FAQs for doctors

Unfortunately no. All doctors must already have 4 years of postgraduate training and submit their Assessment of Training letter before the deadline. We advise that anyone who will achieve their 4 years of postgraduate training after the deadline, waits until the next year to make an application for the MTI scheme.

The MTI scheme is developed for doctors who wish to gain more experience, training and exposure to the UK health system. The level of the offered posts in MTI and focus on general core O&G training at stage two of training equivalent to ST3-5  means MTI is not appropriate for highly experienced doctors or consultants who risk being deskilled after the 2 years. Therefore doctors who have more than 8 years of experience in O&G are not suitable for this scheme and their applications will not be considered.

All applicants for the MTI scheme will need to detail all posts from the time of obtaining their primary medical qualifications through to the time of submitting their application in their employment history. Any gaps in employment (unless clearly explained e.g. maternity leave) will result in rejection of the application.

MTI Applicants should be at an equivalent level to a UK ST2 trainee to be appointable. Please refer to the RCOG Training Matrix which sets out the competencies and skills of an ST2 level trainee. To maximise your chances of selection we advise to only apply for MTI once you meet the majority of the ST2 competencies.

The focus of MTI training is to complete the RCOG MTI Training Matrix (PDF) competencies.

The RCOG’s MTI scheme is designed to help international medical graduates to come to the UK to consolidate their core training in Obstetrics and Gynaecology and obtain the MRCOG qualification. It is not a scheme designed to provide specialist training. The posts offered under the MTI scheme start at ST2/3 level (equivalent to 2nd / 3rd year of a 7 year UK training program) and trainees spend the rest of training time at stage two of training equivalent to ST3-5.

However, if MTI trainees obtain the MRCOG early in the 2 years of training, they may be able to undertake Specialist Interest Training Modules (SITMs) in their areas of interest during the remainder of the MTI training. The ability to do this will depend on the presence of spare training capacity in their local hospitals to undertake these  SITMs and cannot be guaranteed. It should be noted that the tier 5 visa cannot be extended beyond the 2 years to facilitate completion of SITMs.

Benefits include:

• MTI provides excellent exposure to working in a patient-led system
• Improved communication skills, teamworking skills and negotiation skills
• Consolidate core O&G skills including instrumental delivery, CTG interpretation and FBS.  
• MTI Training gives exposure to labour ward and caesarean sections, acute emergency and elective O&G, emergency Gynae. It is important to understand that MTI Trainees will not be doing large amounts of surgery or carrying out complex or specialist procedures
• Return home with new skills and ways of working including experience of multi-disciplinary team working and evidence-based medicine
• MTI Placement helps doctors passing their Part 2/3 MRCOG as working in NHS gives good exposure to experience and skills for them to pass: MTI Trainees pass rates akin to UK trainees.
• Improved skills and experience in softer skills e.g. patient safety, risk management, clinical governance, contributing to development of local guidelines, postgraduate teaching
• Many doctors use the knowledge and skills gained to set up training and team-working initiatives on return to their home country.
• Share knowledge with peers, contribute to the rota, make new friends, travel and experience a new culture

Unfortunately no. The GMC (General Medical Council) will not register any doctors who have been out of full time medical practice for any of the last 12 months leading up to an application to register.

There are some exceptions made for annual leave and parental leave, please contact the RCOG MTI Office for specific advice.

All doctors must register with the GMC to be able to practice and so if they will not register you, you cannot work in medicine in the UK.

For IELTS, we require you to sit the Academic test. You should achieve at least 7.0 in each domain of the test and you must achieve 7.5 or higher in your overall score. Please note the IELTS Indicator test is not accepted by the GMC.

For OET you must score an A or B. OET can either be paper based exam or the electronic OET@Home exam.

We cannot accept any deviations from this regulation, as it is a GMC requirement.

Yes, provided you meet all the other eligibility criteria.

The MTI scheme is a philanthropic ‘learn and return’ scheme which provides opportunities for doctors who work in low income settings to train for a fixed period in the NHS system.

After completing a training placement MTI doctors will be expected to return back home and will be able to use the knowledge and skills they have gained in the UK  to improve the healthcare system in their home country.

In general terms, high-income developed countries’ healthcare systems do not have the same degree of need.

Yes, you are eligible. Contractual annual leave does not count as a gap in your clinical experience.

You must not have more than 5 weeks annual leave in a given 12 month period.

Provided that you have completed a minimum of 4 years of full time equivalent postgraduate training in O&G you would be eligible to apply. The RCOG MTI application form professional postgraduate experience section asks you to outline your hours of clinical working per week, please indicate here if you are or have been working part time.

When assessing your application the RCOG will look to ascertain if your current practice is sufficient to maintain the knowledge, skills and experience required for GMC registration and may seek further information from you on this.

The application fee will depend on your country of residence at the time you submit your application to the RCOG MTI scheme. To progress your application, ensure your membership record has been updated with your current home address which you can do on your RCOG account .

Please note the application fees are subject to VAT rate of 20%

For more information, please view the RCOG country bandings. 

To ensure the future viability of the MTI scheme the RCOG has introduced an MTI application fee to be paid by all those who submit an application to the MTI scheme whether or not they go on to be shortlisted. This is to cover some of the administration costs associated in processing the MTI applications, running the MTI application assessments and interviews, which are very rigorous and work intensive processes.

The fees the RCOG are introducing do not cover all of the direct and indirect costs of administering and operating the MTI scheme.

The MTI Scheme does not generate a profit and the focus of the scheme remains philanthropic, focused on improving the care of women and girls across the globe.

This contribution towards covering the costs will ensure the MTI scheme is able to deliver on its primary purpose of contributing to the improvement of the quality of healthcare in developing countries.

The application fee is payable by the applicant following submission of their MTI application form and supporting evidence to mti@rcog.org.uk by the application deadline for that MTI applications round. The applicant will be contacted by the MTI Coordinator with details on how to pay and the deadline for making payment within five working days of submitting their application. You must make the payment as soon as is feasible and within four weeks of issue of the fee on your RCOG account.

Please note: If we have not received your payment within four weeks of issue and have not heard from you, your MTI application will be withdrawn and will not go forward for assessment. 

If you are having any difficulties in making the payment by the deadline please contact mti@rcog.org.uk.

RCOG will set up the online payment for the MTI application fee on your RCOG account and contact you by email with instructions on how to pay the fee.

Payment must be made in £ GBP sterling and payment should be made online by credit or debit card.

We cannot accept payment by instalments, in local currencies or payment by cheque or cash.

We regret RCOG cannot provide any funding or grants for MTI applicants.

No, once we have received your MTI application payment the fee will not subsequently be reimbursed.  This is due to the administrative costs involved in processing applications.

We appreciate that doctors may be unsure as to who should fill in their HoD form if they have not been working in a hospital for a long time or if they do not have a head of department in Obstetrics & Gynaecology. If this is the case, doctors making an application should approach the most senior consultant within their department who is overseeing their training and ask for them to complete the HoD form and submit it to mti@rcog.org.uk directly. This consultant should not also be asked to provide a reference for the doctor.

If you have completed 4 years of postgraduate training, you can apply online for your training to be assessed by the Examination Department.

You must allow up to 4 weeks for your AoT application to be processed. The time is needed to allow for procedures such as application screening, verification of certificates, verification of training posts and authorisation of the final approval letter.

If you have still not heard from the Examination Department within 4 weeks of submitting your online application, please email exams@rcog.org.uk.

You must obtain your AoT approval letter from the Examinations Department before the MTI deadline, to include in your MTI application. We are unable to accept late applications.

Your AoT approval letter must be included in your MTI application bundle, for the application to be considered by the assessment panel.

For any non O&G posts the RCOG will require official proof in the form of a statement on letter headed paper from either HR or the Head of Department at that organization confirming the title of post, start and end dates and medical specialty/specialties worked in. This must come from a work email address, we cannot accept proof sent in from a personal email address. It should also include a telephone number in case the RCOG need to call to find out more information.

This proof will have to be sent directly to the RCOG by that organization by the deadline for the close of MTI applications. We cannot accept this proof if sent in or forwarded on by the applicant doctor.

Any periods stated as working in a non O&G role for which official proof meeting the above specifications is not provided by the applications deadline will result in an automatic rejection of your application.

Yes, many MTI doctors come with their families. They can come on a dependent visa. You should contact the UKVI (UK Visas and Immigration) for more information.

We welcome applications from those who were not successful last year. However, you must submit an entirely new application and references. You can resubmit your IELTS / OET certificate if it is going to be in-date and you achieved the correct score, passport copy if valid until end of 2025 and AoT.

If you have sat the exam before the MTI 2025 application deadline and are awaiting your test results you will need to submit evidence with your application that you have sat the exam which must include the date you sat the exam. An official email from the exams board will be accepted. If you are unable to sit the exam before the applications deadline you will not be eligible to apply in the MTI 2025 round and will need to wait until the following year.

If you sat the exam before the close of applications and are awaiting the results you will need to send us your test results by Tuesday 17 December 2024. If your certificate is not currently available an official email from the examinations board detailing your score will be accepted in place of the certificate. Unfortunately, we cannot accept anything else.

If we do not receive the score by this deadline or if you do not meet the minimum scoring thresholds in a single exams sitting your MTI application will be rejected.

Note we cannot accept results which do not match with the date of the exam diet provided on your proof of examination submitted with your MTI application.

Successful MTI candidates are matched with available posts by order of respective ranking as and when placement posts are received.

If however, for serious personal/family reasons you wish to be placed in a certain region or hospital around UK, please state it on your application form in the ‘Further Information’ box at the end of the document.

We may be able to consider such requests, but please note that this will not always be possible and it will depend on many factors.

It will not be possible to request this after you have been provisionally matched with a hospital, therefore please include such request on your MTI Application Form.

Candidates do not need to organise an interview by their IRC Chair as part of the applications process. Only those candidates whose applications are successfully shortlisted by the assessment panel in  December will be required to organise a panel interview led by the IRC Chair. Shortlisted candidates will be contacted by email in February 2025 with further information.

Yes. The RCOG has a reasonable adjustments policy for the MTI selection interviews. To apply under the policy please email MTI@rcog.org.uk along with your supporting evidence, full name and college number. Please specify in your email exactly what adjustments you require. Please notify the MTI Office as soon as possible and no later than four weeks before the date of the MTI selection interview to guarantee that we are able to organise these.

You will need to cover the fee for the GMC application for full GMC registration and you will also need to cover the tier 5 visa application fee (also applicable for any dependent visas). 

Also, take into account that when you move to the UK you may have to arrange your accommodation and sustain yourself for a month until you receive your first salary.

At present MTI trainees must pay the healthcare surcharge, also known as the Immigration Health Surcharge. This will be reimbursed subsequently; it is currently charged at the point of making the tier 5 visa application and you then can reclaim once working in the UK every 6 months. Read more on Gov.UK about getting an immigration health surcharge refund if you work in health and care.

The RCOG receives in excess of 100 applicant doctors applications each MTI round.  We score the highest scoring applicants who move forward to the interview selection process.

At interview candidates will need to meet the minimum scoring thresholds to pass the interview and receive an overall panel recommendation to go through to the final MTI waitlist. 

30 - 35 candidates are waitlisted in each MTI application round.

Trusts who have sufficient training capacity and wish to take an MTI trainee will apply to the RCOG to host an MTI trainee and pay a fee to RCOG. All placement applications go through a rigorous assessment process by the MTI committee to ensure the Trust meets with the RCOG minimum MTI standards of training and education as part of the quality assurance of MTI training. 

The number of posts received from Trusts is dependent on a number of variable factors including Trust budgets, training capacity following national recruitment and local workforce staffing levels. 

RCOG is unable to predict post numbers and cannot guarantee those waitlisted following interview will be matched for a post. Applicants should only proceed with an MTI application on this understanding. RCOG carries out the MTI selection process in good faith aiming to place as many applicant doctors for MTI training in the UK each round as is possible.

The average number of MTI doctors placed per year is currently 27.

The matching fee will depend on the country of residence at the time you are matched for the MTI post. Ensure your membership record has been updated with your current home address which you can do on the RCOG website.

Please note the matching fees are subject to VAT at 20% rate.

You can view the RCOG country bandings here: https://www.rcog.org.uk/membership/country-bandings/.

The GMC will have a separate fee for their application and you will also need to cover the visa fees. Also, take into account that when you move to the UK you may have to arrange your accommodation and sustain yourself for a month until you receive your first salary. Other expenditure will include the NHS healthcare surcharge (although this will be reimbursed once you start your training in the UK) for yourself and any dependents and an indemnity insurance (which is highly recommended for doctors practising in the UK). More information on relocation fees can be found in the Academy of Medical Royal College’s Relocation Guide (PDF). All MTI trainees will also need to join the Trainees Register when they arrive in the UK to get access to the Training ePortfolio and eLearning resources.

To ensure the future viability of the MTI scheme the College has introduced a matching fee for those successfully matched for an MTI training post through the scheme to cover some of the administration costs involved in placing doctors, to include administering the GMC registration and obtaining the CoS for the visa, as well as the work involved in supporting them throughout the 2 years of training including administering the MTI events programmes, ARC, buddying scheme and other QA projects.

The RCOG MTI Office has a responsibility to support the quality of training, education and assurance processes to ensure that this period of training and experience in the UK is as useful as possible for overseas doctors and the fees also contribute towards this work including free to attend induction event and materials and annual meeting events.

By introducing a small fee the College can secure a greater package of support and ultimately improve the quality of MTI participant’s time in training within the UK.

The matching fee is only payable if and when you are successfully shortlisted for MTI and matched for an MTI training post in the UK in the MTI 2025 round. You must make the payment as soon as is feasible and within 4 weeks of issue of the fee on your RCOG account.

Please note: Until payment has been received, we cannot start with processing your post, which includes GMC sponsorship and issue of CoS for the visa.

If we haven’t received your payment within 4 weeks of issue and haven’t heard from you we will assume you no longer wish to pursue the MTI training post, the offer will be withdrawn and matched with another candidate on the MTI waiting list.

If you are having any difficulties in making the payment by the deadline please contact mti@rcog.org.uk to discuss this as soon as possible.

Being pregnant does not disqualify you from applying for the MTI scheme. However, you will need to consider a few issues.

While all NHS staff will be eligible for maternity leave, pay during maternity leave is dependent on duration of service. To be eligible for occupational maternity pay (OMP), the member of staff should have worked for the NHS for 52 weeks and for statutory maternity pay (SMP), should have worked for the current employer for 26 weeks before the start of the 24th week of pregnancy. Hence, a trainee that is pregnant at the time of starting their placement will not be eligible for maternity pay. You must therefore consider the financial implications of being resident in the UK without a regular income during this period of maternity leave.

In addition, as the MTI placement is for 2 years and the tier 5 visa cannot be extended beyond this time, prolonged periods of absence is likely to adversely impact on the training that the MTI doctor will receive during their placement.

If you are pregnant and are considering applying for the MTI scheme, you may choose to defer your application to a subsequent year. If having applied and being successful in obtaining a placement, you then find yourself to be happily pregnant, please liaise with the RCOG MTI office who will be able to offer individualised advice.

The RCOG will set up the online payment of the matching fee on your RCOG account and contact you by email with instructions on how to pay the fee.

Payment must be made in £ GBP sterling and payment should be made online by credit or debit card.

We cannot accept payment by instalments, payment in local currencies or payment by cheque or cash.

The GMC require all references to be received within 3 months of issuing the SRC for GMC sponsorship. As such the MTI Office will need to go back directly to your original referees / HoD referee to obtain a declaration from them that the references they provided in support of your initial application remain unchanged or to request they complete a fresh reference for you if there are any changes from the information provided by them in the original reference. You may wish to notify your referees and HoD of this process so they anticipate these forms and ensure they will complete asap. They must return the declaration / updated reference directly to MTI@rcog.org.uk.

If you have changed jobs since you completed and submitted your initial MTI application then we will require a new additional reference from your current HoD. Please note this on the declaration form and provide a contact email for the HoD so we can follow up directly with them.

The HoD needs to return the reference directly to MTI@rcog.org.uk.

We regret the RCOG cannot provide any funding or grants for MTI applicants.

In some countries, employers or Home Offices request doctors to submit a letter stating they have been selected for two years to join the O&G training in the UK via RCOG.

We are able to issue such letter if necessary on an individual request. If you need this document, please e-mail MTI with following details:

• full name
• country you are coming from
• name and address of the Trust you are joining in the UK
• estimated start date.

You should receive the letter within 5-7 working days.

I have passed the Part 3 exam since I applied for the MTI Scheme

Since the primary focus of MTI training is getting the necessary exposure for passing the Part 3 exams, we ask that you notify the RCOG MTI Office at mti@rcog.org.uk if you have passed the Part 3 exam since making your initial MTI application. 

Once you are matched for a post and have accepted the placement offer you will be send a declarations form to complete in 5 working days. This is to confirm that you still meet all of the eligibility criteria for MTI and GMC registration and notify of any changes since making you application e.g. if you have changed jobs.

To be eligible for the RCOG MTI Scheme you must not have passed the Part 3 exam. This applies from the time of application for MTI through to when you are matched for an MTI post if successfully waitlisted. If you do pass the Part 3 exam whilst on the wait list or after being matched for an MTI post please notify the RCOG MTI Office straight away. If you attempt the Part 3 but do not pass then you would still be eligible.

The RCOG  as your sponsoring body will approve your online MTI Application form as soon as we receive and check through the completed online MTI Application form which will be completed and submitted by your Trust and esigned by HR and your Educational Supervisor. Once the MTI Application form is approved by the RCOG it will then go to the e Academy of Royal Medical Colleges who will process the online form and issue your CoS for the tier 5 visa via the RCOG as sponsoring body.

The time taken to process this will be determined mainly by the speed at which hospitals are able to complete and submit the online MTI Application form. This may vary depending on the individual trust.

The MTI unit is extremely busy and unable to answer all of the individual queries regarding application and assessment. However, we will make sure to contact the candidates when necessary and to provide all of the needed information. After submitting your application and making sure it is complete you should wait for us to contact you. You will not receive a confirmation of a receipt of your application. If your application is complete and you are eligible, your application will be taken forward to the Assessment Panel in January following your application. You will be contacted about the outcome of the assessment only if you are shortlisted for the interview stage of the process.

After your successful application is matched with a UK hospital, you will be informed. At this point you will be provisionally matched and we will put you in touch with the hospital. Depending on the hospital’s preference, you may be asked to schedule an online interview with them. It is yours and hospital's responsibility to undertake this process and the MTI office does not get involved in this part of the process. We will wait for the hospital to let us know whether they are happy to proceed with offering you a post following interview. Should you be successful, we will send you an e-mail with next steps you need to follow. Should the hospital reject your application we will obtain constructive feedback from them and will try our best to allocate you to another hospital, if vacancies are still available at that time.

Later in the process, we will assist you with the GMC application and make sure your application for the Certificate of Sponsorship for your visa is processed as soon as possible, depending on when we collect all of the paperwork from your hospital.
The RCOG MTI will not reply to individual queries unless they are not answered on our website. Please read all of the instructions available on different sections of this website as well as the instructions we send you very carefully.

Trusts offering placements for MTI doctors have to ensure that there is spare training capacity locally before applying for an MTI trainee to be placed in their units. Only posts with sufficient educational and training content which are signed off by the Deanery will be considered by the MTI scheme as suitable. Posts have to meet strict criteria and be approved by the RCOG MTI Officer and RCOG MTI Regional Champion as suitable for MTI training posts as part of the quality assurance processes of MTI.

Some posts (e.g. speciality doctor posts) are service focused or do not have sufficient training content and therefore are not considered suitable for the MTI scheme.

Candidates for the MTI scheme should not directly contact trusts in order to obtain employment. Candidates found to be directly contacting trusts for employment will be disqualified from the process and will not be placed.

If for any reasons you wish to withdraw your MTI application/are unable to join the MTI scheme please email mti@rcog.org.uk as soon as possible. We need to know in order to update our records and fill all of the posts that are being offered.

We appreciate that it can be worrying not to hear from us for a long time. Please be assured that we will contact you as soon as it is feasible and you will be provided with all of the necessary information in time. We kindly ask you to be patient even if you have not been contacted for a long time – we are working on it.

We will contact those shortlisted but not successfully-placed in the scheme in mid-October to advise they have not been successful in this round. If they still meet all the eligibility criteria for the scheme they are welcome to reapply for the following year.

Please read the FAQs for doctors: stages of the MTI process below, which explains in more detail what you should do in different stages of the MTI process. We invite you to revisit this page whilst going through the MTI process.

The Academy's point of reference is the World Bank's income countries, with those classed as low income (LI) and lower-income (LMI) countries given high priority status.

Read more on the AoMRC website here: https://www.aomrc.org.uk/medical-training-initiative/prospective-applicants/

To set up your e-portfolio as an MTI, you must either be a UK Associate Member or register join the Trainees Register For any queries contact ePortfolio@rcog.org.uk.

We understand that relocating to a different country and working under a different system can be stressful. Please allow yourself the first few weeks/months to adapt. However, if you feel that you struggle for a long period of time and it does not seem to change, please visit our page which outlines what the RCOG can do to support you and what steps you should follow before you write to us.

Should you wish to resign from the MTI post, please let us know as soon as possible and we will process the necessary documentation. Please do not leave your post without first notifying the RCOG.

Those leaving the scheme without completing the full 24 months will need to undertake an exit interview with the MTI Office as part of the College's quality assurance of the scheme.

The RCOG’s expectation is that trainees will complete the full 24 months of training and the MTI Office will not issue an end of MTI training certificate to those who do not complete the full duration of MTI training.

Trusts incur substantial costs in hosting MTI Trainees (£3,000 per placement post fee and average cost of induction for IMG is £2,100), so if an MTI Doctor leaves without completing the full 24 months this will impact on the long term viability of the scheme for future IMGs.

The MTI scheme matches trainees with trusts that have offered training placements under the scheme. It is intended that trainees stay in the same trust for the entire 2 years of the placement. Occasionally, the trainee may move to another hospital within the same deanery. Such a move will be agreed by the trust and the deanery and communicated to the RCOG, AoMRC and GMC.

In rare circumstances, the trainee may decide to resign the MTI placement in order to return to their country of origin for personal or professional reasons. While this is regrettable, we recognise that this may be due to circumstances beyond your control.

However, moving from the MTI placement to another job in the UK during the 2 years of the placement is strongly discouraged. The MTI scheme is designed to provide overseas doctors with structured training in the UK, which may not be provided by a non-training post.

Although MTI trainees do not contribute financially to the scheme, individual hospitals have to pay a placement fee (currently £3000/ placement) to the RCOG for each trainee that is allocated to them, which helps to cover the cost of administering the scheme.

If a trainee resigns from the MTI scheme to take up alternative employment in the UK, the employing trust may choose to recover the costs of the placement from the trainee.

The revised O&G Curriculum 2024 will launch in August 2024. You can read more on the Curriculum 2024 hub. The RCOG strongly recommends MTI trainees to apply for SITMs only once they have passed their Part 3 exam and have completed the RCOG MTI Training Matrix competencies as these are the main focus of MTI training. The primary aim of the programme is to pass MRCOG. If the opportunity arises that MTIs can undertake a SITM they need to liaise with their Educational Supervisor/College Tutor and RCOG MTI Regional Champion to select suitable SITMs which can reasonably be completed within the remaining time of their visa. Approval to register for SITMs is dependent on training opportunities available within the region as trainees on the national training programme have priority. It should be noted that the tier 5 visa cannot be extended beyond the 2 years to facilitate completion of SITMs.

Current MTIs should stay on the ATSMs if they have already started these and are due to complete their MTI training by August 2026 as per the transition period. If your MTI training is due to finish after August 2026 and you have already started an ATSM please get in touch with the MTI Office for further individualised guidance.

No, after the implementation of Curriculum 2024 on 7 August 2024, you will no longer be able to register for ATSMs and will have to register for SITMs.

MTI trainees can register for SIPMs as outlined in the SIPM registration process. SIPMs support trainees to develop professional skills in the field of clinical research, medical education and leadership and management above the skills required for the core curriculum. It should be noted that the tier 5 visa cannot be extended beyond the 2 years to facilitate completion of SIPMs.

If you submitted a completed application for the MTI within the deadline, it will be forwarded to the Assessment Panel. The Assessment usually takes place in January (however the RCOG reserves the right to change the date of assessment should it be necessary).

Collecting the results and finalising the list of successful MTI candidates can be a lengthy process, so please note that there is no fixed date by which you should hear from us. The selected applicants will be ranked according to the assessment scores and put on the placement list.

We will only be able to inform you about the outcome when we have an available post that we can offer you.

We strive to contact all of the successful candidates early enough so that they are ready to start work in the Summer/Autumn.

We will advise all waitlisted candidates by mid-October if they have not been successfully matched for a post.

If you know someone who applied for the MTI has been contacted by us earlier, it does not necessarily mean you were unsuccessful. We will be in touch with you at the most appropriate and feasible time.

We accept placement post requests from hospitals from April through to September. As these posts come through they will be reviewed, approved and then matched with an MTI applicant in order of ranking. Once we have provisionally matched the post with an MTI applicant, we send the application pack to the hospital for review. The hospital can then either choose to offer a placement post subject to performance at interview (conditional offer) or offer a placement post outright (unconditional offer).

Therefore, if you have not heard from us, it may be that your application has been sent to a hospital, and we are awaiting their decision.

A delay may also occur if a hospital decided to withdraw the placement offer for any reason. In this case, we will attempt to place you somewhere else.

We ask you to be patient, and please be reassured that you will be informed as soon as we have further information.

Once a hospital advises they would like to offer a conditional placement, RCOG MTI office will email the applicant copying in the hospital consultant and HR contact, to advise you accordingly. You should respond to this email if you wish to accept the conditional offer and liaise directly with the hospital to set up the date/time for interview.

Interviews should take place within 10 working days and the hospital will then advise MTI Office as to the outcome following interview. If accepted following interview we will send you a formal offer, if you accept this we will then send you the ‘Next Steps’ outlining what you need to do. If the hospital does not offer a post following interview the MTI Office will obtain constructive feedback on your interview performance and share with the MTI applicant within 10 working days of the interview. In this case, we will attempt to place you somewhere else provided the placement deadline has not expired.

If you are matched with a hospital and subsequently receive a placement offer, we would expect you to accept this unless there are serious personal/family/career development reasons not to do so. If this is the case, please contact the MTI Office as soon as possible to discuss your concerns and ensure we can offer this placement to another doctor on the waiting list if appropriate. Please note that if you do not accept an offer and there are not legitimate grounds for this, the RCOG will not be able to offer you another placement under the MTI scheme.

Applicants can only defer the start of their MTI placement where there are extenuating circumstances and the deferral is subject to the agreement of the hospital making the placement offer.

This process is governed by the RCOG MTI Extenuating Circumstances Policy

Please note that if there are not extenuating circumstances and the hospital does not agree to defer the start date, the RCOG will not be able to offer the applicant another placement under the MTI scheme.

If you have any queries contact the RCOG MTI Office MTI@rcog.org.uk

Once you register with the GMC online and pay the full registration fee, the GMC will send you an email with the list of documents you are required to send within 28 days.

One of the documents listed is the Sponsorship Registration Certificate (SRC) from an authorised sponsor (RCOG). This document will be issued for you and we will forward this directly to the GMC, copying you into the email. You will then hear from the GMC about next steps within 2 weeks of submitting all of the required evidence. Please note that the GMC now offer a digital ID check so that you can complete this online before your arrival to the UK and no longer need to travel to the GMC offices in London/Manchester to complete this. Please follow all of the GMC’s instructions. Once you have completed your digital ID check your GMC registration will then be issued ahead of your arrival to the UK.

If you have questions regarding GMC registration, please contact the GMC directly. The RCOG is not qualified to offer this advice and does not have access to the forms. GMC registration is the applicant's responsibility.

Once you receive this email from the GMC, please send a copy of the email to mti@rcog.org.uk

Your next step will be applying for the tier 5 visa. In order to apply for the visa, you will need a Certificate of Sponsorship (CoS). The visa sponsorship is issued by the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges (AoMRC).

Once we receive the CoS from the Academy then we will forward this to you by email for you to check

In order to receive the Certificate of Sponsorship, the Academy requires a completed MTI Application form along with supporting evidence (data protection consent form signed by the doctor, copy of doctors passport, evidence of GMC registration and Deanery approval of the post) from your Trust approved by RCOG as the sponsoring body. These online forms are completed and submitted by your employer (s), signed by HR and your Educational Supervisor and then come to the RCOG for checking and approval. It can take a substantial amount of time for the hospitals to complete and submit these. Please be patient and reassured that we are doing everything we can to speed this process up. We ask you to please refrain from contacting us about the CoS during this time, as we are not able to reply to these queries.

Once we have received the completed online MTI Application form and have approved this you will receive an email notification from the AoMRC. There is nothing you are required to do at this stage. Once we receive the CoS from the Academy then we will forward this to you by email for you to check.

Before applying for the Tier 5 visa using the CoS, please check it for any spelling mistakes or errors, and ensure all details are correct and match with those in your current passport. If you spot a mistake, please let us know by emailing mti@rcog.org.uk and we will request the CoS be amended accordingly. We are not responsible for errors on your visa and we will not be able to help if you submit an incorrect CoS.

Once the CoS is corrected, please use this to apply for the visa. For any questions regarding visa application please contact the visa advisor in your country or UKVI. The RCOG is not qualified to give visa advice.