china recently announced its decision to ease restrictions on visas for medical students who were stranded in india for over two years now beijing had suspended these visas for foreign students and others at the start of the covid19 pandemic however the announcement does not come as a relief for all medical students studying in china as the visas are being issued to only selected students even for those who are getting an opportunity to resume their physical classes at the campus things seem sceptical due to the extremely expensive flight tickets the visa opening is not for every medical student the students are required to get a no objection certificate noc from their universities to be eligible for this visa process most universities are giving this certificate only to 4th and 5thyear students i have already passed my 5th year and would now need to go to china for an internship however my university has refused to give me the noc and has asked me to wait until may 2023 says shahroz khan who graduated from nantong university college of medicine yangtze river nantong city china instead of wasting my time waiting i am preparing for fmge and would take the exam in india to qualify for an internship here since i do not have any more hopes from china adds shahroz further as per nmcs directive the fmge students will have to appear for the internship for two years instead of the oneyear internship applicable to indian studentsalso only those foreign medical graduates can intern in india who have received their certificates or degrees from their university before june 30 this will be disadvantageous to students whose university could not finish the exam and their session by june 30 these students will not be eligible to appear for the fmge and the consequent internship in india explains khanemphasising the need to ensure good quality doctors in the country a senior official from the ministry of health says on the condition of anonymity the provision of two years of internship for the fmgs was added as these doctors do not get sufficient physical training in their respective countries foreign countries such as china do not let them touch their patients and hence they graduate only with theoretical knowledge we are also not sure about the university and the kind of teachers that impart education there we cannot expose our patients to these doctors unless they are skilled well in india hence we need to maintain strict monitoring to filter out the quality doctors from foreign universitiesmany students have paid exorbitant tuition fees at various coaching institutes to prepare for fmge the money has gone to waste now as the coaching institutes refuse to refund their money we would like to approach the nmc to ask them on what grounds have they decided on the june 30 date and deprived a large number of students from taking the fmge exam and internship in india says khanadding to the woes of