General Optical Council

Applying for registration

This section contains information on how to register as a student, full registrant and non-UK applicant. You can also find out how to register a specialty and a body corporate .

For newly qualified applicants ready to join the optometrist or dispensing optician register please follow this link. 

Can't find what you're looking for? Contact our registration team on 020 7580 3898 (option one).

Our service commitment
Correctly completed applications for full registration will be processed within five working days of receipt of your correctly completed application, certified ID (where required) and payment, except where a declaration has been provided.

The GOC Registration team will be temporarily accepting student ID's that have been certified by your university or college, outside of our usual requirement that the certifier has known the applicant for at least 2 years in recognition of the difficulties caused by COVID-19. This temporary change will remain in place until 31 October 2020.

During our busiest period (August through October) a full registration application may take up to 10 working days to process. 

Applications for student registration received during September and October will be processed by 31 October.

Applications received at other times will be processed in line with our normal service standards.

The information you provide to us, the GOC (as data controller), will be processed and used in line  with our statutory purpose under the Opticians Act in order to maintain our Register and ensure our registrants are fit to practise. For more information regarding how we process your data please see our privacy statement.