Getting your foreign qualifications recognised in Ireland

The short answer

• Most jobs: no recognition needed. Your employer decides, and NARIC Ireland gives a free statement of how your qualification compares.
• Regulated professions: the regulator for your profession recognises your qualification, then registers you, before you start work.
• From the EU, EEA or Switzerland: EU rules help, with automatic recognition for 7 professions.
• From the UK: since 1 January 2021, usually assessed like any non-EU qualification.
• Further study: the college decides.

Find your route

Do you need recognition?

A regulated profession is one that Irish law restricts to people with specific qualifications. The government’s list of regulated professions and their regulators includes doctors, nurses, pharmacists, dentists, teachers, solicitors, architects, electrical contractors, door supervisors and estate agents. If your job isn’t on it, you don’t need recognition to work in Ireland.

NARIC Ireland: comparing your qualification

NARIC Ireland, run by Quality and Qualifications Ireland (QQI), compares foreign qualifications with the Irish National Framework of Qualifications (NFQ):

1. Search the free online database by the country where you qualified. It covers over 2,000 qualifications from more than 170 countries.
2. Download the comparability statement for your qualification, if it’s listed.
3. Not listed? Fill in NARIC’s online form to ask for advice.
4. Show it to an employer or a college.

It’s advice, not a legal document, and it’s the same for everyone with that qualification. It doesn’t cover professional qualifications or licences: for those, go to the regulator.

Regulated professions: who decides

The same steps apply everywhere:

1. Find your regulator on the list of regulated professions. Not there? Email qualifications@dfheris.gov.ie.
2. Apply for recognition, with your qualification, transcripts, proof of registration at home and certified translations.
3. Get a decision: recognised, more information needed, or a compensation measure first.
4. Register with the regulator, usually with proof of your English.
5. Start work once you’re registered.

If you qualified in the EU, EEA or Switzerland

If you’re also an EU, EEA or Swiss citizen, the EU rules apply:

• Automatic recognition for architects, dentists, doctors, midwives, nurses, pharmacists and vets, for qualifications listed in the EU rules. You still register.
• The general system for other professions: the regulator compares your training, and takes your work experience into account. If gaps remain, you choose an adaptation period or an aptitude test.
• The European Professional Card, an online procedure for general care nurses, pharmacists, physiotherapists, mountain guides and real estate agents.
• Deadlines: the regulator acknowledges your application within 1 month, and decides within 4 months of it being complete.

With an EU qualification but another nationality, you’re usually assessed outside these rules.

If you qualified in the UK

Since 1 January 2021, the EU’s mutual recognition with the UK no longer applies. If your qualification was recognised in Ireland before then, you don’t need to do anything. Otherwise:

• Nurses and midwives: qualified before 2021, a letter from the NMC can spare you a full assessment. Since then, NMBI assesses you as a non-EU applicant.
• Doctors: the Medical Council treats you as non-EU: you verify your credentials through EPIC, and pass the PRES or show an exemption, such as a UK internship.
• Pharmacists: the PSI’s third country route.
• Dentists: if you qualified entirely in the UK before 31 December 2028, you still follow the EU route.
• CORU professions: many UK degrees qualify for CORU’s faster CAS pathway.
• Solicitors from England & Wales or Northern Ireland have their own Law Society route.

The main professions, step by step

Nurses and midwives: apply to NMBI on MyNMBI. You’re assessed as G1 (EU automatic), G2 (EU general system) or G3 (outside the EU rules). Once your qualification is recognised, you apply to register, with IELTS Academic 7.0 or OET B, less than 2 years old. You don’t need a test if you trained in English, or worked 3 of the last 5 years in English, in the UK, the US, Canada, Australia or New Zealand. NMBI doesn’t fast-track applications because of a job offer.

Teachers: the Teaching Council assesses every foreign qualification the same way, inside or outside the EU. Gaps become conditions on your registration, normally met within 3 years by a course or by teaching in that area. Primary teachers meet the Irish Language Requirement; post-primary teachers study the history and structure of the Irish education system. You also need vetting and English.

Childcare: check the department’s list of recognised early years qualifications first. If yours isn’t there, apply for an assessment: it must be at least NFQ level 5, with child development, early education, child health and welfare, and a supervised placement. You get a Letter of Qualification Recognition.

Solicitors: lawyers from the EU, EFTA, New York, California, Pennsylvania, New South Wales and New Zealand, and Scottish solicitors, get a Certificate of Eligibility (usually within 6 weeks), then sit the QLTT, online, twice a year. Lawyers from elsewhere follow the standard solicitor training.

Engineers: you can work without recognition. Engineers Ireland awards the protected Chartered Engineer title.

Refugees and temporary protection

NARIC Ireland supports people with refugee status or subsidiary protection, and publishes rough guides to Ukrainian, Syrian and Afghan qualifications. Several regulators have their own routes: the Teaching Council for Ukrainian teachers with temporary protection, and the Medical Council and Dental Council for doctors and dentists with refugee or temporary protection status.

Common mix-ups

Common questions

Sources