Work as a podiatrist in Ireland: CORU registration (2026)

• Your degree or diploma is in podiatry or chiropody and entitles you to practise that profession in the country that awarded it.
• A competent authority in that country (a podiatry board, allied health council or ministry) can verify you are eligible to practise; you need not hold a current licence there.
• Where podiatry is not a regulated profession in your home country, you can produce employer evidence of at least one year of podiatry practice within the last ten years.
• The work you trained for matches podiatric medicine in Ireland; reflexology, pedicure or general foot-care training is not comparable.
• Your course covered lower-limb assessment, biomechanics and orthoses, pharmacology and supervised clinical placements, so you can map it to the Board's standards of proficiency.
• You hold OET Podiatry, IELTS Academic or Cambridge C1 Advanced at the Board's level, or you fit one of CORU's language exemptions.
• You can pass Garda vetting and provide police certificates for any country where you lived for more than a year as an adult.
• You can declare that you are fit to practise, with no undisclosed findings by a regulator or court.

Check your route with the route finder

• CORUCORU, Health and Social Care Professionals Council

  Allied health and social care professions

  How to register with the CORU

1. 1

   Check the podiatry fast-track list first

   Compare your award with CORU's Commonly Aligned Standards list for podiatry: all UK BSc and MSc in Podiatry, the BSc in Podiatry from Complutense University of Madrid, the University of Malaga or the Autonomous University of Madrid, and the BSc (Hons) in Podiatry from the University of Malta. If yours is there and you can register in that country, apply on the fast track, which needs significantly fewer documents and no qualification assessment. Graduates of other Spanish or EU podiatry schools are not on the list and use the standard route.
2. 2

   Map your course to Domain 5 of the podiatry standards

   The Podiatrists Registration Board's standards have five domains, but most podiatry shortfalls appear in Domain 5, professional knowledge and skills. It expects neurological, vascular, biomechanical, dermatological and podiatric assessment, recognition of systemic disease as it shows in the lower limb and foot, orthoses prescription, fitting and footwear, and knowledge of the law on supplying and administering prescription-only medicines relevant to podiatry. Build a short table that points each of these items to a module, a placement or a job.
3. 3

   Get placement evidence from your university

   Assessors look for supervised clinical hours in real podiatry clinics, not only skills labs. Ask your university for the full syllabus and a stamped placement record that shows settings (for example diabetes, musculoskeletal, paediatric or nail surgery clinics), hours and whether a podiatrist supervised you. Remove any patient-identifiable details before you upload logs.
4. 4

   Collect verifications and the CORU paperwork

   Your university and the competent authority in your country of qualification each sign and stamp a CORU verification form, and each podiatry employer completes an employer form. The statutory declaration, certified copies, translations, police certificates and eVetting form follow CORU's standard rules, which are listed step by step in our CORU regulator guide.
5. 5

   Book OET Podiatry or another accepted test

   OET has a podiatry version, which most podiatrists find closer to their daily language than IELTS. You need grade B in three sub-tests and at least C+ (300) in the fourth, or IELTS Academic 7.0 with no band under 6.5, or Cambridge C1 Advanced at grade C. The certificate must be less than two years old when you submit.
6. 6

   Submit the international qualification application

   Choose the International Qualification application type on the CORU portal, enter your podiatry course, placements and employment, upload the evidence and pay €510. CORU tells you within a month what is missing; if you cannot supply it within six months, the file is closed and a fresh application costs the full fee again.
7. 7

   Podiatry assessors review the file

   An education assessor and a clinical practice assessor, both from podiatry, check your evidence against the standards and recommend a decision to the Podiatrists Registration Board. CORU's policy aims for a decision within 3 months of a complete file, extendable to 4. Requests for further information most often concern medicines training, biomechanics and orthoses, or the number of supervised clinical hours.
8. 8

   Choose a compensation measure if one is set

   If the Board finds substantial differences, you have 30 days to pick an aptitude test or a supervised period of adaptation. Adaptation is done under a registered podiatrist in Ireland for up to 3 years, and the HSE pay scales include a Podiatry Adaptation grade (€39,590 from 1 June 2026), though posts depend on local services. In private practice you need a registered podiatrist who agrees to supervise you and a proposal approved by the Board before you start.
9. 9

   Register and plan the 31 March renewal

   Once recognised and vetted, you join the podiatry register and can use the titles podiatrist and chiropodist. Podiatry renews on 31 March each year, so if you register in February or early March you will pay the renewal almost immediately. Keep a record of your continuing professional development from your first day on the register.

• Desk assessment rather than a licensing exam

  Ireland has no written or practical entry exam for podiatrists. The Podiatrists Registration Board decides from your documents, so the quality of your syllabus, placement record and employer letters matters more than exam preparation.

• Aptitude test for podiatry gaps

  If you choose this compensation measure, the test covers only the substantial differences the Board found in your training, for example medicines, biomechanics or high-risk patient management, plus the professional rules that apply in Ireland. CORU says it is held in Ireland, offered within six months, costs €500 and can be repeated once.

• Period of adaptation in a podiatry service

  Supervised podiatry practice in Ireland, sometimes with academic modules, for a maximum of 3 years. You arrange the placement and a registered podiatrist as supervisor, send the Board a formal proposal and wait for its approval before starting; both of you report at the end. One repeat is allowed.

• The Podiatrists Registration Board accepts OET (Podiatry) with grade B in three components and at least grade C+ (300) in the fourth, IELTS Academic 7.0 overall with no element below 6.5, or Cambridge C1 Advanced at grade C.
• Your certificate must be dated within two years of submitting the application. CORU will combine at most two sittings with the same provider taken within six months of each other, and does not accept IELTS One Skill Retake or OET single sub-test results.
• Under CORU's language policy for applications from 8 May 2026, you are exempt if you hold an approved or Commonly Aligned podiatry qualification taught in English, if you qualified within the last two years through English or Irish with English-language placements, or if you have practised podiatry through English for at least 2 of the last 5 years in a country where English is the sole official language.
• Practice in the Gulf, India or the Philippines does not meet the third exemption, so most podiatrists from those countries need a test result. Give CORU your OET candidate number or IELTS TRF number so it can check the result online.

Estimate your total cost

• Start early on stamped placement records and syllabi; the time your podiatry school takes to produce them is outside CORU's control and is often the slowest part.
• Fast-track graduates from the UK, Spain and Malta skip the assessment stage; CORU gives no fixed time but says it is greatly reduced.
• Standard-route podiatrists should expect about 3 to 4 months from a complete file to a Board decision, after an acknowledgement within a month.
• An aptitude test is offered within six months of you choosing it; a period of adaptation in a podiatry service can last up to 3 years.
• Registration can run alongside recognition, but aim to finish before 31 March so your first renewal is not due immediately.

HSE consolidated pay scales from 1 June 2026 (the HSE grade is chiropodist/podiatrist). Pay in private practice is set by the practice.

• Chiropodist / podiatrist

  €45,514 to €65,068

• Chiropodist / podiatrist, senior

  €65,197 to €76,767

• Clinical specialist chiropodist

  €72,119 to €83,689

• Chiropodist / podiatrist manager

  €78,592 to €94,350

• Chiropodist / podiatrist manager in charge III

  €90,977 to €100,131

• Podiatry adaptation grade

  €39,590

• HSE community podiatry services, including diabetic foot screening and integrated care clinics.
• Acute hospitals with diabetic foot, vascular and rheumatology services.
• Private podiatry and chiropody clinics, many offering nail surgery and orthoses.
• Sports injury, biomechanics and orthotics practices.

• Podiatrist/Chiropodist is listed under SOC 2218 on the Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment's Critical Skills Occupations List, so a two-year job offer can support a Critical Skills Employment Permit.
• For private clinics the Critical Skills salary floor is €40,904 (€36,848 if you graduated in the last 12 months). In the HSE and Section 38 bodies the Department uses the rate under the public sector pay agreement instead, and the podiatrist scale starts at €45,514 from 1 June 2026.
• If you take a Podiatry Adaptation post to complete a period of adaptation, that HSE grade is €39,590 from 1 June 2026, below the €40,904 floor; because public-sector roles are assessed at the pay-agreement rate, confirm with the employer and the Department that the post can support a permit before you accept it.
• Full permit details, including fees, family reunification and Stamp 4, are on the Ireland country guide.

1. 1

   Your Gulf podiatry licence (for example from DHA, DOH or SCFHS) is not recognised as such. CORU assesses the podiatry qualification you started with, so a diploma-level or short course may need extra evidence even after years of Gulf practice.

2. 2

   Gulf diabetic foot work is strong evidence for Domain 5: neurological and vascular assessment, wound care and offloading. Ask each employer to describe your caseload, procedures and hours on the CORU employer form.

3. 3

   If you used local anaesthetic or other prescription-only medicines in the Gulf, document the training and authorisation you held, because medicines is a common gap in podiatry files.

4. 4

   The competent authority form must come from the country where you qualified, not the Gulf. Keep your Gulf good standing letter ready in case CORU or an Irish employer asks for it.

5. 5

   Get police certificates from each Gulf country where you lived for more than a year as an adult, and plan for OET Podiatry, as Gulf practice does not count for the English exemption.

• Application plan with every step, fee and deadline

• Document checklist tailored to you, and a review of each document before upload

• Timeline built around the regulator's closure windows and document validity periods

• Help completing the application forms accurately and consistently

• Support with profession-specific evidence, such as the HCPC standards of proficiency mapping

• Guidance on certificates of good standing, references and certified translations

• Preparation for identity checks and declarations on health and character

• Tracking your application and help responding to regulator requests

• Next steps after the decision: exams, adaptation, PIN or licence and your first job

Regulators make all registration decisions and set all fees. Our fee is separate from the regulator's fees, exam fees and translation costs.

What our registration and licensing support includesPackages and fees