I am an IMG and hoping to appear in the exam in February 2014,when should I complete the application for ECFMG certification??it has a 60$ fee..right before applying for the exam or much earlier??

Apply ASAP, once you pay the fee, it's good for 5 years so no need to worry about it expiring on you

Can anyone of u plz tell me what an ECFMG Certification is....?Is it different from Applying for USMLE Step 1....?

I totally appreciate where you are now... It took me a lot to unravel the terminologies myself.
So my understanding of it is- As an IMG the overall essence of Sitting for the USMLE exams is to obtain ECFMG certification and it is this certificate that you apply for residency with.
So step one is- Inform ECFMG that you would want to apply for the certifcate- that costs you $60
Then decide which of the exams you want to sit for first- the fees are as represented on the website. Whilst registering for your first uSMLE exam you would have a lot of forms to send to your medical school, which they in turn will send to ECFMG after filling and endorsing them duly.
This is where most of the time is spent. In my case we are talking of nearly 3 months now, and when ECFMG receives the forms, it takes 3 weeks to process them and decide if you are eligible for examination. if all is fine, you would be informed on your OASIS/IWA page and you can go ahead and schedule the exams and sit for them.

If you are certain you wish to write the exams in February the consensus advice is - Start Now. there is no harm in being registered many months before your exam but wait till you miss an exam slot because of some tardiness from your medical school. You wouldn't really like that. So kindly pay the $60 and commence the process.

Good Luck!

ThanQ so much Obialunanma for taking time to tell me about the Ecfmg certification.U r thr first one who gave me a straight forward explanation about it in an easy and simple way ThanQ.
edited by MZ-786 on 6/10/2013