General Medical Council
Regulating doctors, ensuring good medical practice
This page is to help doctors who are eligible* to apply for entry onto the Specialist Register or GP Register with a Certificate of Eligibility for Specialist (CESR) or GP Registration (CEGPR) through the Combined Programme.
Once you have started your online application, you will have a period of six months to complete it. It will automatically be closed after this time. Instructions on setting up your online account are given at the end of this guidance.
If you are eligible to apply for entry onto the Specialist Register or GP Register with a CESR or a CEGPR through the Combined Programme your Royal College or Faculty will notify us of your completion of training date during the final year of your training. We will invite you to make your application around four months before your completion of training date.
When your Royal College or Faculty is happy that you will complete your training, they will send us a recommendation. We cannot grant your application and certificate until 10 days before your completion of training date and we must have received both your application and recommendation.
This guidance will take you through the process of completing the application online. If you have not yet received your invitation, you may wish to save this guidance as a favourite and return to it later.
There is more detailed information about these steps on the following pages of this guidance.
On 28 March 2011 Certification applications moved online to our secure web portal GMC Online. This has made it easier to enter your information and pay your fee. You can save your application, come back to it later, and track its progress after submission.
For these reasons, from 31 May 2011 we no longer accept paper application forms.
*If you are not sure if you are reading the right guidance for you, you can check answering a few questions (opens in a new window). (You may have already answered these questions. If you are still unsure, please contact us.)