NMBI Ireland: Registration, Exams and Fees

• General Nurses Division: Registered General Nurse (RGN).
• Midwives Division: Registered Midwife (RM).
• Children's Nurses Division: Registered Children's Nurse (RCN).
• Psychiatric Nurses Division: Registered Psychiatric Nurse (RPN).
• Intellectual Disability Nurses Division: Registered Nurse Intellectual Disability (RNID).
• Public Health Nurses Division: Registered Public Health Nurse (RPHN).
• Nurse Tutors and Midwife Tutors Divisions: Registered Nurse Tutor (RNT) and Registered Midwife Tutor (RMT).
• Nurse Prescribers and Midwife Prescribers Divisions: Registered Nurse Prescriber (RNP) and Registered Midwife Prescriber (RMP).
• Advanced Nurse Practitioners and Advanced Midwife Practitioners Divisions: RANP and RAMP.
• A Candidate Register for applicants completing a period of adaptation, who receive a Candidate Certificate for that period.

• You hold a nursing or midwifery qualification that NMBI can compare with Irish and EU Directive standards. NMBI says a programme shorter than three years, without an extra course, is unlikely to meet the threshold even for a compensation measure.
• Your education body completes NMBI's qualification form (signed by the Head of Nursing or Midwifery Education) and provides your official transcript and programme syllabus.
• You can provide a Certificate of Current Professional Status (good standing), issued in the last six months, from every jurisdiction where you registered or practised. For G3 applicants this is part of the recognition stage.
• If you want your work experience considered, your current and previous employers complete NMBI's employment forms; without them your post-qualification experience cannot be counted.
• You can meet NMBI's English requirement: IELTS Academic or OET at the set scores from one sitting less than two years old, or one of the exemptions for training or practice in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United States or the United Kingdom.
• You have a valid passport or national identity card, uploaded as a clear, full colour certified copy.
• Any document not in English comes with an English translation by a qualified translator, signed, stamped and dated by the translator.
• You handle your own application: NMBI says only the nurse or midwife can pay the fee and applicants must not share their MyNMBI login with anyone, including agents.

Check your route with the route finder

1. 1

   Create your MyNMBI account and answer the screening questions

   Set up an account on my.nmbi.ie and start an overseas recognition application. Your answers classify you as G1, G2 or G3 and generate the list of documents you need. Read NMBI's Applicant User Guide first, because the document glossary explains what each document is and how recent it must be.
2. 2

   Gather certified documents and translations

   You need certified copies of your qualification, identity document, transcript and syllabus, the qualification form from your education body, employment forms from your employers and a recent Certificate of Current Professional Status from each regulator. Your nursing council can send the certificate to NMBI directly; you tick that option in MyNMBI. Most delays come from documents that are out of date, wrongly certified or missing a translation.
3. 3

   Submit your recognition application and pay the fee

   Upload everything to MyNMBI and pay the €350 overseas qualification recognition fee. If a document is missing you have six months from submission to provide it, after which the application closes and you must apply again. If you submit a second recognition application (for another division) within seven days, you do not pay the recognition fee twice.
4. 4

   Administrative and qualification assessment

   NMBI checks that your documents are valid and authentic, then an education assessor compares your theory and clinical hours and content with NMBI requirements, taking post-qualification experience into account where relevant. Applications are processed in date order and NMBI does not fast-track for any reason. For G3 applicants NMBI gives a recognition decision timeline of about 3 months once it has all your documents.
5. 5

   Receive your outcome

   You are told that your qualification is recognised, that more information is needed, that a compensation measure is required, or that recognition is provisionally refused. A compensation measure or a refusal is provisional and can be appealed. A decision letter is valid for 12 months from its date of issue.
6. 6

   Complete a compensation measure if required

   General and psychiatric nursing applicants can choose the RCSI aptitude test or a period of adaptation; all other divisions, including midwifery, complete adaptation. You have 12 months from the letter to complete the aptitude test or to secure an adaptation placement. You or your prospective employer must arrange the placement with an NMBI-approved hospital; NMBI does not organise it.
7. 7

   Make your registration application

   Once your qualification is recognised, you log back into MyNMBI, answer the registration questions, provide your English language evidence and any other documents requested, and pay the €145 overseas registration fee. NMBI aims to make a registration decision within 20 working days of having everything.
8. 8

   Get your registration decision

   The outcome is that you are registered, that missing documents must be resubmitted, registration with conditions, or a refusal; the last two are provisional and can be appealed. Once registered you appear on the public register and can use your protected title. You then pay the €100 annual retention fee each year to stay registered.

• RCSI aptitude test: overview

  The RCSI Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery coordinates the aptitude test for applicants trained outside Ireland. NMBI offers it as a choice only for the General Nurses and Psychiatric Nurses divisions. It has two parts: a theory test that must be passed before you can attempt the practical OSCE. You have two attempts at each part, and a third attempt is not permitted.

  Read the guide

• Part 1: theory test (MCQ)

  RCSI describes a supervised assessment of 150 multiple-choice questions over three hours, each with four options and one correct answer. The pass mark is 50%. You cannot leave until 60 minutes have passed. RCSI bases revision on NMBI's Standards and Requirements for nurse registration education programmes and does not approve any preparation courses.

• Part 2: practical test (OSCE)

  A practical exam of 14 stations, with 10 minutes at each, each assessing different competencies through simulated clinical scenarios. RCSI expects you to use Irish clinical documentation such as INEWS vital signs charts, ISBAR communication, medication records and fluid balance charts. The test is held in person in Dublin, so you may need a visa to travel for it.

• Period of adaptation

  A period of supervised practice in an NMBI-approved Irish healthcare facility, assessed by the facility, using NMBI's competence assessment tools for nurses and for midwives. The minimum is six weeks and it may be extended to 12 weeks or more. You are added to NMBI's Candidate Register for the placement. If you complete one compensation measure and fail it, you cannot then switch to the other.

  Read the guide

• IELTS Academic: overall 7.0, with at least 7.0 in any three components and 6.5 in any one component. IELTS Academic for UKVI is accepted.
• OET: grade B (350 to 450) in three components and C+ (300 to 340) in one component.
• Results must be less than two years old. You give your IELTS Test Report Form number or OET candidate number in MyNMBI and NMBI verifies your scores independently.
• NMBI accepts only one test result and does not accept combined results from different sittings.
• NMBI does not accept IELTS One Skill Retake, IELTS online or OET at home.
• Exemption by training: your nursing or midwifery programme was taught and assessed in English in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United States or the United Kingdom, confirmed by your education body. Applicants from Quebec or New Brunswick must also show they practised through English.
• Exemption by practice: 3 years of post-registration practice within the last five years in one of those five countries, confirmed by your employer or nursing authority in writing, showing you practised primarily through English.

Estimate your total cost

• Preparation varies most: getting your transcript, syllabus, qualification form, employment forms and recent good standing certificates can take months, and certificates must be issued within six months.
• NMBI's Applicant User Guide gives about 3 months for a G3 recognition decision and 20 working days for the registration decision, about 4 months overall, once it has all your documents.
• If a document is missing you have six months from submission to provide it before the application is closed.
• If a compensation measure is required you have 12 months to complete it; NMBI says successful applicants who need one take on average 13 months from submitting documents to registration.
• Aptitude test results arrive within three days of the test date; a period of adaptation lasts at least six weeks and may be extended to 12 weeks or more.