National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) score is valid for three years for Indian students wanting to pursue undergraduate medical course abroad.

Clearing the long-existing confusion about the validity of NEET score, a notification by the Medical Council of India — Board of Governors stated: Result of NEET shall be valid for a period of three years from the date of declaration of result, entitling a candidate to pursue MBBS or equivalent medical course including pre-medical/language course, if any, followed by MBBS or equivalent medical course.

About 7,000 students opt for foreign medical degree from India annually.

The notification further said that these regulations may be called the Eligibility Requirement for Taking Admission in an Undergraduate Medical Course in a Foreign Medical Institution (Amendment) Regulation, 2019.

Meanwhile, these latest amendments are to come into force from March 14, the date of publication in the official Gazette.

Last March the MCI, in its notification said: Indian Citizens/Overseas Citizen of India intending to obtain primary medical qualification from any medical institution outside India, on or after May 2018, shall have to mandatorily qualify the NEET for admission to MBBS course besides fulfilling the eligibility criteria for admission to the MBBS course prescribed in the Regulations on Graduate Medical Education, 1997.

The MCI got 18,383 applications in 2017-18 against 10,555 applications in the previous year. The Council issued 14,118 eligibility certificates in 2017-18, compared to 8,737 in 2016- 2017.