to ensure your supporting documents are received by ECFMG in time for evaluation by programs and to meet program deadlines.
Track the status of your documents in MyERAS.

Apply to Programs

On September 7, at 9:00 a.m., Eastern Time in the United States, you may begin applying to programs. All applications submitted September 7 through September 28 will appear to programs as submitted on September 28. ERAS Support Services at ECFMG highly recommends that you submit all of your supporting documents no later than September 21 to help ensure their availability on September 28, at 9:00 a.m., when programs begin accessing applications.

Register for the NRMP Match

Beginning on September 15, register with NRMP in order to participate in this season’s Match.

Monitor Your Applications

Go to the Applied-to Programs section of MyERAS to verify which programs have received your application.
MyERAS will display the date and time each document was made available to each applied-to program. MyERAS will not display whether a program has viewed the application and supporting documents.

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Important Dates

Thanksgiving Holiday: ERAS Support Services will close at 1:30 p.m. on November 23 and reopen November 28.

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[Last update: June 28, 2022]