Radiographer jobs in Ireland for foreigners: CORU (2026)

• Your degree or diploma is in diagnostic radiography (medical imaging) and lets you practise as a radiographer in the country that awarded it.
• The radiography regulator or health ministry of that country will sign a verification that you are eligible to practise there; holding a live licence is not essential.
• Where nobody regulates radiographers in your home country, an imaging department can confirm at least one year of radiography work within the past ten years.
• You are applying for the register that fits your training: diagnostic radiographers and radiation therapists sit on separate registers kept by the same Board.
• Your clinical training covers general X-ray in emergency, ward, theatre, fluoroscopy and paediatric (including neonatal) settings, as the Board's standards expect a new graduate to perform these independently.
• You can show you apply radiation protection, ALARA, three-point patient identification and pregnancy checks before exposures.
• You reach IELTS Academic 7.0 with every band at 7.0, OET Radiography grade B in all four parts, or Cambridge C1 Advanced grade C with 185 or more, unless an exemption applies.
• You can pass CORU's character checks: police certificates, Garda eVetting and a sworn declaration.

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• CORUCORU, Health and Social Care Professionals Council

  Allied health and social care professions

  How to register with the CORU

1. 1

   Decide between the UK fast track and full assessment

   Graduates of UK diagnostic radiography programmes (for example a BSc in Diagnostic Radiography and Imaging or in Medical Imaging, or an MSc in Diagnostic Radiography) who can register with the UK regulator may use CORU's Commonly Aligned Standards pathway, which skips the education and clinical assessment. Radiographers trained anywhere else, including India, the Philippines, Pakistan, Nigeria and the Gulf, go through the full comparison by the Radiographers Registration Board.
2. 2

   Map your training to the radiography standards

   The Board's Standards of Proficiency for Radiographers run to five domains, and domain 5 is where most radiography gaps appear. It expects new graduates to know the clinical use of angiography, CT, MR, ultrasound, interventional radiology, mammography, dental imaging, DXA, nuclear medicine and hybrid imaging (SPECT/CT, PET/CT, PET/MR), and to assist with most of them. Build a table that matches each standard to a module, placement or job in your evidence.
3. 3

   Check the hands-on general radiography evidence

   Standard 5.15 asks that you can independently perform all general radiographic techniques in fluoroscopy, emergency, ward, theatre and paediatric settings, including neonates. Applicants whose placements were mostly in outpatient X-ray, or who have worked only in one modality such as MRI or CT for years, are often thin on theatre, mobile ward and neonatal work. Ask your university for placement logbooks that show these settings by name and number of examinations.
4. 4

   Show radiation protection and safety practice

   The standards name radiation physics, radiation biology, justification and optimisation of each examination, ALARA, three-point ID checks, pregnancy-status checks before ionising exposures, equipment quality control and the principles of IV cannulation. Programmes outside Europe sometimes teach these as theory without assessed clinical practice. Where that is your situation, a letter from the programme or employer describing how you were assessed is more persuasive than a module title.
5. 5

   Pass the radiography English threshold early

   The Board's standard 5.29 itself states the IELTS 7.0 in every element requirement, and CORU explains the higher bar by the public-safety risk of ionising radiation. A single 6.5 in writing or speaking means a resit, so take the test before you start the paperwork. CORU will only combine two sittings if both are with the same provider within six months.
6. 6

   Assemble the CORU file

   The core file is common to every CORU profession: certified passport and qualification copies, transcripts, syllabus, verification forms from your university, regulator and employers, a sworn statutory declaration, police certificates and the NVB1 eVetting form. Our CORU regulator guide lists each item and the certification rules. For radiography, make sure the employer forms list the modalities you operated and roughly how many examinations a week, and remove patient identifiers from any image logs.
7. 7

   Submit on the portal and keep the file live

   Choose the international qualification application on the CORU portal and pay the recognition fee. CORU confirms receipt and names any gaps within about a month, and closes files left incomplete for six months, which means a new fee. Translated documents from non-English-speaking countries are a common cause of delay.
8. 8

   Assessment by radiography assessors and the Board

   Two radiographers, one with an education focus and one from clinical practice, compare your evidence with the standards and recommend to the Radiographers Registration Board. The Board can recognise the qualification, set a compensation measure for named gaps, or decide it is not comparable. CORU's policy aims for a decision within 3 months of a complete file, with a possible extension to 4.
9. 9

   Close any gaps with an aptitude test or adaptation post

   If the Board lists substantial differences, you have 30 days to choose between an aptitude test held in Ireland and a supervised period of adaptation lasting no more than three years under a registered radiographer. The HSE pays a Radiography Adaptation grade (€39,109 from 1 June 2026), but hospitals are not obliged to create these posts, so ask imaging managers directly. The adaptation proposal must be approved by the Board before you start.
10. 10

    Join the register and renew each October

    Your registration application can run alongside recognition, so once the Board decides and eVetting clears you appear on the Radiographers register and may use the title. Radiographers renew annually by 31 October and must keep CPD records, which is useful when you later move into CT, MRI or mammography roles.

• Most radiographers sit no exam

  Ireland has no national radiography licensing exam. The Radiographers Registration Board decides on paper, from your programme content, placements and imaging experience. An exam only arises if the Board finds a substantial difference and you choose the aptitude test route.

• Radiography aptitude test

  The test is confined to the gaps the Board identified, for example general radiography in theatre and paediatric settings or radiation protection practice, and may also cover rules for professional practice in Ireland. CORU holds it in Ireland, must offer it within six months of you choosing it, charges €500 and allows one repeat.

• Period of adaptation in an imaging department

  The alternative is supervised practice in Ireland, up to three years, under a CORU-registered radiographer, sometimes with academic modules. You secure the department and supervisor yourself and send CORU's POA proposal form for Board approval before day one. Reports from you and your supervisor at the end decide whether the gap is closed.

• Radiographers face CORU's strictest English bar: IELTS Academic 7.0 overall with no element below 7.0, OET Radiography at grade B (350) in listening, reading, writing and speaking, or Cambridge C1 Advanced at grade C with a score of at least 185.
• CORU says the radiography and radiation therapy standard is higher because of the risk to public safety from ionising radiation, and the radiographer standards of proficiency repeat the IELTS 7.0 requirement.
• Results must be dated within two years of your application. IELTS must be taken in person; OET's online and at-home versions are accepted. Give your TRF or OET candidate number so CORU can check the result.
• You may combine at most two sittings with the same provider inside six months if both meet the overall score. IELTS One Skill Retake and OET single sub-test resits are not accepted.
• From 8 May 2026 CORU exempts three groups: holders of CORU-approved or Commonly Aligned qualifications taught in English (or from an EU country where English is co-official), recent graduates whose programme and placements were in English or Irish within the last two years, and people who have practised through English in a country where it is the sole official language for 2 of the past 5 years.
• Most Gulf and Asian-trained radiographers do not fit an exemption, so plan on a test and on targeted writing and speaking practice for the 7.0 bands.

Estimate your total cost

• Allow two to three months for the English test alone if you need a second sitting to reach 7.0 in every band.
• University placement logbooks and modality detail are slow to obtain from some institutions; request them before you open the portal.
• CORU names missing items within about a month and keeps the file open for six months.
• From a complete file, the Radiographers Registration Board aims to decide within 3 months, extendable to 4. UK fast-track files skip assessment entirely.
• A compensation measure adds anything from a few months (aptitude test, offered within six months) to up to three years (adaptation), depending on the gap and on finding a supervising department.

HSE consolidated pay scales from 1 June 2026. Some radiography roles attract allowances, for example an annual radiographer allowance of €2,146 under Department of Health Circular 13/2024, listed in the same document. Private imaging providers set their own pay.

• Radiographer

  €44,956 to €64,235

  14 points including long service increments.

• Radiographer, senior

  €59,046 to €68,374

• Radiographer, clinical specialist

  €66,248 to €78,250

• Radiography service manager 1

  €68,727 to €82,030

• Radiography adaptation grade

  €39,109

• HSE and voluntary acute hospitals: general X-ray, CT, MRI, interventional and emergency imaging.
• BreastCheck (National Screening Service), which carries its own radiographer allowances in the HSE scales.
• Private hospitals and private imaging centres.
• Community and orthopaedic imaging services.

• Radiographers and radiation therapists are listed under SOC 2217 on the Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment's Critical Skills Occupations List, so an imaging post with a 2-year contract can support a Critical Skills Employment Permit.
• The general floor for listed jobs is €40,904 (€36,848 for graduates in their first 12 months), but HSE and Section 38 hospital posts are paid at the public-sector pay agreement rate. The 2026 HSE radiographer scale starts at €44,956; the Radiography Adaptation grade (€39,109) is below the general floor, so check with the employer how an adaptation post will be permitted.
• Private imaging centres set their own pay, so confirm the offered salary meets the threshold before relying on that job for a permit.
• Full details of permit fees, timing, family reunification and moving to Stamp 4 are on the Ireland country guide.

1. 1

   Your DHA, DOH, MOHAP, SCFHS, QCHP or other GCC radiographer licence, and any Gulf licensing exam you passed, are not part of CORU's decision. The Board looks back to the qualification that first made you a radiographer.

2. 2

   Gulf hospital work often sits in one modality for years. Ask each Gulf imaging department to list on the employer verification form the modalities, mobile and theatre work, paediatric cases and fluoroscopy you performed, because standard 5.15 tests broad general radiography.

3. 3

   Gulf departments generally use RIS and PACS, contrast protocols and dose-tracking; describe this experience against the standards on ALARA, equipment quality control, IV cannulation principles and three-point identification.

4. 4

   CORU's verification of eligibility must come from where you qualified, not from the Gulf, but CORU may contact your Gulf regulators, so keep your Gulf licences active or obtain letters of good standing before you leave.

5. 5

   Police certificates are needed from each Gulf country where you lived one year and one day or more since age 18, issued within the previous 12 months.

6. 6

   Practising in English in the Gulf does not meet CORU's exemption, because English is not the sole official language there, so book IELTS or OET Radiography.

• 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.

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