Internship in India after MBBS abroad: what NMC requires

Each rule below links to the NMC document it comes from. NMC has changed these rules by notice several times since 2021, and some notices are one-time measures for named groups of students, so the date on each one matters. Where two documents word the same rule differently, we quote both.

The internship in India at a glance

Checked 18 October 2026 against the NMC regulations, notices and circulars named in each row. The seat count is for the 2026-27 academic year only, and NMC asked State Medical Councils to report errors in its seat matrix within a week of 10 March 2026.

Two internships, abroad and in India

FMGL-2021 was published in the Gazette of India on 18 November 2021, and NMC’s FMGL FAQs (question 2) give that as the day it came into force. Regulation 3 says no foreign medical graduate (FMG) may practise medicine in India without permanent registration under it. Regulation 4 lists what permanent registration needs, and two of its conditions are internships.

The internship abroad

Regulation 4(a)(ii) asks for an internship of at least 12 months “in the same foreign medical institution”. Schedule I, para 2(i)(b), says it comes in addition to the course, with hands-on training in clinical subjects “including but not limited to” Community Medicine, General Medicine, Psychiatry, Paediatrics, General Surgery, Anaesthesia, Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Orthopaedics, ENT (ear, nose and throat), Ophthalmology, Dermatology, Emergency or Casualty services and lab services. NMC’s FMGL FAQs (question 17) say this internship is a separate phase from the clinical postings inside the 54-month course. It is done after the course is completed, but it is part of the degree.

Para 2(iii) of the same schedule rules out a swap. The entire course, training and internship “shall be done outside India in the same foreign medical institution”, and no part of it “shall be done in India or in any country other than” the one that awards the degree. NMC’s FMGL FAQs (question 11) add that you cannot transfer to an Indian college for the internship or the exams.

So the split between study and internship has to be clear before you join. If you are choosing among the Russian universities on this site, get that split written on the admission letter. Our MBBS in Russia page sets out the FMGL-2021 conditions on the degree.

The internship in India

Regulation 4(c) adds a supervised internship in India “for a minimum term of twelve months, after applying for the same to the Commission”. FAQ question 14 confirms it comes on top of the 12 months abroad, and question 12 says it follows the CRMI Regulations, 2021. Those were notified on the same day as FMGL-2021, in Gazette No. 580. CRMI regulation 3 makes the internship part of the undergraduate medical degree, and CRMI regulation 4 bars permanent registration to any medical graduate who has not done it in India as Schedule II provides.

Schedule II, para 2(a), puts foreign graduates under FMGL-2021 “at par with Indian Medical Graduates”. It also says that, unless NMC notifies otherwise, they will do the internship after Step 1 of the National Exit Test (NExT) once NExT is operational. As of 18 October 2026 no NExT start date had been notified, so FMGE is the exam that comes first. The FMGE exam guide explains where NExT stands.

Which rules apply to you

The dividing line is 18 November 2021, but NMC’s documents describe it in different words. The difference can matter if your course began with a preparatory year, or online:

• ›FMGL-2021, regulation 5(1)(b): it does not apply to candidates “pursuing their education in foreign institutions prior to” that date.
• ›NMC’s guidelines of 4 March 2022: candidates who “joined” their foreign institution before that date.
• ›NMC’s 2022 FAQ for students from Ukraine and China (questions 1 and 2): the date classes started decides it, and the date of an offer, invitation or admission letter will not be considered.
• ›NMC’s notice of 18 March 2026 and the FMGE October 2026 bulletin from the National Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences (NBEMS): candidates who took admission before, or on or after, 18 November 2021.

If your classes started close to that date, keep proof of when they began, along with the passport and visa records listed under Documents to keep.

If you started on or after 18 November 2021

FMGL-2021 applies in full. You do one year of CRMI in India after qualifying FMGE (18 March 2026 notice, appendix item I). The FMGE bulletin adds that NBEMS decides your FMGE eligibility “strictly in accordance with” FMGL-2021, and declares anyone found non-compliant with any of its provisions “INELIGIBLE for appearing in FMGE”. A course with a short or missing internship abroad can stop you at FMGE, before the internship in India comes up at all. The bulletin also says NBEMS will revoke, at any time, the FMGE certificate of a candidate who falsely claimed an admission date before 18 November 2021.

If you started before 18 November 2021

Regulation 5(2) of FMGL-2021 keeps you under “the erstwhile applicable regulations”, which NMC’s 4 March 2022 guidelines name as the Screening Test Regulations, 2002 and the Eligibility Requirement Regulations, 2002. For the internship, Schedule II, para 2(b), of the CRMI Regulations sends you to section 13(3) of the Indian Medical Council Act, 1956 and an advisory of 2 September 2020 from the Board of Governors that then ran the Medical Council of India (MCI). The advisory told State Medical Councils that practical training an Indian citizen does while earning a foreign primary medical qualification is acceptable, if the qualification is recognised for enrolment in that country, and that the internship or clerkship should be counted when registration is processed. You need CRMI in India only if you did not do that practical training abroad.

Regulation 11 of the 2002 regulations sets the order: an FMGE passer who still has the one-year internship to do gets provisional registration, and one who has done it gets permanent registration. NMC’s FAQ of 8 June 2026 (question 9) says graduates admitted before 18 November 2021 whose internship is recognised under the 2002 regulations “may be considered” for permanent registration without an additional internship in India. They have to meet every condition of the regulations and of NMC’s notices of 7 December 2023, 19 June 2024 and 18 March 2026, and the State Medical Council decides case by case.

Students who were on a BS course before 18 November 2021

NMC’s notice of 7 December 2023 names the BS course in the Philippines as pre-medical education. Its corrigendum of 30 December 2025, to item 2 of that notice, covers students who had taken admission to, or were studying, a BS course at a foreign medical institute before 18 November 2021, online or in person. They stay under the 2002 regulations, but “shall have to undergo additional one year of internship in India”. NMC calls it a one-time exemption specific to those students.

Before the internship can start

NMC’s FMGL FAQs (question 16) list what a foreign graduate must have before an internship in India:

• ›a course of at least 54 months;
• ›a 12-month internship at the same foreign institution;
• ›a degree taught in English (for Russian programmes, see English-medium MBBS in Russia);
• ›the subjects listed in Schedule I of FMGL-2021;
• ›registration with the licensing body of the country that awarded the degree, on par with that country's own citizens;
• ›a pass in the screening test, NExT or another test NMC mandates;
• ›provisional registration from your State Medical Council.

The last item sets the order: FMGE, then provisional registration, then the internship. The Screening Test Regulations, 2002 (regulation 2(g)) define provisional registration as registration only for doing the practical training in India, and for no other purpose. Permanent registration, which lets you practise, comes after the internship. Under NMC’s guidelines of 4 March 2022, a State Medical Council may grant provisional registration “for 12 month internship or balance period” to a candidate whose degree is registrable for practice in the awarding country, who has documentary proof of physical training or internship abroad and a passport with visa and immigration details, and who has cleared FMGE.

The FMGE pass certificate

State Medical Councils want the NBEMS pass certificate. The October 2026 bulletin says the FMGE scorecard “cannot be produced in lieu of” it, and that seeking registration without qualifying FMGE is treated as unfair means. For the October 2026 session, a candidate who does not collect the certificate within six months of the result has the candidature and result deemed cancelled.

Passing gives no automatic right to registration. The council decides after checking documents that include your 10+2 marksheet, caste certificate, Eligibility Certificate or National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET-UG) result, and your degree attested by the Indian Embassy or apostilled. The bulletin calls that list indicative. The FMGE exam guide covers collecting the certificate.

Where you apply

FAQ question 15 says you apply for the internship “with the respective State Medical Council through National Medical Commission”. None of the NMC documents we read names a portal or form for the NMC step. NMC’s notice of 7 December 2023 leaves the time frames and schedules to each State Medical Council and its Directorate of Medical Education, and we did not check each council’s procedure, documents or fees. Read your council’s current notice for foreign graduates before you apply.

How seats are allotted

The CRMI Regulations (Schedule II, para 2(c)) let foreign graduates intern only in medical colleges or institutions approved for the internship of Indian graduates, and para 2(d) requires the college, its affiliated hospitals and its Community Health Centres to be recognised by NMC for CRMI. Foreign graduates may be posted first to newly opened colleges that are not yet recognised, or placed through merit-based counselling or seat allocation. Colleges may give up to 7.5% of their permitted quota of interns to foreign graduates.

NMC’s circular of 10 March 2026 sets the current rule. State Medical Councils, in consultation with the state Directorates of Medical Education (DMEs), allot CRMI slots to foreign graduates as:

• ›7.5% of the permitted intake of interns in established medical colleges;
• ›100% of the CRMI seats in new medical colleges;
• ›100% of the CRMI seats against MBBS seats added between 2022-23 and 2025-26 in existing colleges.

The circular counts 43,250 slots for the 2026-27 academic year, not including Institutes of National Importance: 36,502 against the added seats and 6,748 at 7.5% of the 2021-22 seats. It says these come on top of seats in listed non-teaching hospitals and those on the erstwhile MCI list, and that NMC drew up the matrix partly because of “the significant increase in the number of court cases” foreign graduates had filed in the High Courts and the Supreme Court over denial or non-allotment of internship. It gave councils a week to report errors in the state-wise figures, so treat 43,250 as NMC’s estimate at that date. Permission to use those non-teaching hospitals ran only to May 2026, and we found no extension (see below), so do not count on those extra seats.

Where you can and cannot be placed

A council cannot turn you away because you come from another state. NMC’s circular of 9 May 2023 says State Medical Councils “shall not deny allotment of medical colleges for internship to FMGs on the basis of their domicile”, and a foreign graduate can intern in any state or union territory if otherwise eligible. AIIMS is closed to you: NMC’s notice of 28 April 2023 told State Medical Councils not to allot foreign graduates to AIIMS, because AIIMS do not come under NMC.

Non-teaching hospitals were allowed only under a relaxation that ran to May 2026. NMC’s notice of 21 September 2022 said standalone DNB (Diplomate of National Board) institutes and non-teaching hospitals were not entitled to run CRMI. A notice of 4 January 2023 then validated, once, internships done or begun by 21 October 2022 in colleges, hospitals or institutes on the old MCI list, and said any internship started in a non-teaching hospital after that date is invalid. The 9 May 2023 circular allowed the erstwhile MCI list of recognised non-teaching hospitals for foreign graduates only, as a one-time measure up to May 2024, and a notice of 15 May 2024 extended it to May 2026. When we searched NMC’s What’s New list on 18 October 2026, we found no later extension. Confirm any non-teaching hospital with your State Medical Council in writing before you join.

What the 12 months contain

CRMI Schedule III, para 2(a), sets the rotation. Every posting is mandatory except the electives, and the postings add up to 52 weeks.

From the table in Schedule III, para 2(a), of the CRMI Regulations, 2021, checked 18 October 2026. No amendment to the CRMI Regulations appeared on NMC’s regulations page or What’s New list when we searched that day.

The same regulations set the conditions around those weeks:

• ›You keep a record of work in a logbook, verified by the medical officer you work under. Regulation 6 says the internship counts only if a qualified mentor supervises and certifies it, and the Dean or Principal issues the final certificate of completion (Schedule IV).
• ›Leave is 15 days in all, with prior permission, across the whole internship, and medical leave counts within those 15 days (Schedule I, para 2(d)). Absence beyond that extends the internship by the excess, repeated in the department concerned. Maternity leave follows Central or State rules and paternity leave is two weeks; the regulations list both apart from the 15 days.
• ›Schedule I, para 2(b), lets the college or university extend the internship by a reasonable period, for reasons that include poor attendance or an exigency notified by the Government of India. That lengthens the internship. It does not say the two-year completion window grows while you wait for a seat.
• ›Schedule I, para 2(c), lets the institution curtail, suspend, withdraw or cancel an internship if you do not meet the eligibility requirements, for proven indiscipline or misconduct, or if you choose not to continue.
• ›The stipend is paid for 52 weeks only, and not during an extension unless it is for maternity, paternity or medical leave approved by a Medical Board (Schedule IV, para 3). The amount is covered under Stipend and fees.

Time limits

The CRMI Regulations give you two years from passing FMGE to complete the internship (Schedule I, para 2(a)). Regulation 5 words the same limit as two years “from the date of qualifying credentials to pursue compulsory rotating medical internship”.

NMC also sets a 10-year limit in three places, counted from the day you joined or were admitted to your foreign university, and each words it differently:

• ›FMGL-2021, Schedule I, para 2(iv): the whole foreign course must be completed within 10 years of joining.
• ›NMC’s notice of 7 December 2023 (item 5): every foreign graduate must complete the internship within 10 years of joining the foreign institution. Its FAQ of 11 December 2023 says the same of the internship in India.
• ›NMC’s FAQ of 8 June 2026 (question 12): that 7 December 2023 clause is read with the Graduate Medical Education (Amendment) Regulations, 2019, so a graduate admitted abroad after 2019 must clear the FMG examination within 10 years of admission.

The June 2026 FAQ words the limit as finishing the course or clearing the exam, and applies it to admissions after 2019. It does not say whether the internship wording in the 2023 notice binds students admitted earlier. Plan as if all three apply: failed FMGE attempts, months spent waiting for an allotment and any clerkship year in India all come out of the same 10 years. The FMGE exam guide covers the exam side.

Stipend and fees

No internship fee

NMC’s guidelines of 4 March 2022 told State Medical Councils to take an undertaking from the college that it charges foreign graduates no fee for the internship, and to give them stipend and facilities equal to those of Indian graduates training at Government Medical Colleges, as fixed by the appropriate authority. A circular of 19 May 2022 repeated this to every DME and State Medical Council, for Indian and foreign graduates alike. The clerkship some graduates do before CRMI is different: the college may charge up to ₹5,000 a month for it (see If part of your course was online).

The stipend

There is no national figure. CRMI Schedule IV, para 3, says every intern is paid a stipend “as fixed by the appropriate authority applicable to the institution/ University or State”. On 24 July 2026 the Health Minister told the Lok Sabha, in his answer to Unstarred Question 956, that stipends for interns, foreign graduates included, follow the rates set by the State Governments or universities, and that NMC’s circulars of 4 March 2022, 19 May 2022 and 7 December 2023 entitle foreign graduates in CRMI to a stipend determined and paid by the state authorities.

Payment to foreign graduates has been contested. NMC’s circular of 9 May 2023 recorded that states had reported no budget for it, said that a circular of 19 October 2022 had left the amount to the appropriate authority, and called implementation “solely at the discretion” of the state authorities. The same circular says: “stipend is payable to FMG interns only during 2nd year of internship, as one year is in lieu of the missed clinical training during MBBS course in Foreign Medical College/Institute.” Its reason, that one year makes up for clinical training missed abroad, fits the graduates on a two-year internship that the same circular covers. The circular also predates the Supreme Court order described below.

The Government’s Lok Sabha answer says the Supreme Court passed an interim order in writ petition (civil) No. 793 of 2025 that foreign graduates are entitled to internship stipends at par with Indian students, and that NMC restated the regulatory position, the penal provisions and the Court’s directions in a public notice of 12 March 2026. NMC’s link to that notice opened a different document when we checked on 18 October 2026, and we did not read the order itself, so this rests on the Government’s description.

If part of your course was online

NMC’s line since 2022 is that theory may be taught online, and practical and clinical training may not. Its FMGL FAQs (question 18) allow online classes “of theory subjects only”, supplemented by offline practical and clinical training at the university and its hospital, with a certificate of completion. The 9 May 2023 circular is blunter: “Online study of medical qualification (theory alongwith practical) is not valid mode of study.”

What that means for the internship depends on whether the online period was made up abroad:

Checked 18 October 2026. The clerkship routes are written for graduates who returned to India because of COVID-19 or the war and finished their course online.

Under the 7 December 2023 notice, the DME and the State Medical Council allot graduates to clerkship and internship, and CRMI after clerkship may be in a medical college or any recognised institute. NMC’s FAQ of 11 December 2023 adds that the clerkship and the internship cannot be done in different institutes.

The rule moved twice in June 2024. NMC’s notice of 7 June 2024 said compensatory certificates would no longer be accepted, and that any online study meant two or three years of CRMI. Twelve days later, the notice of 19 June 2024 clarified that students who had “sufficiently compensated” online classes by physical onsite classes are eligible for the one-year internship. The notice of 18 March 2026 defines that phrase: any period of theory, practicals or internship done online must be made up by physical attendance at the parent foreign institution, through extra classes or a longer course. It also withdrew and replaced a notice of 6 March 2026 on the same subject.

How the State Medical Council checks it

NMC’s FAQ of 8 June 2026 answers the questions councils and students raised about the 18 March 2026 notice:

• ›A compensation certificate does not by itself entitle you to provisional or permanent registration, or to an internship (question 11).
• ›The council weighs transcripts, passport records and other documents together, and no single document is conclusive (questions 5 and 6).
• ›Compensatory training done after the final examination, because of the university's own schedule, is not rejected for that reason alone (question 3).
• ›If you completed compensatory training and the internship at your parent institution and can prove it, you are not ordinarily asked to repeat clerkship in India, unless the regulations require it or the council finds deficiencies (question 10).
• ›The 18 March 2026 notice is not retrospective. Anyone already allotted one or two years of CRMI, or already interning, completes it as the council directs (the second question numbered 6 in the FAQ).

One-time relaxations

FMGL-2021 has no general waiver. Regulation 5(1)(c) exempts only graduates “specifically exempted by the Commission or the Central Government” by notification. NMC has instead issued dated relaxations for named groups, and none of them is open to a student starting a course now:

• ›NMC’s notice of 28 July 2022, issued under the Supreme Court’s order of 29 April 2022 in special leave petition 2536-37 of 2022, let final-year students who had left because of COVID-19 or the Russia-Ukraine war, and got a completion certificate by 30 June 2022, sit FMGE. They then had to do two years of CRMI before registration. The 9 May 2023 circular limited the two-year internship to that group, in a hospital attached to a medical college only, and let a graduate who had finished the first year do the second in another college, state or union territory if a seat was free.
• ›Under the notice of 7 December 2023 (item 1(III)), students who had joined physically in Ukraine or Russia on or after 18 November 2021, were evacuated during Operation Ganga (26 February to 11 March 2022), returned to India by 31 March 2022 and were then in their first, second or third year could migrate to any country except India and finish under FMGL-2021. That permission expired on 7 March 2024.
• ›NMC’s corrigendum of 30 December 2025 for pre-2021 BS-course students, described above, is also called a one-time exemption.

The 28 July 2022 notice called its relaxation a “one time measure” that “shall not be treated as precedence in the future”. Each relaxation so far has covered students who were already enrolled when the pandemic, the war or a rule change caught them. Pick a programme that meets FMGL-2021 as written.

Documents to keep

The State Medical Council checks your training abroad against your own records, so start keeping them in your first year. NMC’s FAQ of 11 December 2023 lists what foreign graduates submit before FMGE and before registration:

• ›your passport and all visa documents showing your stay in the country of study, with the number of days of each stay;
• ›the number of classes, clinics and practical sessions in each discipline, with the topics taught and the hours for each subject;
• ›a pass certificate for each year or semester;
• ›the certificate of your licence to practise medicine in the country of graduation.

For provisional registration, NMC’s 4 March 2022 guidelines also ask for documentary proof of physical training or internship abroad, and the passport with visa and immigration details. The 18 March 2026 notice lets the council check a compensatory certificate against the entry and exit records in your passport. The FMGE bulletin warns that incorrect information or documents found at any stage, even years later, disqualify you for FMGE and for any registration that followed, with retrospective effect.

Permanent registration

Once CRMI is complete, you apply to the State Medical Council for permanent registration. NMC’s notice of 18 March 2026 says the primary responsibility “for processing applications of Foreign Medical Graduates (FMGs) rest exclusively with the respective State Medical Councils (SMCs)”, in consultation with the state DME. The council has to verify that you passed FMGE, that any online study was made up at your foreign university or covered by clerkship in India, and that CRMI is complete. Registration granted without those checks counts as a regulatory violation.

FMGL-2021 regulation 4(d) also requires a pass in “the National Exit Test or such other mandated test or tests conducted by the Commission”, which today means FMGE. Regulation 5(3) says no permanent registration will be issued if it “infringes upon public policy or national security”.

If a council rejects an application for a licence to practise, regulation 12 of the Registration of Medical Practitioners and Licence to Practice Medicine Regulations, 2023 provides an appeal to NMC’s Ethics and Medical Registration Board within 30 days, and a second appeal to NMC within 60 days. The same regulations say the existing registration system continues until they and the relevant sections are in force. NMC’s draft amendment of 11 August 2026 would retitle regulation 12 “Denial of Registration & Licence to Practice” and extend the appeal to rejected applications for registration. The same draft would let a State Medical Council give provisional registration for internship to a foreign graduate who has qualified FMGE, until NExT comes into force. When we searched NMC’s What’s New list on 18 October 2026, we found no final version. Ask the council which route applies before you rely on that appeal.