Member Board of the American Board of Medical Specialties

Deadlines For Submission

Rules Regarding Deadlines For Submission Of Complete Oral Examination Application

  1. Candidates for oral examination who complete their residency on or after June 30, 2017 must submit a completed application (including completed practice data, references, and all other application materials required by the board) no later than December 31st of the calendar year, that is three years following the completion of their residency training. For example, a candidate who completed their residency training on June 30, 2020 would be required to submit a completed application no later than December 31, 2023.
  2. Extensions at the discretion of the ABNS executive director (including an amount of time determined by the ABNS executive director) and at no cost to the candidate, may be granted for “good cause” including: military service, post-residency fellowship training, absence from practice for legitimate family or medical leave reasons, solo practice in underserved areas or other legitimate circumstances which make submission of practice data impractical within the three or four year (as applicable) deadline. Further extensions beyond the initially granted exception would need to be approved by the ABNS board.
  3. Those who request extensions for “good cause” may need to provide supporting documentation at the request of the executive director, which may include required third-party attestations.
  4. Candidates who seek extensions without good cause will be granted extensions of up to six months following the original submission deadline at a cost of $1,000 per month.
  5. Extension requests (for or without good cause) should be received by the ABNS at least 60 days prior to the original submission deadline for the requests to be considered timely. Late requests require payment of a $5,000 reinstatement fee and under no circumstances will the ABNS consider or grant extension requests that are received later than three months following the original submission deadline.
  6. Under no circumstance will “without cause” extensions extend longer than six months following the original submission deadline. If a candidate has not submitted a completed application within six months past the original submission deadline, the candidate will have timed out and (a) will need to start the process from the beginning; and (b) will no longer be permitted to hold themselves out as board eligible. This does not apply to candidates who are granted “good cause” exceptions of greater than six months, although such “good cause” extensions of greater than six months will rarely be granted.