Hello everybody - introduction

[mmachtin]

I'm a certified pharmacist in the country where I live. (obviously not in the USA)
My wife is a doctor and she got a fellowship offer in a hospital near Boston.
Sure enough I'm not intending to sit at home so I've began checking about using my profesion there.
As I understand there are some procedures, and I've made something like a flow-chart to ultimately get the liscence.

Please feel free to correct me if there is something wrong or missing in this "formula":

toefl -> certificates (academic credentials & foreign liscence) by the ECE -> fpgee -> internship -> naplex -> mpje -> liscence
What I didn't know where to put is the working visa' and what kind of a visa.
Can anyone tell me what are the time tables for this procedure?

And another thing, I,ve got my BPharm diploma in 1996, and I have more than 12 years of experience, 9 of those as a manager of a community pharmacy. I'm sure it will be a little shocking for me to return working as an intern.

Thanks for any info.

[fafy]

Hello there and welcome to our big community.
So your info are mostly correct but most people are first sending all their documents to ECE to get approved then to NABP to receive the ATT (Authorization To Test) for FPGEE (proposed twice a year, in june and december in 3 locations in the US). Then you can take the TOEFL ibt (you can start earlier if you want, which I would recommend because all this process can be VERY long). Once you passed FPGEE and the TOEFL ibt with the required scores, NABP will issue you the FPGEC (certificate).
Then your situation will depend on which state you're planning on being registered in (check their websites for more informations). In some states you will have to start the internship then take the 2 final exams NALEX and MPJE, in some others, you'll have to take the exams first.
Be careful some states require a Social Security Number SSN to register.
For the visa you'll probably need sponsorship for H1B which is limited to a certain number by year. But if your wife can receive a L1 visa by her work, then you'll get an L2 which allows you to work for any employer.

All this process is quite long, for example, I started it in may 2006(sending all the documents), passed FPGEE in december 2006, TOEFL ibt in february 2008 (took me quite some time to pass it ) and I just passed NAPLEX and not started the internship (in Texas you need the license first).

I hope it will help.

Good luck and if you have any questions, I'll try to help.

Fafy

I'm a certified pharmacist in the country where I live. (obviously not in the USA)
My wife is a doctor and she got a fellowship offer in a hospital near Boston.
Sure enough I'm not intending to sit at home so I've began checking about using my profesion there.
As I understand there are some procedures, and I've made something like a flow-chart to ultimately get the liscence.

Please feel free to correct me if there is something wrong or missing in this "formula":

toefl -> certificates (academic credentials & foreign liscence) by the ECE -> fpgee -> internship -> naplex -> mpje -> liscence
What I didn't know where to put is the working visa' and what kind of a visa.
Can anyone tell me what are the time tables for this procedure?

And another thing, I,ve got my BPharm diploma in 1996, and I have more than 12 years of experience, 9 of those as a manager of a community pharmacy. I'm sure it will be a little shocking for me to return working as an intern.

Thanks for any info.

[mmachtin]

First of all, thanks Fafy.
As I've mentioned before, my wife's fellowship is near Boston, and I've allready checked with the Ma.B.O.P to discover that they require 1500 hrs of internship before taking the NAPLEX and MPJE.
I haven't asked them about the ssn, does anyone have some info about that?
Do I have to have some kind of visa to start my internship' or I can get it during?

[fafy]

You welcome.
I don't know anything about Massachussets but you should find people to help here, try to write a new post or search in old treads.
As I told, your wife should ask what kind of visa she'll get and maybe she can receive an L1 and it will make your life so much easier.

[mmachtin]

my wife can aply for a J1 visa hence I can aply for a J2 visa.

[fafy]

I'm not sure but I think you can get a work permit with this visa.

[foreignpharmacist]

Hi,
Can anyone of you please tell me if I can sit for FPGEE without SSN in Illinois? and what visa status is required for the internship after FPGEE?

Since I have dependent Visa i.e. I dont have SSN, and my husband is doing his residency under H1 visa. I would really appreciate if you could answer my query.

Thanks is advance.