Aerospace and defence employers face a question other industries do not: not whether a Filipino technician can do the work, but what work the law lets a third-country national touch. This page puts that question first, then sets out the recruitment process in order — route, selection by test, licensing, deployment — for an MRO, an aerostructures line, a precision supplier or a defence production plant.
Nationality alone does not determine what a Filipino technician may work on. Three regimes apply, and they are not the same thing. Classified information requires a personal security clearance, which in most NATO countries is available only to citizens of the country or of EU and NATO allies — the Czech act on classified information, for example, limits personal clearances to citizens of the Czech Republic, an EU member state or a NATO member. Export-controlled technical data, technology and source code — ITAR and EAR for US-origin items, the EU dual-use regulation for European ones — may be released to a foreign person only where the applicable rules allow it: under the EAR a release to a foreign person can be a deemed export, and whether a licence is needed depends on the technology, the person's nationality and status and the circumstances; under ITAR the questions are technical data, defence services and foreign persons, with their own authorisations and exemptions. Everything else is unrestricted. The employer classifies the programme, the technical-data access, the export-control jurisdiction and the security requirements before assigning any foreign national; a Filipino workforce is typically planned around unrestricted and unclassified work, which in civil aerospace and in most defence production is the majority of the shop floor, with controlled work assigned only after that classification and, where needed, authorisation.
In practice we ask three questions per role at the brief: does the role require access to classified information (if yes, it is not a role for a third-country national); does it involve export-controlled technical data (if yes, your export-control officer decides whether an authorisation or exemption covers a Filipino employee and how the data is segregated); and is the remainder unrestricted. Most civil MRO, aerostructures, machining and defence production roles fall in the third group or can be structured to, and the structuring — a technology control plan, physical and IT access design — is done before the first interview, not after arrival.
Six to ten weeks in the Gulf once the company is accredited; three to five months in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary and Lithuania; longer in Germany, where recognition or the experience route's qualification test applies, and in Australia, where a skills assessment precedes the visa. Licensing steps run in parallel where the authority allows it and after arrival where it does not; the start date is set from the critical path, not from the flight.
Recruitment runs through our own DMW-licensed agency, Prime Search Manpower Agency Inc. in Makati (licence DMW-027-LB-11182024): your company is accredited at the Migrant Workers Office for the destination, the job order is registered with the DMW, and every worker leaves Manila with a verified contract, medical clearance, pre-departure orientation and an Overseas Employment Certificate. Recruitment follows the employer-pays principle: no technician pays for an interview, a test or a place on a shortlist. Your company is the employer from day one; we never employ or lease the workers.
Everything here is subject to the destination's immigration route, its aviation and defence regulators, export-control and security law, and Philippine DMW rules.
On unclassified, unrestricted work, yes — which is most production and maintenance. Classified work requires a personal security clearance that third-country nationals generally cannot obtain; export-controlled technical data requires an authorisation or exemption decided by your export-control officer. We plan the workforce around that split from the brief.
No — that is the employer's legal responsibility and your export-control officer's decision. We align our screening and our documentation with your programme and structure selection around the roles you have classified as open to third-country nationals.
No. CAAP licences are not converted into EASA Part-66 licences; the national authority examines the Part-66 modules and experience. Many Filipino technicians already hold Part-66 licences or completed modules from Gulf and Asian Part-147 organisations, and we present those first.
Central Europe for technicians and operators on national permits; Germany for qualified machinists and mechanics through recognition or the experience route; Austria for shortage-list machinists and welders; the UAE and Saudi Arabia on skill-level permits; Australia for aircraft maintenance engineers and trades on the Core Skills list; Malta and Lithuania for MRO roles on their routes.
Yes — send drawings, process specifications, WPS and inspection plans; candidates are tested to them at our Makati facilities while your engineers watch live.
General information for employers, not legal or migration advice. Rules change; we re-verify before each hire.