What NMC registration costs from overseas
Written and checked against the NMC’s published sources by The NMCMATE editorial team.Last checked .
The NMC publishes both a breakdown and a total, so this is one of the few numbers in the whole process that nobody has to estimate. It is £1,170 in mandatory fees from the first application to your PIN, paid in four instalments to three different organisations over a period that depends mostly on your documents. Here is each one, when it falls due, and the things that are genuinely part of the cost of registering while sitting outside that total.
The four fees, in the order you pay them
- Qualification evaluation, £140, paid to NMC. Not refundable, and paid before you know whether you will be asked to sit anything.
- Test of Competence part one, the CBT, £83, paid to Pearson VUE. Sat at a test centre in your own country, so this is the one stage you can reach without travelling.
- Test of Competence part two, the OSCE, £794, paid to your allocated test centre. Sat in person in the UK, which is why its real cost is never only the fee.
- Registration onto the register, £153, paid to NMC. Paid at the end, once both parts are passed, and what gets you your PIN.
| Fee | Until 30 September | From 1 October | Paid to |
|---|---|---|---|
| Qualification evaluation | £140 | £167 | NMC |
| Computer-based test | £83 | £83 | Pearson VUE |
| OSCE | £794 | £794 | Your test centre |
| Registration onto the register | £153 | £182 | NMC |
| Total | £1,170 | £1,226 |
Where candidates come unstuck
- Budgeting the exam fees and forgetting the other two. The CBT and the OSCE come to £877 between them, which is a little under three quarters of the total, so the £140 at the start and the £153 at the end are easy to leave out and come to nearly £293.
- Assuming the evaluation fee comes back if the application stops. It does not. The £140 is not refundable and it is paid before you know whether you will be asked to sit anything.
- Reading the total as the cost of getting registered. It is the cost of the NMC's own process. An English language test is roughly £200 to £310 on top, paid to the test provider, and nothing in that figure covers a visa, a flight or the weeks of rent before a first UK pay date.
- Not budgeting for a resit. The NMC's own note on the total is that it could be higher if you need to resit, and the published figures say fewer than half of first OSCE sittings pass, at £794 a full sitting. A resit is the single most likely reason this number turns out to be wrong for you.
- Working from a total somebody quoted you months ago. The NMC is raising every registration fee by 19.2% on 1 October 2026, its first increase in eleven years. The evaluation fee goes from £140 to £167 and the registration fee from £153 to £182, taking the total to about £1,226. The two exam fees are not part of it, because neither is paid to the NMC.
Common questions
- How much does it cost to register with the NMC from overseas?
- £1,170 in mandatory fees on the Test of Competence route, which is what the NMC itself publishes: an evaluation fee, the two exam fees and the registration fee. An English language test and anything to do with travel or a visa is on top of that.
- Are the NMC fees going up?
- The NMC is raising every registration fee by 19.2% on 1 October 2026, its first increase in eleven years. The evaluation fee goes from £140 to £167 and the registration fee from £153 to £182, taking the total to about £1,226. The two exam fees are not part of it, because neither is paid to the NMC.
- Is the first fee refundable if I do not continue?
- No. The £140 qualification evaluation fee is explicitly non-refundable, and it is the first thing you pay. It is worth being reasonably confident about your documents and your English evidence before paying it.
- Does that total include IELTS or OET?
- No, and it should not, because that money goes to the test provider rather than to the NMC. Budget roughly £200 to £310 for it depending on which test you sit and where you sit it.
- What do the two exams cost on their own?
- £877. You can read that straight off the NMC's fee schedule rather than adding it up: a qualification that meets the EU requirements for automatic recognition takes no Test of Competence, and the difference between the two published totals is exactly the two exams.
- What happens to the cost if I fail an exam?
- It rises by a resit fee, and the two exams price a resit differently. The CBT charges per part, so failing numeracy alone is the cheapest way to fail. The OSCE charges a reduced fee when you are resitting 7 stations or fewer and the full £794 above that.
- Which fee do I pay first?
- The £140 evaluation fee, before the CBT. The CBT is the first stage you can actually sit, and you can sit it in your own country, which makes it the one part of the route that does not wait on being in the UK.
Where these figures come from
- NMC: information for internationally trained applicants, the registration route and its fees, link checked 8 October 2026
- NMC: first increase in registration fees for 11 years, the fee increase taking effect on 1 October 2026, link checked 8 October 2026
Practise for it
Questions weighted the way the NMC weights the real paper, with a worked explanation on every one. Ten free a day, no card needed.
This page is one part of the exam. Work through the whole thing with the NMC CBT study guide.