How will my application be processed?
- Once we receive your initial email, we’ll process the request within five working days. You’ll receive an email from us with guidance on how to submit your application and an attached application form.
- After we receive your application form, you’ll be assigned a Specialist Applications Adviser, who’ll review your evidence and prepare your application to be submitted to the relevant Royal College or Faculty.
- Once your application has been submitted to the Royal College or Faculty for assessment, it can take up to three months to issue a decision.
From our experience, applications take between five and six months to process from start to finish.
Step five: PSV
Samples of your evidence will be prepared, and we will ask your verifiers to register for our secure document sharing site GMC Connect. Once your verifiers have registered and their accounts have been approved, the sample of your evidence will be shared with them.
We will then ask that they respond to confirm two statements; that they verified the evidence and that it is an accurate record of your experience.
Step six: Application finalisation
Your application is deemed complete when we’ve:
- received all of your evidence, including any extra information we requested
- verified a sample of your evidence directly with your verifiers
- received all of your structured reports
Step seven: Evaluation of your evidence
We’ll then send it for evaluation by the relevant royal college, faculty or associate. We’ll let you know when we’ve done this. From the point we send your application to the royal college or faculty, it takes up to three months until we give you your final decision. We’ll let you know if it’s going to take us longer than three months.
Step eight: Decision
We get a recommendation from the royal college, faculty or associates on whether your application should be successful. However, this is not binding on the GMC, the final decision on whether to enter your name on the Specialist Register is ours to make.
Help us complete your application quickly
Your application can take between three to six months before it’s complete and can be sent for evaluation.
To help us process your application quickly you should:
- submit any additional evidence within the deadline set by your adviser
- speak to your referees before you give us their names and make sure their contact information is up to date
- don’t submit your online application until you’re ready and your evidence is prepared. The main reason applications are unsuccessful is because they are incomplete and the evidence requested in our guidance hasn’t been provided.
Contacting us
If you have any queries, you can get in touch with us by calling 0161 923 6602 or by emailing portfolio@gmc-uk.org
Once your application is assigned to a specialist applications adviser, they will be best placed to help you. We’ll update you by email know when major milestones in the application process have been passed.
We recommend that you contact us to discuss your application before you submit it.
What happens to my evidence?
Hard copy evidence
Any evidence you send to us that we don’t accept will be returned to you. We’ll also return all the hard copy evidence we accepted after we’ve issued your final decision.
It's important that your GMC registered address is up to date so we can safely return your hard copy evidence to you.
Electronic evidence
Any evidence you uploaded electronically that we don’t accept will be returned to you to review and remove via GMC Online.
