2026-10-27 · 5 min read · Visa Ray Team

Doctors moving abroad in 2026: registration, exams and visas for the UK, Canada, Australia, Ireland, Germany and the USA

Last reviewed 2026-10-27. Rules, fees and processing times in this area change often. Check the official source before you act, and tell us if something looks out of date.

For doctors, the hard part is rarely the visa. It is medical registration: each country has its own exams, document checks and language rules, and the visa usually follows a job offer. This guide covers Indian-trained doctors (MBBS). Nursing has its own nursing guide, and medical study abroad is in the MBBS guide. Dentists and pharmacists have separate regulators that we did not verify, so they are not covered here.

United Kingdom

• Registration: the General Medical Council (GMC) page says PLAB 1 meets the Applied Knowledge Test requirement of the Medical Licensing Assessment, and PLAB 2 meets the Clinical and Professional Skills Assessment. It describes no 2026 change to PLAB. Other routes exist, such as sponsorship and acceptable postgraduate qualifications.
• GMC fees (from 1 April 2026): PLAB 1 GBP 283, PLAB 2 GBP 1,036, full registration with licence GBP 481, annual retention with licence GBP 481.
• Visa: doctors normally use the Health and Care Worker visa and can bring dependants (NHS Employers). A secondary source puts the minimum at GBP 25,000 or the national pay-scale rate for roles on national scales; NHS doctors are paid well above that. We could not confirm the visa fee or the Immigration Health Surcharge, so check GOV.UK.
• Settlement: the UK's plan to lengthen the route to settlement is covered in our earned settlement post. Check its current status.
• English: the GMC takes IELTS or OET. We could not confirm the current scores, so check the GMC's English language page.

Canada

• Fees (Medical Council of Canada): MCCQE application CAD 1,500, NAC Examination CAD 3,320, physiciansapply.ca account CAD 150, credential verification CAD 232 per credential.
• Licensing: provincial colleges license doctors, and the usual sequence is exams, credential verification, then a provincial licence or a residency match. We did not verify the provincial steps, so confirm with the college of your target province.
• Immigration: in February 2026 Express Entry held a healthcare and social services draw (CRS cut-off 467) and a separate draw for physicians with Canadian work experience (CRS 169), per CIC News. That physician category is for people already working in Canada, so it is not a direct route from abroad. See Canada PR fees.

Australia

The Medical Board of Australia lists three pathways: Competent Authority (for doctors assessed by a recognised authority and who practised in a competent-authority country), Standard (everyone else) and Expedited Specialist (for specialists whose qualification is on the Board's accepted list). In January 2026 the Expedited list added general paediatrics and general medicine, but only for UK and Irish qualifications (Ahpra). That means an Indian-trained specialist does not qualify directly, which is our inference, not a Board statement. For Indian MBBS graduates the Standard pathway normally includes Australian Medical Council exams. We did not verify the exam steps, English scores, fees or the visa, so use Ahpra and Home Affairs as your source.

Ireland

The Critical Skills Employment Permit lists a salary of EUR 40,904 for occupations on the Critical Skills list (EUR 68,911 for other eligible occupations), a EUR 1,000 fee (90% refunded if unsuccessful) and a two-year offer. We could not confirm on the page how it applies to doctors, who usually take hospital posts, so ask the employer which permit it uses. Stamp 4 can be applied for directly, and after 60 months of residence permission you can apply for long-term residence. Medical Council registration steps were not verified.

Germany

• Approbation (full licence): a recognition authority compares your degree with the German one; if there are differences you sit a Kenntnisprüfung (oral-practical exam). A temporary Berufserlaubnis of up to two years under supervision can be granted separately. A state-funded information network gives the language level as C1 through the medical language exam (Fachsprachprüfung), while other sources say B2 first, so check with your state authority.
• Blue Card 2026: EUR 50,700 gross a year, or EUR 45,934.20 for shortage occupations (the Federal Employment Agency lists doctors as one). A settlement permit comes after 27 months with German A1 or 21 months with B1, per the Federal Employment Agency, while another source gave 33 months for A1, so verify. See our Blue Card post.

United States

ECFMG fees (page updated 1 June 2026): application for certification USD 580, verification of credentials USD 220 and ERAS token USD 185. USMLE exam fees were not verified. Most international graduates also need a residency place through the Match. For visas, J-1 and H-1B are the usual options. The H-1B fee story is in our H-1B fee post and H-1B update. We could not confirm how it applies to physicians.

New Zealand

The Medical Council of New Zealand accepts doctors who passed NZREX Clinical, PLAB 1 and 2, or the AMC exams within the last five years, with a first-year house officer job offer. It quotes 20 working days from a complete application. We did not verify fees, English tests or the visa.

Practical order of work

1. Choose your country and read its regulator's page before you pay for any exam.
2. Start primary-source verification of your degree early (ECFMG's EPIC is used by several regulators).
3. Book the language test, exams, and only then job applications.
4. Get documents legalised if asked: see apostille and attestation.

Sources

• GMC: PLAB and the MLA
• GMC: fees for doctors
• NHS Employers: impacts of changes to UK immigration policy
• Medical Council of Canada: fees
• CIC News: Express Entry healthcare draw, February 2026
• Medical Board of Australia: international medical graduates
• Ahpra: Expedited Specialist pathway, January 2026
• Ireland: Critical Skills Employment Permit
• Netzwerk IQ: approbation flowchart for third-country doctors
• Federal Employment Agency: Blue Card, issue 03-2026
• ECFMG: fees
• Medical Council of New Zealand: NZREX Clinical graduates

Figures were gathered in October 2026. Official government pages were often unreachable, so many figures come from law-firm, adviser and news pages; each is marked where it rests on one source, and anything we could not confirm is labelled. Rules, fees and thresholds change often, so confirm everything with the official body before you apply or pay. Visa Ray is a rule-based reference tool, not a law firm or medical, tax or financial adviser. You can run a free assessment on Visa Ray for your own profile.