The paperwork around FMGE decides as much as the paper does. Eligibility, the certificate you need before you go abroad, and the internship and registration that turn a pass into a licence.
FMGE is open to Indian citizens and Overseas Citizens of India who hold a primary medical qualification (MBBS or equivalent) awarded by a medical institution outside India, confirmed by the Indian Embassy or Mission in that country, and whose final examination result was declared on or before the cut-off date stated in the session's information bulletin (30 April 2026 for the June 2026 session). Graduates of institutions in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States who additionally hold a recognised postgraduate qualification and are licensed there are exempt from the screening test. Candidates of any age may apply, and you may attempt the screening test as many times as you need to.
National Medical Commission (Foreign Medical Graduate Licentiate) Regulations, 2021 — notified in the Gazette on 18 November 2021, applicable to Indian citizens and OCIs admitted to a foreign medical institution on or after that date. Students admitted before 18 November 2021 continue to be governed by the Medical Council of India Screening Test Regulations, 2002. Related: the MCI Eligibility Requirement for Taking Admission in an Undergraduate Medical Course in a Foreign Medical Institution Regulations, 2002 (the Eligibility Certificate), and the NMC Compulsory Rotating Medical Internship (CRMI) guidelines for the internship in India.
Reference: National Medical Commission
Passing FMGE does not by itself license the graduate. Verification is in person, with original documents.
Apply to a State Medical Council — usually your home state or the state where you will intern. Provisional registration is what allows the internship to begin. Each council runs its own process, so internship allotment happens state by state.
A Compulsory Rotating Medical Internship (CRMI) of 12 months in an NMC-recognised medical college or hospital in India. It is mandatory even where the graduate has already completed an internship abroad, and covers the standard rotations — General Medicine, General Surgery, Obstetrics & Gynaecology, Paediatrics, Orthopaedics, Community Medicine and the minor specialities. Students who studied part of the course online under the COVID/Ukraine exemption may be required to serve an additional year.
Once the internship completion certificate is issued, apply to the same council or the NMC for permanent registration and entry in the National Medical Register. That is the point at which you can practise independently.
Once permanently (or in practice provisionally) registered, an FMG is eligible for NEET-PG on the same footing as an Indian graduate.
The National Exit Test is provided for in the National Medical Commission Act 2019 and was framed as regulations in 2023, to serve at once as the final MBBS examination, the licentiate exam, the postgraduate entrance test and the screening test for foreign medical graduates. It has not yet been conducted. The NMC's position, stated on 31 October 2025, is that NExT will be preceded by three to four years of trial examinations, and as of 2026 the design was still under consultation.
FMGE is the exam in force, and it is the one to prepare for. Watch NBEMS and NMC notifications for the eventual transition, and take the sitting in front of you.
Send the PDF on WhatsApp — colour Rs 1/page, B&W 50p/page, binding Rs 40. Printed, bound and delivered anywhere in India.
Send your PDFIndian citizens and Overseas Citizens of India holding a primary medical qualification from a medical institution outside India, confirmed by the Indian Embassy or Mission in that country, whose final result was declared by the cut-off date in that session's bulletin.
Yes, if you took admission abroad from 2018 onward. A qualifying NEET-UG result is required and is checked at FMGE and again at registration.
Yes. A 12-month Compulsory Rotating Medical Internship in an NMC-recognised Indian institution is required after passing, regardless of an internship completed abroad.
Yes. Once you have passed FMGE, hold registration with a State Medical Council or the NMC, and have completed the Indian internship by the cut-off date for that cycle, you are eligible on the same footing as an Indian graduate.
FMGE is the exam in force. NExT is legislated and was framed as regulations in 2023 but has not been conducted; the NMC said in October 2025 that it would be preceded by three to four years of trial examinations.
You may attempt FMGE as many times as you need to, at any age.