30/04/2024
Although, United States of America has been a dream country for people around the globe but particularly the country interests the health workers due to the fact that USA has been the largest importer of Health Care Professionals. Pharmacists in US earn around $ 100 K per annum and enjoy a relatively good life. Many Pakistani pharmacists aspire to be licensed pharmacists there. This article delineates the entire process for getting license in USA. I want to emphasize here that this is a tough road but if you are resilient enough and are willing to pay the price, this road is worth travelling. Also, If someone plans to undertake this road in his/her undergraduate years, it is worth trying but attempting in 30s seems fruitless given the competitive market pressure and social and personal responsibilities in the third decade of life.
Here is the Big Picture of the road;
Document Evaluation from Educational Credential Evaluators (ECE), USA
Application for registration of Foreign Pharmacy Graduate Equivalence Examination(FPGEE) to National Association of Boards of Pharmacy (NABP), USA
Registration of FPGEE with Pearson’s VUE examination center, USA
Application for Visit Visa (B1/B2) to USA Embassy
Taking FPGEE and TOEFL in USA
Getting Forign Pharmacy Graduate Equivalence Committee (FPGEC) Certificate
Getting social security number
Finding and doing Internship of about 1500 hours
Register and take North American Pharmacist Licensing Examination (NAPLEX)
Register and write Multi-state Pharmacy Jurisprudence Examination (MPJE)
Apply for License and Become a licensed pharmacist
There is a good and a bad news. Firstly,the good news and that this is difficult but it is very much achievable. Exams along the way are standardized that means they are easily passable if you have spent good time studying in your undergraduate years. Total time for the process is approximately 2 to 3 years. After, passing the exams you can earn up to $ 6000 to $8000 per month after tax deductions and can live an american dream.
Now, the bad news is that it requires lot of HARD WORK and resilience and currently it rather impossible to achieve this goal without trustworthy connections in USA. Passing Exams is less difficult than getting Social Security Number, H1 visa and Green Card due to a competitive and saturated market. I will share some of insights regarding these difficulties at the end of this article. Lets discuss the entire process.
First Step: Document Evaluation
Login to www.ece.org, create account, fill in the online application for General Evaluation Report, pay the fee $ 85 plus shipment fee. Gather your academic documents, the details of required documents for Pakistani pharmacists for evaluation can be found at the link below;
https://www.ece.org/SiteMain/26/47
Go to Principle of your Pharmacy College and ask your principle to attest these documents and put them in sealed envelop. Send the sealed envelop in hard copy to ECE through FedEx. Approximate cost for the document evaluation is approximately $200 including Fed Ex charges. Report is usually received in 4 to 6 weeks that states “your Pharm.D degree is equivalent to US Bachelors in Pharmacy"
Second Step: Application for Registration of FPGEE to NABP
Once you have General Evaluation Report from ECE, next step is to apply for FPGEE. Detailed Information can be obtained from;
uhttp://www.nabp.net/programs/examination/fpgee/application-bulletin
First of all, you download the application for FPGEE from the nabp's website and fill in the application. Specific information in filling the application form is clearly explained in the application bulletin. After filling the application form and attesting it from the notary public office as per the instructions given in the application bulletin, attach attested documents with the application form. Documents include Pharm. D degree, Pharm.D Transcript, ECE report, Registration Certificate from the Pharmacy Council and Good Standing letter from the Council. Now, make a bank draft of $ 1200 from any bank in favor of National Association of Boards of Pharmacy. In Lahore, Habib Bank Limited Bank Square Branch, Mall Road Lahore has a long experience in dealing with this case. Finally, send the complete packet to NABP through FedEx. It usually takes 8 to 10 weeks to get the registration card from NABP to sit in for FPGEE for two consecutive attempts. One is usually for April Exam and the other for October attempt.
In case of any deficiency in the application, NABP will ask the candidate for correction and this may take another two to three months and additional FedEx expenses. Here, it is appropriate to mention that you will get FPGEE registration card surely, if you have ECE report with you and if you are really willing to appear for this exam. Total time taken for the registration process is usually three months but it can be increased in case of any deficiency in the application form or documents and the total expenses for the process are approximately $ 1300.
Third Step: Application for Visit (B1/B2) visa to US Embassy
Once you have FPGEE registration certificate with you, you can apply for Visit Visa to US embassy. A great thing about US visa is that there are as many types as are alphabets in English. The visa I am referring to is B1/B2 visa and the form to apply for this non-immigrant visa is DS 160, which can be easily obtained from the link below;
https://travel.state.gov/content/visas/en/forms/ds-160--online-nonimmigrant-visa-application.html
Fill in the form online and pay $ 160 through a bank draft. I am no expert on immigration issues but relevant information regarding visas and immigration purposes can be obtained from the following website;
uhttp://www.immihelp.com/
After filling the form and paying fee, you take the date of interview for visa purpose and appear for the interview at the given date. Visa is usually granted from 5 years with multiple entries.
Here is a RULE of THUMB for getting B1/B2 visa; You have to emphasize to Embassy that you are going for taking this exam only, for two weeks and that you have strong ties with your home country and will not slip in USA, which is usually done by showing sufficient salary and income that proves your financial standing and with the emphasis that you are going only out of your passion for learning and improving educational credentials that will help you groom professionally.
Although, the visa is offered for 5 years but here is another EYE OPENER: VISA is just a ticket to enter into any country. Upon Arrival, you get Form I-20 that allows you to stay for 6 months only, during your visit and you must have to leave US within this time duration, failing which you will become illegal with all its dire consequences. Entry into US for your first visit is just for 6 months only.
Here is trick that is usually played by the pharmacists on visit visa. Although, technically, it is not legal to pursue this track but the purpose of sharing this trick is just to educate you about the possible choice. Upon arrival to US, pharmacists wait for about four months and then they apply to the colleges for ESL (English as Secondary Language) or any other short course to convert their visit visa to student visa (F1 visa). The chances for success for this conversion of visa status are 50% and depends on the college, candidates applies to. Further information on F1 visa can be obtained from the website I mentioned earlier in the article. The total cost for this process is usually around $ 3000. F1 visa gives certain flexibility and social security number as well that is necessary for applying to NAPLEX exam.
Once you reach to US, you must appear in FPGEE and TOEFL exam and should be able to pass these exams in first attempt as per the board's requirement that can be found in FPGEE bulletin. The best way to do this is to prepare for these exams upfront at your home land.
After appearing for FPGEE and passing TOEFL exam, the score report of TOEFL is sent to NABP. NABP reviews the document again and send the FPGEC certificate to the candidate in 8 to 10 weeks.
Once, a pharmacist receives his/her FPGEC certificate, he/she can apply for internship to complete internship hours under the supervision of a licensed pharmacist. Here comes the big challenge. A pharmacist can not work or practice legally unless he/she has a right to work in USA. Now comes the connections, you must have to find an employer, who can file H1 visa for you to work legally in USA. Note, H1 visa is a work visa and is filled in by the employer only. It is becoming hard these days to find an employer who could file visa on your behalf. Furthermore, H1 visas have a quota that is usually 85000 per year out of which more than 60 percent visa are taken up by the IT professionals. Another, important fact is that these visa are filled only once in a year in April and result of the visa application are announced in October of the same year.
Before 9/11, pharmacists were hired by the chain pharmacies but currently, due to increased number of local pharmacists, they don't sponsor foreign pharmacists.
What are other options ?
There are now only two more option for pharmacists to work as licensed pharmacist and these are;
get married to a US national to apply for the permanent status
one of your blood relation had sponsored you for green card about a decade ago.
The later option is only possible for the pharmacists whose parents ,brother or sisters are already in USA and that they had already applied for him/her so as he/she is about to receive the green card. Marriage based permanent status is easy and the fast track for the pharmacists but certainly, it has some great limitation for majority of aspiring pharmacists.
There is just one more option left and that is appearing for NAPLEX without internship. Only two states allows NAPLEX exam without internship and these are New York and Taxes, but again you need to have social security number for appearing in these exams, which you can get if you have F1 visa, as I wrote earlier.
Fourth Step: NAPLEX and MPJE
If you have social security number or H1 visa, you can apply for NAPLEX and MPJE. The details of these exams are available on a bulletin at NABP's website.
After passing the NAPLEX, a foreign pharmacist appears for MPJE. If a pharmacist has cleared both the exams as per boards requirement, he/she can apply to the state board of pharmacy for license. After obtaining the license from the state, a pharmacists apply for Job. Job for Licensed pharmacist is relatively easy to find and employers usually can file H1 visa and subsequent Green Card quite easily.
The bottom line of this route is the legal status to work in USA. If you already have a green card , it is quite easy for you to get pharmacist's license other wise the road is tough, time consuming and certainly a test of your resilience and strong nerves. As emphasized earlier, this route is worth taking for an undergraduate pharmacist who is in his/her 3rd or 4th year of professional study. By the time, he/she obtains the Pharm.D degree from Pakistan, he/she must be prepared for the exams. If a pharmacist starts the process at the age of 22 or 23, the chances are way high for settlement in USA and it can be expected that they will make their way. There are lot many things regarding american life and work that are beyond the scope of this article. It is the need of the day to educate younger pharmacists in their undergraduate years for the possible options they have in their professional life. This article is the continuation of the effort to bring that awareness. Spread the message if you find it useful.
ECE, a NACES member, provides swift evaluation of foreign credentials with an average of 5 days turnaround for studying or working in the US or Canada.
