International medical graduates

The short version

• A new law changed who gets offered a place. The Medical Training (Prioritisation) Act 2026 requires that places go first to UK medical graduates and others in a defined priority group. It applies across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
• You are not barred from applying. Applicants outside the priority group still apply, still sit the assessments and can still be appointed. They are considered once the priority group has been.
• From 2027 it also decides who is interviewed. In the 2026 rounds prioritisation was applied only at the offer stage, because shortlisting was already under way when the Act passed. From 2027 it applies to interview selection too, so being outside the priority group can stop you reaching interview at all.
• Your score is not touched, but it is not what decides the offer. Prioritisation adds no points and moves nobody up or down: NHS England is explicit that it “does not affect the rank applicants receive following interview; ranks are based on performance in the selection process only.” What it changes is the order in which people are offered posts. Think of it as two queues rather than one. Offers run down the priority group in rank order first, and only once everyone in it who scored highly enough to be appointed has been considered, and posts still remain, does the second queue get reached. Your score sets your position within your queue, not which queue you are in. So an applicant outside the priority group can be ranked above one inside it and still not be offered the post.
• Three ways into the priority group. Your country of qualification, your immigration status, or a relevant qualifying UK programme. Meeting any one is enough, and everyone inside the group has equal priority.
• The rules for 2027 entry are not published yet. The immigration-status route does not automatically carry into 2027. A replacement group will be set out in regulations; NHS England says it aims to publish “in the early autumn”.
• Public health is outside the scheme. The Act excludes “a programme wholly in the area of public health”, and NHS England applies prioritisation to all specialty recruitment “apart from ST1 Public Health”.

Be careful what you read elsewhere. Several sites state a fixed number of years of NHS experience as though it were settled. That figure is a representative body’s policy position, not the law, and the government has not defined the term. We will publish the criteria when they exist.