Specific information for non-UK doctors from outside the European Economic Area (EEA) who wish to work in Britain.
Definition of ‘international doctor’
An international doctor is one who, regardless of where they obtained their primary medical qualification, doesn’t have the right of indefinite residence, is not settled in the UK (as determined by immigration and nationality law) or who doesn’t benefit from European Community rights. This definition includes doctors who have received a primary medical qualification from a UK university and completed their foundation training but who don’t have settled status or right of indefinite residence.
Settled status: indefinite leave to remain in the UK in prescribed circumstances
Some international doctors may be entitled to settled status in the UK, for example those who are married to a British citizen or who have at least 1 grandparent born in the UK.
Registering with the General Medical Council (GMC)
You will need to register with the GMC before undertaking direct patient care. International doctors can join the UK Specialist Register by applying for a Certificate of Eligibility for Specialist Registration (CESR), which proves you have undertaken training equivalent to that undertaken by a UK Certificate of Completion of Training (CCT) holder.
Joining the UK training programme
It’s not possible to get a post as an international trainee if there’s a suitable UK citizen graduate available.
The GMC website provides advice for international medical graduates about their options, as well as information about the PLAB exams. Exemption from PLAB only occurs if you’re on a sponsored post, such as exchange schemes or the International Doctors Training Programme.
The Medical Training Initiative (MTI)
The Medical Training Initiative (MTI) scheme allows international medical graduates to come to the UK to train within the NHS.
The MTI scheme allows International Medical Graduates (IMGs) to come to the UK for a maximum of 2 years to train within the National Health Service (NHS).
IMGs benefit greatly from the knowledge, skills and techniques learned within the NHS and can use them to improve the level of patient care in their home country on their return.
In addition, UK hospitals who provide a placement for IMGs benefit from increased workforce capacity and the skills and knowledge that IMGs can share with their UK colleagues.
During the placement, IMGs follow a similar assessment process to UK trainees. The expectations of IMGs in terms of their performance and targets should be based on the same standards as UK trainees at ST2 level initially, until, with support from the hospital, they move to ST3-5 level for the majority of their placement.
Immigration
International doctors require a visa to work in the UK. There are 3 types of visa relevant to working as a doctor:
- Tier 1: successful application to tier 1 allows doctors to seek work in the UK in any non-training grade
- Tier 2: for doctors who’ve been offered a post in the UK for which the employing authority was unable to find a suitable UK doctor to fill the post; this may be either a training or a non-training post.
- Tier 5: for selected international doctors to come to the UK to train for up to 2 years, following which they must return to their home country; the training won’t lead to a CCT.
