Internship and registration for foreign medical graduates

Which rules apply to you

The answer turns on when you started your course abroad.

• The Foreign Medical Graduate Licentiate Regulations, 2021 apply to candidates who began their foreign medical education after those Regulations came into force. They were notified on 18 November 2021.
• They do not apply to anyone who already held a foreign medical degree, or was already studying at a foreign institution, before they came into force. Those candidates “shall be governed by the erstwhile applicable regulations” (Regulation 5(1)–(2)).

Separately, the Commission can exempt specific graduates by notification (Regulation 5(1)(c)), and no permanent registration will be issued if it would infringe public policy or national security (Regulation 5(3)).

The conditions in the 2021 Licentiate Regulations

No foreign medical graduate may practise in India without permanent registration (Regulation 3). Permanent registration requires all of the following (Regulation 4):

1. A foreign medical course of at least 54 months.
2. An internship of at least twelve months in the same foreign institution.
3. A degree taught in English.
4. The mandatory subjects in Schedule I.
5. Registration with the licensing authority of the country that awarded the degree, on par with that country’s own citizens.
6. Supervised internship in India for at least twelve months, after applying to the Commission.
7. The National Exit Test, or such other test as the Commission mandates.

Schedule I adds that:

• the course must be equivalent to India’s MBBS in theory, practical and clinical training, and the twelve-month internship must include hands-on training in the listed clinical subjects;
• the entire course, training and internship must be done at the same foreign institution — no part may be done in India or in a third country; and
• the course must be completed within ten years of joining.

NExT has been deferred since the Commission’s public notice of 13 July 2023. The Regulations themselves allow “such other mandated test or tests conducted by the Commission”.

Where foreign graduates do their Indian internship

The CRMI Regulations, 2021 set the placement rules (Schedule II, 2):

• Foreign medical graduates covered by the Licentiate Regulations must do the internship on par with Indian graduates to seek permanent registration.
• Indian citizens, including overseas citizens of India, who are foreign graduates outside the Licentiate Regulations must complete internship in India if they have not already done the practical training required in the country that awarded the qualification.
• Internship may only be done in colleges approved for internship of Indian graduates. Foreign graduates may be posted first to newly opened colleges not yet recognised, may be allotted through a merit-based counselling or seat-allocation process, and a college may take them up to 7.5% of its permitted number of interns.

The internship itself — postings, leave and certification — follows the same rules as for Indian graduates, set out on the CRMI page.

Online study during COVID-19 and the Ukraine war: the June 2026 FAQs

On 8 June 2026 the Commission’s Undergraduate Medical Education Board published FAQs responding to questions from foreign medical students and State Medical Councils about its public notice of 18 March 2026. The FAQs say they are explanatory only, create no new right or relaxation, and that the Regulations and public notices prevail over them.

What the FAQs state:

• The 18 March 2026 notice clarifies, and does not replace, the notice of 7 December 2023 on verifying compensatory physical training for study affected by the COVID-19 pandemic or the Ukraine–Russia war. It creates no new category of eligibility (Q1–Q2).
• Any period studied online must be compensated by physical training; State Medical Councils decide cases in line with the notifications (Q4).
• Timing. Where compensatory physical training was done after the final examination because of the foreign institution’s schedule, the case is not to be rejected on that ground alone. Each case is decided on its merits by the State Medical Council (Q3).
• Evidence. “Supported by relevant transcripts” means official records from the parent foreign institution showing subjects, duration, clinical postings and practical training, examined with passport records. Where no separate transcript exists, the council may consider mark sheets, compensation certificates, internship completion certificates and other authenticated records. A compensation certificate or transcript in the university’s original format may be accepted if authenticated and sufficiently detailed (Q5, Q6, Q8).
• Not retrospective. Internship allotments, durations and decisions already made by a State Medical Council before 18 March 2026 — including allotments of one or two years of internship — stand, and those candidates complete the internship as directed (the second Q6).
• Admitted before 18 November 2021. Graduates admitted before that date whose internship is recognised under the Screening Test Regulations, 2002, and who completed it offline in the same country with a valid compensation certificate, may be considered for permanent registration without an additional internship in India — subject to all conditions and to the council’s verification (Q9).
• No duplicate clerkship. Graduates who completed and can document compensatory training and internship at their parent institution are not ordinarily required to repeat clerkship in India, unless the Regulations require it or the council finds deficiencies (Q10).
• A compensation certificate alone does not entitle anyone to registration (Q11).
• The ten-year limit. The FAQs tie the requirement to complete the course within ten years to the Graduate Medical Education (Amendment) Regulations, 2019, and state that candidates admitted abroad after 2019 must clear the FMG examination within ten years of admission (Q12).

Not yet recorded here: the public notices of 7 December 2023, 19 June 2024 and 18 March 2026 themselves, which the FAQs refer to. This page will be extended when they have been read.