Foreign PG doctors from these countries with 1-year teaching experience can skip senior residency: NMC regulations

New Delhi: The National Medical Commission (NMC) has provided an exemption to doctors, who pursued their postgraduate medical qualifications from five English-speaking countries (the United Kingdom, the United States of America, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand), from undergoing the mandatory Senior Residentship to join as faculty (Assistant Professors) in medical colleges.

If such candidates have one year of teaching experience and are registered to practice in the respective foreign country, they can be exempted from the otherwise mandatory one-year Senior Residency required to become an Assistant Professor in India.

Earlier, the Apex Medical Commission had proposed this in the Draft Teachers Eligibility Qualifications (TEQ) 2024 Regulations, and now, the Commission has finalised these rules in the Medical Institutions (Qualifications of Faculty) Regulations, 2025. In these regulations, published in the official Gazette dated June 30, 2025, the NMC laid down the eligibility qualifications for medical teachers at medical institutes.

According to the existing norms, doctors must undergo one year of Senior Residency to be eligible to join the medical colleges as Assistant Professors. However, NMC has now granted an exemption in this regard to PG medical graduates from the UK, USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

Also Read: NMC draft TEQ proposes exemption from 1-year senior residency for doctors with foreign PG medical qualifications

In these newly released regulations, NMC specified the list of equivalent foreign postgraduate qualifications and mentioned, "Any person who has acquired Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery qualification in India and obtained recognised medical qualification (eligible for registration in India) from any of the five English speaking countries such as the United Kingdom, the United States of America, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, shall be eligible for appointment as Assistant Professor or Senior Resident in a medical institution in India in the respective specialty:

Provided that any such person having teaching experience of one year and registered in any such country, to practice in that specialty, may be exempted from the requirement of mandatory one year experience of Senior Residency, for eligibility for the post of Assistant Professor..."

However, to be offered such an exemption, the medical graduates from abroad must fulfil the following country-specific requirements:

(a) United Kingdom: such person possesses the Certificate of Completion of Specialist Training or equivalent training with final Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons or Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians qualification and is registered in that country to practice in that speciality,

(b) United States of America and Canada:

(i) such person possesses a Doctor of Medicine degree with Residency Training Certificate in the relevant speciality in the United States of America; and

(ii) for super specialities, has completed Residency Training Programme along with accredited Fellowship Programme in the relevant super speciality;

(c) Australia and New Zealand:

(i) such person has completed the supervised training programme culminating in the Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons or Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of the respective speciality; and

(ii) for super specialities, has at atleast two years of supervised sub-speciality Fellowship programme in the respective sub-speciality.

Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that earlier releasing the TEQ Regulations 2022 as well, NMC had mentioned that in the case of a person with Postgraduate medical qualifications awarded in the United Kingdom, United States of America, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, their qualifications can be considered as equivalent qualifications with MD/MS/DM/MCh, as the case may be if they fulfil the following criteria in those countries.