Colombia: registration without a licensing exam

Medical and health education in Colombia

Medicine in Colombia is a six-year degree (usually twelve semesters) that includes a final-year internship (internado). Roughly sixty universities offer it, and all teaching is in Spanish. A programme needs a qualified registration (registro calificado) from the Ministry of Education, and it can seek high-quality accreditation from the National Accreditation Council (CNA). The Colombian Association of Medical Faculties (ASCOFAME) is the faculties’ professional body. Nursing and dentistry are generally four- to five-year degrees, and pharmacy is around four to five.

For medicine, nursing, dentistry and some other professions, the law has required a period of social service (servicio social obligatorio, the ’rural year’) after graduation. Doctors must then be entered in the national register of health professionals (ReTHUS), run by the Ministry of Health, before they can practise. The national Saber Pro exit exam run by ICFES is a degree requirement, not a licence, and there is no national licensing exam for graduates. Specialty training is a separate, competitive step run by each university. The rules on social service have been revised in the past, so confirm the current obligation with the Ministry of Health.

A country where the exam you hear about is not a licence

Search for "Colombian medical licensing exam" and you will find Saber Pro. It is a nationwide test, taken by final-year university students in all fields, and it is easily mistaken for a licence. It is not. Saber Pro is run by ICFES (the national assessment institute) as a graduation requirement and quality indicator. Passing or failing it does not decide whether you may practise. What decides it is a qualification the Ministry recognises and an entry in ReTHUS.

That makes Colombia a country where multiple-choice licensing practice has little regulatory value, while the practical hurdles are administrative: degree recognition, the social service year and document validation.

Who needs a licensing exam in Colombia

No one. The distinction that matters is between locally trained and foreign-trained professionals.

Doctors

A Colombian-trained doctor completes the degree and registers in ReTHUS. The compulsory social service year (Servicio Social Obligatorio, often called SSO or "año rural") is a defining part of early careers, and places are allocated by lottery-style or merit-based systems that change over time. Check the current rules for how places are assigned.

Foreign-trained doctors go through convalidación, the Ministry of Education's process for recognising foreign higher-education titles. The Ministry checks the institution, programme length and content. It may request additional evidence, and it can decline recognition. Only after convalidación can you be entered in ReTHUS. Doctors also have to complete the social service in line with current rules, which can apply to foreign graduates too.

1. Legalise your diploma (apostille or consular legalisation) and prepare certified Spanish translations.
2. Apply for convalidación with the Ministerio de Educación.
3. Complete any requirements set in the resolution, such as social service where applicable.
4. Register in ReTHUS with the Ministerio de Salud y Protección Social.

Nurses and midwives

Colombia does not treat midwifery as an independent profession. Birth care is delivered by doctors and by nurses, and a foreign-trained midwife usually has to apply for recognition as a nurse or another profession the system knows, if it will recognise the qualification at all. This is a real difficulty: ask the Ministry in writing which title it will assign before you start paperwork. Nurses follow the same convalidación and ReTHUS route as doctors without the social service year described above.

Pharmacists, dentists and physiotherapists

All three follow degree, then ReTHUS, with convalidación for foreign titles. Professional colleges exist for each field and may offer advice, but they do not run entry exams. Dentistry and pharmacy are widely taught and widely recognised within Latin America, though recognition is still decided case by case.

The practical timeline for a foreign-trained professional

Most of the time in Colombia is spent waiting for paperwork, not studying. Legalising a diploma in your home country, translating it, submitting it for convalidación and receiving a resolution can take many months, and the Ministry may ask for course syllabi or evidence of clinical hours. Start with the documents that depend on third parties: your university (transcripts, syllabus, certificate of clinical rotations) and your home-country apostille authority.

Two points often surprise candidates. First, convalidación recognises the degree, not the person; it does not by itself allow work. ReTHUS entry follows it. Second, the resolution can impose conditions, such as additional subjects or an evaluation by a Colombian university. If that happens, the university sets its own assessment, which can include written tests. The format is not standard, so ask the university for its syllabus and past format.

Keep copies of every filing and the reference numbers given by the ministry portals. Where a step stalls, written follow-up through the formal petition channel (derecho de petición) is a recognised way to obtain an answer in Colombia.

Language, and what to practise

All processes are in Spanish. If you want multiple-choice practice, the best use is not a Colombian licence but the exams of neighbouring countries. Colombians are among the foreign groups sitting EUNACOM in Chile, and many Colombian graduates look at ENAM in Peru or CACES in Ecuador. Within Colombia, residency selection is run by individual universities rather than by a single national test, so entrance exams vary.

Exam comparison

Where to check the rules

Use the websites of the Ministerio de Salud y Protección Social, the Ministerio de Educación and ICFES. TriagePass is independent of all of them.

Last reviewed October 2026