Thousands of FMGE candidates denied admit card for errors in application process, NBE denies Relief

New Delhi: Thousands of doctors who have pursued their medical education outside India, may miss out on the opportunity for appearing in the upcoming Foreign Medical Graduate Examination (FMGE), which is scheduled for January 20.

Even though these FMGE aspirants filled up the application form, they were denied the admit cards by the National Board of Examinations (NBE) for errors in the uploading documents essential for the application.

Although these foreign medical graduates approached the NBE and urged the authorities for allowing them to edit their application, they have been denied any relief on the ground that they could not make the required corrections within time. The candidates are now protesting in front of the NBE office.

While the exam will be conducted only the day after tomorrow, thousands of FMGs are facing a loss of another six months for appearing in the next exam.

"There are several candidates who could not clear the exam in the last three four attempts and this time they were denied the admit card by NBE because of the lapses in the application process. We requested the authorities but they have denied relief," said Dr. Jaswant Singh, founder of DPGI, a coaching institute for FMGE, NEXT, NEET PG exams.

The FMG Exam for December 2022 cycle is scheduled to be held on January 20, 2023. The registration process commenced in September and continued till December 2022. Accordingly, the students were issued admit cards on January 13, 2023.

Also Read: NBE Gives Final Opportunity To Candidates Of FMGE December 2022 For Rectifying Images

However, shockingly, thousands of candidates came to know that they would not be allowed to appear in the test because of errors in the application process. Medical Dialogues has a list of around 100 such candidates who have been denied the admit card on multiple grounds. In some cases, the admit card was not issued because of eligibility certificate and blurred photograph, while for the other students the reasons are Apostille stamp, medical qualification certificates, or absence of attestation of the documents by Indian Embassy.

Several candidates are claiming that they have uploaded all the documents properly and responded to the deficiency link as well. However, they also did not get their admit cards for the upcoming exam.

Immediately they approached the NBE authorities and writing to the Director of NBEMS, the students mentioned in the letter, "This is to request you that we are the FMGE aspirants and we have completed our degree from the different countries. we have given so many attempts of this exam but this time due to some deficiency in documents our admit card has not been issued."

Pointing out that months of hard work will go to waste, the students requested the authorities for allowing them to appear in the exam and stated in the letter, "Sir this is the matter of our six months hard work and studies which we have done also it’s the high time because exam is just 3 days later so we are in an immense mental pressure. Kindly consider our request and please issue our admit card and allow us to write the exam."

The students are also taking the help of the social media to request the authorities for relief. Requesting the authorities to verify the documents later, an user wrote, "Heard about 10000s of FMGs students didn't receive an admit card regarding the 20th Jan FMGE exam due to some error. It's a request to @NMC_IND please allow them to give the exam and verify their documents after that."

In a video, that is circulating on the social media, an FMGE candidate can be seen blaming the NBE for the troubles of the student. The student also shared that one can consider committing suicide if the authorities do not allow them to appear in the exam, for which they have been preparing for months.

Speaking to Medical Dialogues in this regard, Dr Jaswant said, "The exam is on January 20. The candidates are required to submit several documents. However, there were some lapses regarding the documents and the students were also given the edit window till January 8. But several students did not get the mail, in several cases, the mail went into Spam folder. More than 10,000 such students were not issued the admit cards. We have been raising the issue for the last few days and urging them to open the edit window for at least 30 minutes. But they have denied any relief to these students."

"There are several students who have been appearing in the exam for the last three four years and they were issued admit cards for the previous attempts. But this year, the authorities are denying relief to them saying that the candidates had not taken the NBE seriously when edit window had been offered," he further added.

As per the latest media report by Onmanorama, in the previous years, the candidates were issued admit cards even when they could not upload the documents in the requisite file size and they used to be allowed to appear in the exam. In such cases, the authorities used to withheld the results of such candidates until they uploaded the required documents properly. However, this year, the authorities have withdrawn the concession previously allowed to the students.

Also Read: One-time Relief to MBBS abroad students: NMC validates older internships, CRRI done by FMGs before October 2022