CORU recognition of qualifications

CORU is the competent authority for recognising international qualifications in the professions it regulates. Recognition compares your qualification with the standard of an accredited Irish qualification, using the Standards of Proficiency for your profession. It is a prerequisite to registration: a recognised qualification does not by itself put you on the register.

CORU recognises qualifications for 12 professions: dietitian, dispensing optician, medical scientist, occupational therapist, optometrist, physiotherapist, podiatrist or chiropodist, radiation therapist, radiographer, social worker, speech and language therapist, and social care worker.

Each profession has its own Registration Board, which makes the recognition decision, and its own Code of Professional Conduct and Ethics, which you confirm you have read and will follow when you apply.

Your qualification must give access to the profession in the country where you gained it. If your profession is not regulated there, you must show at least one year of professional practice in the last ten years, verified by your employer. Professionals with EU rights can instead apply through the European Professional Card where it covers their profession.

Your application needs a certified copy of your passport, certified translations of any documents not in English or Irish, evidence of competence in English or Irish, a statutory declaration dated within six months, and vetting forms. CORU may also seek certificates of good professional standing on your behalf, and you must satisfy the Registration Board that you are fit and proper to practise.

1. Apply online and pay the application fee shown on CORU's current guidance.
2. Missing information: CORU checks your documents and verifies them with your regulator, university and employers.
3. File complete: once everything is in, your file is queued, and you are invited to apply for registration so both processes can run together.
4. Assessment: two experts from the profession assess your qualification, training and experience.
5. Decision: the Registration Board recognises the qualification, offers a compensation measure, or, in limited cases, refuses.
6. Registration: once recognised, you are considered for entry on the register.

CORU says recognition can take up to four months from the time the file is deemed complete. Incomplete applications are closed if documents are not provided within six months. If your qualification does not meet the standard, CORU first considers further learning and experience. If gaps remain, you choose between a period of adaptation, which is supervised clinical experience in Ireland, and an aptitude test. An application can be refused if you fail the compensation measure after two attempts.

• Documents not in English or Irish without certified translations that include the translator's contact details.
• Missing employer verification, which holds the file at the missing information stage.
• Letting the whole process run long; if it exceeds 12 months, an updated eVetting form is needed.

Our guide to aptitude tests and adaptation explains how compensation measures work in Ireland.