MIR Spain Guide 2027: Format, Scoring, Fees and Eligibility

The MIR (Médico Interno Residente) is the national entrance exam for specialist medical training in Spain. Every doctor who wants to train as a specialist in the Spanish public system, whether in family medicine, cardiology or anaesthesia, goes through it. The Ministry of Health runs it once a year together with the exams for nursing (EIR), pharmacy, psychology, biology, chemistry and physics.

The MIR is not a licensing exam in the British or American sense. You do not need it to hold a basic medical licence. You need it to get a paid residency place, and a residency is the standard route to a recognised specialist title in Spain. Your rank decides which specialty and which hospital you can choose.

For a study plan, see our companion article How to prepare for the MIR. For the full picture of moving to Spain, read Working as a doctor in Spain.

MIR at a glance

How many places are on offer

For training that starts in 2027, the Ministry is offering 9,676 places in Medicine. Of these, 300 are in privately owned centres and the rest in the public network. Two quotas sit inside that figure:

• Disability quota: up to 968 places can go to candidates applying under the disability route.
• Non-resident quota: up to 968 places can go to candidates who do not hold a Spanish residence permit.

For comparison, the previous call (exam in January 2026) offered 9,276 Medicine places, so the offer keeps growing. The non-resident quota matters most for international graduates: once those places are taken, a non-resident candidate cannot pick another place, however high the rank.

Who can sit the MIR

The admission rules are strict, and all requirements must be met and documented by the end of the application window.

Degree

You need either a Spanish medical degree or a foreign medical degree that has been homologated (for non-EU degrees) or recognised (for EU degrees) in Spain. The homologation or recognition must already be granted, or the right to it established, before applications close. A receipt for a pending application is not enough. Homologation is handled by the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, not by the Ministry of Health, so plan for that step well in advance.

Nationality and residence

Spanish nationals, EU nationals and others covered by the rules for public employment can apply on equal terms. Nationals of other countries can apply for Medicine, Pharmacy and Nursing if their home country has a cooperation agreement with Spain in force during the application period. This also covers people who are in Spain on a short-stay or student permit. Candidates without residence compete inside the non-resident quota described above.

Spanish language

If the official language of your country is not Spanish, you must prove at least C1 level. The accepted documents include the DELE C1 or higher from the Instituto Cervantes, a C1 certificate from an official language school in Spain, and equivalent certificates within the international Spanish certification system. A B2 certificate, which is enough for degree homologation, is not enough for the MIR.

Current residents

If you already hold a residency place and want to sit the exam again, you must resign that place before the application period ends.

Applying

Applications are made online through the Ministry of Health's electronic office using form 790. For the 2027 intake the window was 1 to 14 September 2026, ten working days. You pay the fee (€31.10 for Medicine as of October 2026) at the same time; paying a lower amount or paying late leads to exclusion.

Upload your degree or homologation, proof of identity and nationality, your language certificate if needed, and your academic transcript. The transcript feeds the academic part of your score. If you do not upload it, you are not excluded, but you are given a default average of 5.00 out of 10, which may be lower than your real average.

After the window closes the Ministry publishes provisional and then final lists of admitted candidates, together with your exam centre and room.

The exam day

The exam takes place on the same day across Spain, with at least one centre in every region. For the 2027 intake:

• Call-in and identity checks start at 13:00 (12:00 in the Canary Islands).
• The exam starts at 14:00 (13:00 in the Canary Islands) and lasts four and a half hours.
• Once the sealed question booklets are opened, nobody else is let in.
• You cannot leave the room in the first hour.

Bring the original identity document you used to register, which stays on the desk the whole time, and a transparent pen with blue or black ink. A small clear water bottle without a label is allowed. Phones, smartwatches, earbuds, earplugs and any other electronic device are banned, and the organisers may use passive detection equipment. The only watch allowed is a simple analogue wristwatch. Breaking these rules means your exam is cancelled and you are excluded.

The question booklets are not handed out, but all versions are published on the Ministry's website afterwards, which is why past MIR papers are such a good study resource.

Content of the MIR

The official syllabus for Medicine is simply the set of competences a Spanish medical degree must cover. In practice that means the whole of clinical medicine plus the basic sciences, epidemiology, statistics, ethics and public health. The exam is heavily clinical, with many vignette questions and questions based on images such as ECGs, radiographs and photographs. Spanish clinical practice and Spanish national guidelines set the expected answers, so a doctor trained elsewhere should study Spanish-language sources.

How the MIR is scored

This is the part many candidates misunderstand.

The exam score

Each correct answer earns 3 points, each wrong answer loses 1 point, and blanks score 0. That gives your raw score. Then the Ministry takes the average raw score of the top 10% of candidates and sets it equal to 90 points. Everyone's raw score is multiplied by the same correction factor. So your exam score is relative to the best performers, not a fixed percentage.

With four options, a pure guess has an expected value of zero (one in four chance of +3, three in four of −1). A guess between two options has a clearly positive expected value. Many candidates use this to decide when to answer and when to leave a blank.

The academic score

Your academic record average is scaled the same way. The average of the top 10% of academic records among candidates who pass the minimum is set to 10 points, and everyone's average is multiplied by that factor. So the academic record is worth at most about 10% of your total.

Total and minimum

Your total is the exam score plus the academic score. To take part in choosing a place you need an exam score above zero. Candidates at zero or below are listed as eliminated. In practice the rank you need depends on the specialty and hospital you want, not on this low minimum.

Answers, claims and results

Within five working days of the exam, the Ministry publishes the provisional answer key. You then have three working days to file claims against specific questions. The committees may cancel questions and replace them with reserve questions before approving the final key. Provisional results follow, with seven working days to file objections, and then the final results.

After the exam: choosing a place

Places are chosen strictly in order of total score. When your turn comes you choose a specialty and a teaching unit from those still free. Non-resident candidates can only take places while the non-resident quota is not used up.

Once you join, you are a resident on an employment contract for the length of your specialty programme. Programme length varies by specialty.

A realistic timeline for doctors trained abroad

Because every requirement must be met by the end of the September application window, international graduates should work backwards from that date.

Homologation has no fixed published processing time, so starting early is the single most useful thing you can do. If your homologation is not granted in time, you simply wait for the next annual call.

Why past papers matter

The Ministry publishes every version of the question booklets together with the final answer key. Recent papers show you the real style of the vignettes, how images are used and which topics come up year after year. Work through them under timed conditions, then review every wrong answer and every lucky guess. Treat questions that were cancelled after claims with caution, since their key was found to be flawed.

Typical mistakes

• Applying with a pending homologation. Your degree must be homologated or recognised by the end of the application window, not by exam day.
• Bringing a B2 certificate. The MIR needs C1 if Spanish is not your country's official language.
• Forgetting the transcript. Without it you get a default 5.00 average, which can cost places.
• Answering every question. Random guessing has zero expected value; know when to leave a blank.
• Studying with non-Spanish guidelines. Answers follow Spanish practice and terminology.
• Ignoring the non-resident quota. If you lack residence, you are competing for a much smaller pool.

How MediFlow can help

Daily timed blocks with Spanish-style four-option questions build both knowledge and the stamina you need for four and a half hours. You can start with free practice questions on our MIR course page and keep practising on the go with the MediFlow Exam Prep app.

Next steps

1. Check whether your degree needs homologation and apply early.
2. Get a C1 Spanish certificate if you need one.
3. Download the most recent MIR papers from the Ministry of Health website.
4. Build a study plan; our MIR preparation guide shows how.
5. Watch for the next call, which is usually published in late summer, with applications in September.