Srinagar, Dec 2025 — Right now, 173 foreign medical graduates in Jammu & Kashmir are stuck. They can’t start their mandatory internships because the Jammu & Kashmir Medical Council hasn’t given them provisional registration certificates. The wait has dragged on for months.
These are students who finished their MBBS abroad and passed the tough FMGE screening test. JKMC asked for applications back in October. They put out the final merit list on November 7, and the Health & Medical Education Department signed off on November 26. But even now, no certificates.
Frustration is running high
Some students say they’ve been to the JKMC office over and over, just to hear the same thing: no timeline, no answers. After years of study and finally clearing the FMGE, being told to just wait feels crushing. The delay means they can’t join their assigned internships at government medical colleges, either.
JKMC says it won’t issue certificates until it has checked everyone’s documents. That means every FMG needs to show their class 10 and 12 certificates, NMC eligibility, FMGE pass slip, MBBS degree, mark sheets, and embassy-verified university papers. The council insists it has to make sure everything’s authentic before handing out registration.
But this isn’t just about paperwork
Careers are on hold. These young doctors can’t start internships, can’t get their stipends, and can’t move forward toward full registration. Hospitals need more hands to help, but these graduates are left in limbo — and patient care suffers, too.
The graduates have written to the Lieutenant Governor, the Health Minister, and the Chief Secretary, asking them to step in and speed things up. They call the delay “unjustified and avoidable.”
It’s not just Jammu & Kashmir, either. Other states have seen the same kind of hold-up — a national pattern of FMGs being caught in what many now call “paperwork paralysis.”
Conclusion
This whole chaos shows how red tape can block young doctors from moving ahead and leave the healthcare system staff shortage. It’s clear: smoother verification and real timelines matter, or we’ll keep leaving new doctors stuck on the sidelines.