The admission process of the Kuwaiti Board of Internal Medicine (KBIM) is determined by Kuwait Institute of Medical Specialization (KIMS). The process starts around November of each year with an announcement from KIMS.

Applicants fill an online form and indicate Internal Medicine as their program of choice and as part of that process, residents need to upload documents such as their academic CV and letters of recommendation.

After completing the online application form, residents are invited to attend the KBIM admission exam. It is a multiple-choice exam with questions about Internal Medicine and it's subspecialties written at a final year medical student level.

Applicants then enter a structured interview in which they are asked questions about themselves, their achievements, and their interest in the specialty.

Each resident is given a score by the interviewees based on their interview performance as well as their online application. This score constitutes 50% of the final score. The other 50% comes from the MCQ admission exam. Residents who receive a score of 60% on their final score are eligible for admission into the program. If the number of residents eligible is higher than the number of seats available, residents are ranked by their final scores.

This process of application-exam-interview happens in four phases. The first and second phases are for Kuwaitis. The third phase is for bidoun, GCC citizens, and sons of daughters of Kuwaiti mothers. The fourth phase is for all other applicants. Each phase is reached only if there are seats remaining after completing the previous phase.

For example, if there are 90 seats and 60 residents get accepted in Phase 1, 30 residents get accepted in Phase 2, then the program would not open for Phase 3 or Phase 4. Since this depends on the performance of applicants in each phase, it is not possible to know whether the program will open for any phase until a decision is made for every applicant in the previous phase.

Please note that applications are open only for employees of the Ministry of Health and other governmental organizations in Kuwait. Physicians working outside of Kuwait who are interested in applying to the program need to start by securing a job with the Ministry of Health. Please note however that acceptance into the program is not guaranteed as the process is competetive and seats are limited.

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