Can international doctors and nurses sit the CGM and DGM? Eligibility for overseas-registered candidates

Yes, in principle. The Royal College of Physicians opens the Certificate in Geriatric Medicine (CGM) to any statutorily regulated healthcare professional who is registered and in good standing with the relevant regulator, and the written paper can be sat from any suitable location worldwide. The DGM clinical exam that follows is in person in Liverpool, which is where the practicalities start. Here is what the RCP’s pages and regulations say for doctors, nurses and other professionals registered outside the UK, checked on 11 October 2026.

What the eligibility rule actually says

The CGM is open to statutorily regulated healthcare professionals who are currently registered, in good standing with the relevant regulator and have no restrictions on their practice. The RCP verifies registration and good standing itself; if it cannot, the application is withdrawn and the fee refunded in full. The experience requirement is at least two years since qualifying, including at least four months in a setting with a significant number of older people, with producing and implementing care plans for older people forming a large part of that experience.

Two things are not in that wording. It does not say the regulator has to be a UK one, and it does not say the experience has to be in the UK. The RCP’s own list of past candidates (GPs, old age psychiatrists, resident doctors, nurses, pharmacists, physician associates, occupational therapists, physiotherapists and other allied health professionals) is about profession, not country. If you are registered with a medical or nursing council outside the UK, the rule as written includes you, and the regulations below confirm that the RCP expects such candidates.

If you are registered outside the UK

The RCP’s regulations for examination candidates (September 2024) add three points that matter to an international applicant:

• A reference form. Candidates registered outside the UK must supply a reference form from their educational supervisor or line manager. Identify who that is before the application window opens; it closes two weeks after it opens.
• English. The regulations expect English ability roughly equivalent to IELTS 7.5, but no test certificate is required. The paper is written in English for UK practice.
• Verification. The RCP checks your registration with your regulator. Make sure the name and number on the form match your register entry exactly, and that your registration is current on the day you apply, not just the day you sit.

If anything about your registration is unusual (conditions, undertakings, a recent change of regulator), the regulations ask you to declare it by email, and admission is then at the Senior Examiner’s discretion. Doing that before you pay is better than after.

Sitting the CGM from abroad

The CGM is 200 best-of-five questions in four papers of 50, each 90 minutes, delivered online with proctoring software. The RCP says it can be sat from any suitable location worldwide, including at home or at work. There is one sitting in 2027, on Wednesday 24 February, with applications from 14 December 2026 to 18 January 2027 (closing at 11am UK time). Payment is made during the application, by credit or debit card, in pounds. The CGM fee for 2027 is £350.

Practical points for a remote sitting from another country: the exam is on a single UK date, so check the timetable against your time zone the day your login details arrive; the regulations describe monitoring by facial recognition, device monitoring and keystroke analysis with the webcam on throughout, and say that if the webcam or screenshots are not restored within 30 minutes the attempt may be annulled, so a reliable connection is not optional; and the pre-exam steps (software download, face identification calibration) are emailed only after applications close, so there is a short runway. Six hours of examination across four papers is a long day in any time zone.

The DGM means travelling to Liverpool

Passing the CGM makes you eligible for the DGM clinical exam, which is four live stations of 15 minutes at the RCP Assessment Centre at The Spine in Liverpool, run in June and November. For 2027 the fee is £668 a sitting, the June window is 30 March to 12 April for an exam on 1 to 4 June, and the November window is 31 August to 13 September for 2 to 5 November. You have four years from being notified of your CGM pass to pass the DGM, so there is no need to fly in for the first sitting after your result.

Your exam date within the week is allocated after applications close and confirmed in an admission document with a report time and address. Book travel after that arrives. If you need a visa, start early: the regulations state that visa problems do not qualify for a refund, and that absence without notice is recorded as an absence and not refunded.

What the DGM does and does not do for an international career

The CGM and DGM are RCP credentials, developed with the British Geriatrics Society, that evidence knowledge and clinical skills in the care of older people. That is a useful line on a CV anywhere that older-people medicine is valued, and a useful piece of self-assessment before working in a UK system where frailty, multimorbidity and capacity law are daily business.

They are not a route to UK registration. The DGM does not replace PLAB or the UKMLA for doctors, does not stand in for the NMC’s registration process for nurses, and does not satisfy any English-language requirement set by a regulator or employer. It will not by itself secure a job offer or a visa sponsor. If your aim is to work in the NHS, treat the DGM as something to add to a registration plan, not as a substitute for one; our IMG Hub covers the registration routes themselves.

A sensible order

1. Confirm your registration is current and unrestricted, and identify who will complete the reference form.
2. Check your experience against the two-years-plus-four-months rule and write a clear description of your work with older people.
3. Register for the RCP’s CGM email updates, then apply between 14 December 2026 and 18 January 2027.
4. Sort the proctoring setup and your time-zone timetable as soon as the post-application email arrives.
5. Decide on a DGM sitting only after your CGM result on 31 March 2027, and apply for a visa, if you need one, before you book anything.

How this fits the platform

The DGM question bank is written for UK practice, which is what the paper examines: 1,000 best-of-five questions across fourteen modules, with a timed 50-in-90 mock. The revision guide covers the same ground for anyone whose training was in a different system. You can try ten questions free before deciding.

Core Revision is independent and not affiliated with the Royal College of Physicians or the British Geriatrics Society.