Eligibility Assessment
- Free eligibility check first
- Fixed fee, agreed in writing
- Official sources only
Overview
How we help
Before you spend money on exams, translations or applications, you need to know whether your qualification, experience and registration at home meet the rules of the country you are aiming for.
Each regulator sets its own requirements, and the same degree can be accepted in one country and need extra training or tests in another. Many people only find this out after paying for the wrong English test, booking an exam their regulator does not need, or opening an application that closes before their documents arrive.
This service covers doctors, nurses, midwives, dentists, pharmacists and allied health professionals heading to the UK, Ireland, the EU and EEA, or the USA. The routes look very different. In the UK most professions apply to a national regulator such as the GMC, NMC, HCPC, GDC or GPhC, often with a licensing exam. In Ireland the NMBI, the Medical Council, CORU, the Dental Council and the PSI assess your qualification first and may set an aptitude test or adaptation period. In Germany and the Netherlands recognition runs through a state authority or the BIG register, with a language level to reach. In the USA each state licenses you, after a credentials evaluation and exams such as the NCLEX-RN or the USMLE.
An eligibility assessment is the first step of the route, and the rest of our services build on it. Once you know the route, registration support, credential verification and exam preparation follow in a sensible order, and career and relocation planning can start at the right time rather than too early or too late. A clear plan at the start also shows which slow steps, such as primary source verification or language learning, you should begin straight away.
We review your documents against the published requirements of each regulator you are considering and give you a written plan: which country and route fit you best, what you will need to pass, which documents to gather, and a realistic timeline and budget based on the official fees and processing times. We explain where your case is straightforward, where it carries risk, and where only the regulator can say how it will treat you.
What we give you is a careful reading of the published rules applied to your documents, not a decision. Regulators decide whether your qualification is accepted and whether you need a test or adaptation, exam bodies decide who may sit their exams, and governments decide visas. Our job is to make sure you go into each of those decisions prepared and with the right expectations.
What is included
- Review of your qualifications, transcripts, experience and current registration
- Check against the published requirements of the regulators you choose
- Check of how recent your practice is and whether any gap in practice affects your route
- English or other language requirement for each route, with any exemption you may qualify for
- Comparison of routes and countries, with the trade-offs explained
- List of the exams, aptitude tests or adaptation periods each route is likely to involve
- Written roadmap: exams, English test, documents, fees and timeline
- Budget built from the official regulator, exam and verification fees, kept separate from our own fee
- Flags for slow steps to start first, such as primary source verification and language learning
- A call to walk you through the plan and answer your questions
In depth
Eligibility Assessment: what to know
What we look at in your training and experience
Regulators compare your qualification with their own national standard, so we start with the details they ask about: the title of your qualification, how long the course was, how many theory and clinical hours it contained, and which subjects and placements it covered. For doctors in Germany, for example, the Approbation benchmark is at least six years and 5,500 hours of training, and EU law sets a minimum of three years and 4,600 hours for general care nurses. Where your transcript does not show hours or placements, we tell you which document will.
We then look at your registration and practice. Most regulators want you to hold, or to have held, registration in the country where you qualified, and many want certificates of good standing from every regulator you have been licensed with, including Gulf regulators such as DHA, DOH, MOHAP, SCFHS and QCHP. How recent your practice is matters too: some English language exemptions depend on recent practice in a majority English-speaking country, such as the NMC's one year in the last two years.
Finally we check the profession-specific gates. Doctors need a medical school the GMC and ECFMG accept. Dentists outside the UK and EEA usually face the ORE. Pharmacists heading to the UK go through UK ENIC and the GPhC's OSPAP route. Allied health professionals map their training against the HCPC or CORU standards of proficiency. These gates often decide the route before anything else does.
- Qualification title, length, hours and clinical placements
- Registration at home and in any other country you have worked in
- Clinical experience, specialty and how recent your practice is
- English or other language evidence, and any exemption you may meet
- Profession-specific requirements, such as an accepted medical school or the ORE for dentists
How we choose between countries
There is rarely one right answer, so we compare routes on the points that matter most to you. The first question is whether a route exists for your profession at all: some professions are regulated in one country and not in another, and some routes are open only to people with a particular qualification. Then come the exams or compensation measures, the language level and the time each route is likely to take.
Time varies widely and the official figures help. NMBI says applicants who need a compensation measure take on average 13 months from submitting documents to registration. The GPhC route for pharmacists trained outside the UK takes around three years when everything goes to plan. The GDC suggests many overseas dentists should plan for two years or more. The BIG register gives six months to three years for the whole Dutch route, after an average of one and a half to two years to learn Dutch.
We also weigh cost, visa routes, family plans and where you want your career to go in five or ten years. We set out the trade-offs in writing and give our view, but the choice is yours, and we will help with whichever route you choose.
If you trained in the EU or EEA
Under Directive 2005/36/EC, qualifications for doctors, general care nurses, midwives, dentists and pharmacists that are issued in an EU or EEA country and listed in Annex V of the directive are recognised automatically across member states, without re-examining your training. A member state must decide within three months of a complete file. You still need to register, prove the language and provide good standing.
Qualifications from outside the EU are not covered by automatic recognition, even if you have worked in an EU country. A member state that has already recognised your third-country qualification, plus three years of certified experience there, can bring you into the general system in another member state. Since the UK left the EU, UK regulators no longer apply automatic recognition in the same way, so we check each case against the current rules of the regulator concerned.
Step by step
How it works
- 1
Send your details
Tell us your profession, where you trained, your experience and the countries you are considering. A short form and clear scans of your main documents are enough at this stage. If you have family or timing constraints, tell us now so the plan fits your life.
- 2
Document review
We look at your certificates, transcripts and registration against each regulator's published rules. We note the length and content of your training, your clinical experience and how recent it is, and any name or date mismatches that could slow verification later. Where a rule is unclear, we say so rather than guess.
- 3
Route comparison
We compare the realistic routes for your profession in each country you named. For each one we set out the exams or compensation measures, the language level, the main documents and the official fees and processing times. You see the trade-offs side by side before you commit money to any of them.
- 4
Your written roadmap
You receive the route we recommend, what you must pass, what to gather and a realistic timeline and budget. The roadmap lists the steps in order, with the slow ones first. It also names the official pages to check, because fees and rules change.
- 5
Walkthrough call
We go through the plan with you and answer your questions. If you decide to go ahead, we agree the next steps and which parts, if any, you would like our help to carry out. You are free to follow the roadmap on your own.
Routes we assess
Who registers each profession, country by country
Who we help
Who it is for
Trained abroad
Nurses, midwives, doctors, dentists, pharmacists and allied health professionals trained outside the country they want to work in
Working in the Gulf
Professionals working in the Gulf who are weighing the UK, Ireland or the USA
Unsure about your qualification
Whether it will need extra training, an aptitude test or adaptation
Where we help
Regulators we work with
Sources
The official pages the rules on this page come from.
- 1GMC: primary source verification for international medical graduates
- 2NMC: English language requirements
- 3Directive 2005/36/EC (consolidated text)
- 4European Commission: general system of recognition
- 5Bundesärzteordnung, section 3
- 6BIG register: recognition of professional qualifications
- 7GDC: about the ORE
FAQ
Questions about eligibility assessment
Straight answers before you start. See all questions or contact us.
No one can. Registration decisions belong to the regulator. We tell you how your documents compare with the published requirements and where the risks are, so you can decide with your eyes open.
No. Clear scans or photos are enough for the assessment. Regulators have their own rules for certified copies, which we explain in your roadmap.
Mainly the UK, Ireland, Germany, the Netherlands and the USA, for nursing, midwifery, medicine, dentistry, pharmacy and the main allied health professions. We can also look at other EU and EEA countries covered by our regulator guides. If a profession is not regulated, or has no route for international applicants in a country, we say so.
It depends on how many countries and professions we compare and how complete your documents are. We agree a date for your written roadmap when we receive your details. If something is missing, we tell you straight away rather than wait.
Experience in the Gulf is clinical experience like any other, and regulators look at what you did, for how long and how recently. What it does not do is replace a qualification requirement or an exam. You will also need certificates of good standing from each Gulf regulator you have been licensed with.
Often yes, but a gap can change your route. Some regulators ask for recent practice, some English exemptions depend on it, and a long gap may mean a return-to-practice step. We look at your dates and tell you what each regulator says about gaps.
No. We tell you which tests each regulator accepts, the scores it requires and whether you may qualify for an exemption. Booking a test before you know the route can mean paying for the wrong one.
We note which visa or permit routes usually apply to the job types on your route, so you can plan around them. We do not give immigration advice; that comes from regulated immigration advisers, solicitors or licensed attorneys.
Our fee is separate. The budget in your roadmap lists the official regulator, exam, verification and translation fees, which you pay directly to those bodies. We give the source for each figure because fees change.
Regulators and exam bodies do change their rules and fees. Your roadmap names the official pages to check, and if you work with us on the next steps we recheck the key rules before each one.
Yes, if you hold more than one qualification, for example in nursing and midwifery. Each profession has its own requirements and sometimes its own regulator, so we assess each separately and show where they overlap.