Stage 03 · Can I work there? · Medical Council of New Zealand
Registering with the Medical Council
Three scopes, a pathway in each, and a sequence from job offer to a meeting in New Zealand before you can practise.
Kettle on. About 10 min
Download the PDF guide15 pages · 2.5 MB
At a glance
General (resident doctors, RMOs, doctors in training), vocational (independent specialists) and special purpose (temporary).
The pathways most international doctors use require one. Your employer completes part of the application.
Your qualifications must be verified at source through EPIC before the Council will start on your file.
A registration meeting after you arrive confirms identity and supervision; only then is registration granted and a practising certificate issued. Most international graduates start under supervision; Australian graduates who completed an internship in Australia, and holders of approved Australasian postgraduate qualifications, may not be required to.
What’s inside
- Understanding the Council
- The three scopes
- General scope: which pathway is yours
- Vocational scope: registering as a specialist
- Primary source verification
- References, English and fitness
- Applying with your employer
- The registration meeting and your practising certificate
- Working under supervision, and progression
- Where people get stuck
- Questions we are asked most
- The checklist — 32 items, tickable
Section 01
Understanding the Council
The Medical Council of New Zealand — Te Kaunihera Rata o Aotearoa — registers doctors under the Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act 2003 and is responsible for their competence, conduct and fitness to practise.
Registration, scope and practising certificate
Registration places you in a scope of practice. A practising certificate lets you work; for international graduates it carries an endorsement naming your approved employment and supervision.
Start with the self-assessment tool
The Council’s online registration self-assessment tool points you to the pathway you may be eligible for.
Section 02
The three scopes
Each scope contains several pathways with their own requirements.
General scope
Preceded by a provisional general period under supervision.
Vocational scope
Permanent, specialist registration. International graduates enter through a provisional vocational period under supervision, then apply for the change of scope.
Special purpose scope
Six categories: locum tenens, teleradiology, visiting expert, postgraduate training, research, and other special purposes such as a disaster or pandemic. Also supervised. Locum tenens, for twelve months or less, is a mainstream clinical route, but none of these leads to a permanent post.
Section 03
General scope: which pathway is yours
Five pathways for doctors who trained outside New Zealand and Australia.
UK and Irish medical graduates
A primary medical degree from the UK or Ireland, with your internship completed there.
Recent experience in one of 29 recognised countries
At least 33 months of clinical practice, at 20 or more hours a week, in the 48 months before you apply, in a similar area of medicine and at a similar level of responsibility to the New Zealand post, plus current full or general registration in one of those systems. General practitioners with a recent postgraduate GP qualification have separate prerequisites.
NZREX Clinical, PLAB 1 and 2, or the AMC exams
Passed within the last five years, plus a job offer as a PGY1 in accredited clinical attachments with an accredited training provider, leading into the two-year prevocational training programme.
PLAB, 12 months of UK practice, full GMC registration
PLAB Parts 1 and 2 passed within the last five years, full GMC general registration, and 12 months of UK practice: Foundation Year 1, FY2 stand-alone, or 12 months in an Approved Practice Setting. Progression also needs ACLS certification within the last 12 months and at least three months’ supervision before your supervisor can recommend you.
AMC examinations and Ahpra registration
Passed the Australian Medical Council examinations and registered with Ahpra.
Section 04
Vocational scope: registering as a specialist
Four pathways.
Approved New Zealand or Australasian qualification
VOC1 if you already hold general scope registration; VOC2 if you do not.
Trained and qualified as a specialist outside New Zealand and Australia
The Council assesses your training and qualifications on their merits, usually with advice from the relevant New Zealand college.
Approved UK, Irish or Australian postgraduate qualification
For specialists intending to work in an approved area of medicine. Prerequisites: an acceptable primary medical qualification; a postgraduate qualification on the Council’s approved list; at least 24 months’ clinical experience at 0.5 FTE or more in the past five years in that area, including 12 months within the last 18, in a comparable health system; and a job offer at consultant or specialist level. The Council states a processing time of 20 working days from a complete application; psychiatry may take longer.
Additional requirements for some specialties
Obstetrics and gynaecology, psychiatry and anatomical pathology carry additional information requirements.
The VOC4 list of approved postgraduate qualifications is a live document; the Council has added chemical pathology, haematology and microbiology. Confirm your qualification and area of medicine are on the current version.
Section 05
Primary source verification
Since November 2017 the Council has required key documents to be verified directly with the institution that issued them, through ECFMG’s EPIC service, now via the MyIntealth portal.
- 1
Create your EPIC account
Through the MyIntealth portal; ECFMG publishes instructions specific to New Zealand applicants.
- 2
Request verification of your primary medical qualification
EPIC contacts your medical school directly.
- 3
Request verification of your postgraduate qualification
If you are applying for a vocational scope.
- 4
Keep the evidence that verification is under way
It goes in with your application.
Section 06
References, English and fitness
Three, on the Council’s referee report form
The Council describes authentic, authoritative and comprehensive references as necessary to its decisions on fitness and competence. They go on form RP6. Who verifies them depends on the scope: normally your prospective employer declares, with evidence, that it has verified them. For provisional vocational and vocational applications the Council contacts the referee directly.
The Council’s English language policy
Every applicant must satisfy the Council that they can comprehend and communicate effectively in English in the medical workplace. The policy sets out the routes and any test requirement; check it before booking.
Health, conduct and competence
A legal requirement on the Council: every applicant must be fit for registration and fit to practise medicine. Disclose anything relevant in full, even matters you consider minor or resolved; non-disclosure is treated more seriously than the underlying matter usually is.
Section 07
Applying with your employer
Applications are made online through the Council’s portal, myMCNZ, with your employer; some documents can only be completed by them.
- 1
Request a PIN and create your myMCNZ account
- 2
Work through the Council’s checklist for your pathway
The Council publishes one for each pathway. Every document it lists, certified where required.
- 3
Your employer completes the approval of position and supervisor form
The Council’s form for your pathway, naming your post and your Council-approved supervisor.
- 4
Submit, with the fee
Fees are on the Council’s forms, fees and checklists page; confirm before you pay. Processing times, published per pathway, run from receipt of a complete application.
- 5
Respond to any request promptly
- 6
Receive your eligibility for registration letter
It confirms for other agencies, Immigration New Zealand among them, that you can be registered, and gives instructions for your registration meeting.
Section 08
The registration meeting and your practising certificate
Every international medical graduate practising in New Zealand for the first time attends a registration meeting.
Bring the information the Council has asked for. The meeting confirms your identity, completes the registration formalities, takes your application for a practising certificate and settles your supervision. For the VOC4 fast-track it takes place within two weeks of your intended start date, once you have arrived in New Zealand. After the meeting and payment for the practising certificate, the Council grants registration in your provisional scope and issues the certificate; allow three days.
Work only within the endorsement and any conditions on the certificate.
Section 09
Working under supervision, and progression
Three rules shape the provisional period.
- 1
Supervision is required
In every provisional general, provisional vocational and special purpose scope, under a Council-approved supervisor.
- 2
Variations before any change
Your practising certificate endorses a specific employment, supervision, position and location. If any of them change, apply for a variation at least 20 working days in advance and wait for approval.
- 3
Progression is applied for, not automatic
Provisional general to general depends on your pathway. Comparable health system and UK general registrant routes: 12 months full-time equivalent, three satisfactory supervision reports covering the nine months immediately before you apply, and your supervisor’s recommendation. Competent Authority pathway for UK and Irish graduates: six months full-time equivalent and two consecutive satisfactory reports. If you have not met them within 12 months you continue under supervision until you have. Provisional vocational to vocational: once you have completed the requirements Council set for you.
Conditions on the general scope
Your general scope is limited to the area of medicine you worked in during the provisional period, unless that was general practice. An unlimited general scope needs six months full-time equivalent of supervised practice in medicine and six months in surgery during your provisional general scope; no more than three months of that medicine may be emergency medicine. In the general scope you are no longer supervised, but you must meet the Council’s recertification requirements through the Inpractice programme or an accredited vocational training programme.
Where people get stuck
Where avoidable delays come from
Verification started late
EPIC runs at the pace of your medical school.
Counting months that do not count
Locum weeks or a different specialty may not meet the 33-of-48-months test.
Assuming the label, not the list
A country you think of as comparable may not be on the Council’s list, which it adds to from time to time; a qualification you think of as approved may not be on the VOC4 list.
Referees left unbriefed
A slow referee is a slow application.
Booking the flight around the offer, not the meeting
Registration is granted after the meeting in New Zealand.
Section 11
The questions we are asked most
I trained in the UK or Ireland. Which pathway is mine?
For general scope, Competent Authority if your primary medical degree and internship were in the UK or Ireland; or UK general registrants if you passed PLAB Parts 1 and 2, completed 12 months of satisfactory UK practice and hold full GMC registration. For specialists, an approved UK or Irish postgraduate qualification may qualify you for the VOC4 fast-track.
What counts as a comparable health system?
The Council’s list, currently 29 countries, is assessed against health system infrastructure, population health outcomes and the medical regulatory framework.
The checklist
Thirty-two items, in the order you will meet them
Ticks are saved on this device only.
01Before you start
Scope, pathway and a job offer — in that order.
02Check the pathway prerequisites
Each pathway has its own tests. These are the ones most international doctors meet.
03Primary source verification — start this first
The Council cannot begin processing until it is under way.
04References, CV and English
The independent evidence.
05Apply with your employer
Some documents can only be completed by them.
06Arrive, meet, register
Registration is confirmed in New Zealand, not before.
07Under supervision, then progression
What the provisional period asks of you.
What next?
Registration is one part of the decision
How we help
We can read it before the Council does
We help you identify the pathway, sequence verification and references, and read the file against the Council’s checklist before you submit. The registration decision rests with the Medical Council.