1. Physician Education:
The education of physicians in the United States is lengthy and involves undergraduate education, medical school and graduate medical education.

· Undergraduate education (4 year): at a college or university to earn a BS or BA degree, usually with a strong emphasis on basic sciences, such as biology, chemistry, and physics (some students may enter medical school with other areas of emphasis).

· Medical Education (4 year) : Four years of education at one of the U.S. medical schools accredited by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME). Four years at one of the , consisting of preclinical and clinical parts. After completing medical school, students earn their Doctor of Medicine degrees (MDs), although they must complete additional training before practicing on their own as a physician.

· Residency program (graduate medical education 3-7 years): Through a , newly graduated MDs enter into a that is three to seven years or more of professional training under the supervision of senior physician educators. The length of residency training varies depending on the chosen: family practice, internal medicine, and pediatrics, for example, require 3 years of training; general surgery requires 5 years.

· Fellowship (1-3 years): additional training in a subspecialty is an option for some doctors who want to become highly specialized in a particular field, such as gastroenterology, a subspecialty of internal medicine and of pediatrics, or child and adolescent psychiatry, a subspecialty of psychiatry.

· Total: It takes 11 to 15 years to become a licensed physician in the US.
The majority of physicians also choose to become board certified, which is an optional, voluntary process. Certification ensures that the doctor has been tested to assess his or her knowledge, skills, and experience in a specialty and is deemed qualified to provide quality patient care in that specialty. There are two levels of certification through — doctors can be certified in 36 general medical specialties and in an additional 88 subspecialty fields. Most certifications must be renewed after six to 10 years, depending on the specialty.

2. Physician Licensing in the US:
After completing undergraduate, medical school and graduate medical education, a physician still must obtain a from a state or jurisdiction of the United States in which they are planning to practice. They apply for the permanent license after completing a series of exams and completing a minimum number of years of graduate medical education.

A physician must pass USMLE Step 1, step 2 CK, step 2 CS, and step 3 in order to apply for a permanent license. For Vietnamese Medical Graduate, they must be certified by ECFMG (pass USMLE Step 1, 2 CK and CS) and pass step 3 in order to apply for a license.

References:

1. The American Medical Association
2. The United Stated Medical Licensing Exams