NExT or FMGE in 2026: Which Exam Do You Actually Sit?

NExT or FMGE is the question every foreign medical graduate asks, and for now the answer is settled. If you are studying MBBS abroad and want to practise in India, the exam you sit today is the FMGE. The National Exit Test has been deferred since 13 July 2023 and no start date has ever been notified. The next FMGE sitting is 31 October 2026, with applications closing on 25 September 2026.

Families ask this question more than almost any other, and the confusion is understandable. NExT exists in law. It has its own gazetted regulations. It has simply never started.

Key takeaways

• NExT was notified as a regulation in June 2023, then deferred by NMC in July 2023 "till further directions from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare". That deferral has never been lifted.

• No implementation date for NExT has ever been published by NMC, and no official notice names the batch it will first apply to.

• FMGE is the exam in operation. The next sitting is 31 October 2026, conducted by NBEMS.

• In August 2026 NMC pre-published a draft amendment that would write FMGE back into the registration rules, in terms, "until National Exit Test (NEXT) comes into force". That draft is not law yet.

• Anyone quoting you a NExT start date is not working from an official document, because no official document contains one.

What is NExT, and what do its regulations say?

The National Exit Test Regulations, 2023 were notified in the Gazette of India, Extraordinary, Part III Section 4, No. 447, dated 28 June 2023.

Regulation 3(2) sets out what NExT is for. It says the test shall form the basis of certifying a medical graduate's eligibility to register and practise modern medicine in India, and therefore serve as a licentiate examination, and of ranking candidates for postgraduate admission. Regulation 3(3)(ii) names foreign medical graduates among those who shall undertake it.

The design is two steps. Under the regulations, a foreign medical graduate would need a pass in each of the six theory papers of NExT Step 1 before provisional registration for internship, and would then need NExT Step 2, the practical and clinical component, before a licence and entry on the National Medical Register.

That is the intended system. It is worth understanding, because it is the system the rules describe. It is not the system operating today.

Why has NExT not started?

Sixteen days after the regulations were notified, NMC issued a public notice that stopped the exam before it began. The public notice dated 13 July 2023, reference No. Cdn.19012/15/2022/Coord-NMC, says in full that all stakeholders are informed that the National Exit Test examination is deferred on the advice of the Ministry dated 11 July 2023, till further directions from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

Nothing has replaced that notice. NMC's own news record since then carries only three further NExT items, all from early 2024, and all of them about seeking stakeholder comments on the 2023 regulations rather than about starting the exam. There is no notified implementation date, no exam date, and no statement of which MBBS batch NExT will apply to first.

The strongest confirmation comes from NMC itself, and it is recent. In a draft gazetted on 11 August 2026, NMC used the phrase "until National Exit Test (NEXT) comes into force". That is the regulator stating, in the Gazette, five weeks ago, that NExT had not come into force.

What does the August 2026 draft change?

There is a genuine gap in the rules as they stand, and the August 2026 draft is the fix for it.

The in-force Registration of Medical Practitioners and Licence to Practice Medicine Regulations, 2023, notified 12 May 2023, make a foreign medical graduate's provisional registration under Regulation 3(ii) and National Medical Register entry under Regulation 4(ii) conditional on qualifying NExT. An exam that has not started. Regulation 4 carries a saving clause that keeps the current system lawful in the meantime, which is why FMGE continues to work, but the text itself points at NExT.

The draft Registration of Medical Practitioners and Licence to Practice Medicine (Amendment) Regulations 2026, reference R.11061/05/2026-EMRB-Regn., was pre-published in the Gazette of India, Extraordinary, Part III Section 4, No. 493, dated 11 August 2026. It would substitute both clauses so that a foreign medical graduate who qualifies the Foreign Medical Graduate Examinations, or until the National Exit Test comes into force, may be granted provisional registration for internship and is entitled to registration in the National Medical Register.

Two things about this draft are worth being precise about. It was open for objections and suggestions for thirty days, a window that closed in mid September 2026. And it is a draft, pre-published for comment, which comes into force only on publication in the Official Gazette. As of today it is not law.

The same draft also widens the definition of a foreign medical graduate to include Overseas Citizens of India, introduces a Unique Identification Number on the National Medical Register, and requires the national and state registers to be synchronised electronically.

NExT or FMGE: what do you actually do today?

1. Complete your degree abroad in line with the Foreign Medical Graduate Licentiate Regulations 2021: a course of at least fifty four months, a twelve month internship at the same foreign institution, English as the medium of instruction, and the course completed within ten years of joining.

2. Obtain registration with the professional regulatory body in the country that awarded your degree, on the same terms as that country's own citizens.

3. Sit and clear FMGE, conducted by NBEMS. The qualifying mark is 150 out of 300.

4. Apply for provisional registration through the concerned State Medical Council so that you can begin internship.

5. Complete twelve months of supervised internship in India, which is separate from and additional to the twelve month internship you did abroad.

6. Apply for permanent registration and entry on the National Medical Register, which carries your Unique Identification Number and lets you practise anywhere in India.

Step 5 is the one families underestimate. The Indian internship is a second twelve month year, not a transfer of the one you already did. Build it into your timeline and your budget from the beginning, and read our guide to internship stipend rules for foreign medical graduates before you start it.

Which FMGE dates matter now?

One detail worth noting, because a lot of older material still gets it wrong. FMGE ran three times in 2026, on 17 January, 28 June and 31 October. The next sitting after September 2026 is October, not December.

Your eligibility is decided by when you were admitted. NBEMS applies the Foreign Medical Graduate Licentiate Regulations 2021 strictly to anyone who took admission on or after 18 November 2021, and a candidate who does not comply with those provisions is declared ineligible to sit the exam. Students admitted before that date fall under the earlier regime. If you are choosing a university now, this is the clause that decides whether your degree gets you home, which is why recognition and course structure belong in the decision before fees do. Our guide to NMC guidelines for MBBS abroad covers what those conditions are.

What does NExT or FMGE mean for your decision?

The practical answer is that the exam question is settled for now, and the harder question is the one underneath it. Whether you sit FMGE this year or NExT in some future year, the conditions in the Foreign Medical Graduate Licentiate Regulations 2021 apply either way: the length of the course, the internship abroad, the medium of instruction, the ten year limit, and registration in the country that awarded the degree. A university that does not satisfy those conditions is a problem whatever the exam is called.

That is the filter worth applying before anything else. If you want help working out which universities in Europe meet those conditions and what your timeline back to India looks like, talk to us. Start by checking that the university appears in the World Directory of Medical Schools, which records that a school exists and teaches medicine and states that a listing does not denote recognition, accreditation or endorsement.

Sources

• National Medical Commission, National Exit Test Regulations, 2023, Gazette No. 447 dated 28 June 2023

• National Medical Commission, public notice deferring the National Exit Test, dated 13 July 2023

• National Medical Commission, Registration of Medical Practitioners and Licence to Practice Medicine Regulations, 2023, Gazette No. 320 dated 12 May 2023

• National Medical Commission, draft Registration of Medical Practitioners and Licence to Practice Medicine (Amendment) Regulations 2026, Gazette No. 493 dated 11 August 2026

• National Medical Commission, Foreign Medical Graduate Licentiate Regulations, 2021, dated 18 November 2021

• NBEMS, FMGE October 2026 Information Bulletin

• NBEMS, FMGE examination page