What we know about licensing exams for Afghan doctors, dentists and nurses

Medical and health education in Afghanistan

Medical training in Afghanistan is a long, integrated doctor of medicine course, reported at around seven years including a final clinical year. Kabul University of Medical Sciences and other public and private faculties offer it. Instruction is in Dari and Pashto, with English-language textbooks and references widely used. The exact number of institutions varies between sources, so check with the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH).

The distinctive feature is the exit exam. The MoPH, working with the national examination authority, runs a medical licensure exam for graduates, and its official notices now describe rounds of the exam by graduating cohort. Passing it is the route into practice for new graduates.

Nursing, midwifery, pharmacy and dentistry are trained through institutes and faculties under the ministry, but programme lengths and entry rules have changed in recent years. We do not state fixed durations for them here. Eligibility, intake and regulation have all been affected by policy changes since 2021, so treat this section as an orientation and rely on the current MoPH announcement.

This hub is shorter on certainties than most, and that is deliberate. Afghanistan’s health-workforce rules have changed repeatedly in recent years, official pages are patchy, and some of the older material is no longer maintained. We would rather tell you what is confirmed and what is not than invent a blueprint.

What is confirmed, and what is not

Who needs a licensing exam in Afghanistan

• Doctors and dentists: graduates of the faculties of curative medicine and stomatology sit the licensure exam after graduation.
• Nurses and midwives: the Ministry of Public Health is the listed regulator. Historically a midwifery and nursing accreditation and registration system existed. Whether an exam is part of it today is unverified.
• Pharmacists: the Ministry of Public Health and the Afghanistan Food and Drug Authority are the relevant bodies. No exam verified.
• Physiotherapists: the Ministry of Public Health. No exam verified.
• Foreign-trained graduates: no published route was found.

Doctors and dentists: the licensure exam

The Afghanistan Medical Council (AMC) site lists a licence-exam section called Imtihan-e Jawaz-e Faaliyat, with resources and a state-exam registration form. The site states that it is no longer updated, and current information is routed through the Ministry of Public Health. That is why the April 2026 MoPH announcement is the best evidence we have: the exam was administered at Kabul University in a single national round, covering graduates in medicine and stomatology.

What we cannot tell you is the format. Neither the AMC archive nor the announcement gives question numbers, timing or pass marks. Anyone offering you a detailed blueprint for this exam should be asked for the source.

1. Confirm your graduating cohort. The exam is held by solar-year cohort, for example 1404.
2. Follow MoPH announcements. They are posted on the ministry site in English.
3. Register through the channel named in the notice. Use the ministry or the National Examination Authority, not intermediaries.
4. Sit the exam at the stated venue.
5. Apply for the practice licence. Ask which body issues it at present.

Dentists

The AMC licensing remit covers both medicine and dentistry, and the April 2026 announcement named the faculty of stomatology among those examined. A separate dentist-only blueprint has not been located.

Nurses, midwives, pharmacists and physiotherapists

We could not verify a licensing exam for any of these groups in this research pass. That means one of three things: there is none, there is one that is not published online, or the system is in transition. We cannot tell which. The practical advice is simple.

• Ask your training institution which credential employers and NGOs currently accept.
• Check the MoPH website for registration or accreditation notices.
• For pharmacists, also look at the Afghanistan Food and Drug Authority.

How to prepare under uncertainty

Without a published blueprint, preparation should be broad and source-led.

• Work from your own curriculum. The exit exam examines graduates of Afghan faculties, so your faculty syllabus is the closest guide to scope.
• Cover the core clinical disciplines evenly. Internal medicine, surgery, paediatrics, obstetrics and gynaecology, and the basic sciences are the safe base for a medicine graduate. For dental graduates, the equivalent is the core stomatology syllabus.
• Keep records. Retain your results, cohort number and any registration receipts. They will be asked for again.
• Ask the faculty. Previous-year candidates at your faculty know the practical details of venue, timing and documents better than any website.

We have not seen past papers, and we do not reproduce recalled questions on this site. The question writing standards page explains how TriagePass builds original practice items.

One more point on evidence. Several third-party sites publish exam outlines for Afghan licensing. We have not used them, because none cites a ministry document. If you find a published blueprint from MoPH or the National Examination Authority, it should carry a date, an issuing office and a stated cohort year. Without those three, treat it as hearsay.

Exams in Afghanistan at a glance

Language and recognition

Dari and Pashto are the main languages of Afghanistan, and the language of the licensure exam is not stated in what we reviewed. Graduates who plan to work abroad, for instance in Pakistan, the Gulf or Europe, will meet the destination country’s own recognition process, including primary-source verification of documents. That is outside what this hub can promise.

We will update this page as official sources publish more. Until then, read the MoPH site first and treat any exam outline you receive from third parties as unconfirmed.

TriagePass is independent and is not affiliated with the Ministry of Public Health, the Afghanistan Medical Council or the National Examination Authority.

Last reviewed October 2026