Licensed recruitment of skilled Filipino professionals for Norwegian employers. Your company is the direct employer — we run selection in Manila, the Norwegian permit process and the Philippine exit formalities end to end. From 1 worker.
Every Norwegian project runs on the same backbone: you define the roles, headcount and start date; our own DMW-licensed agency in Manila, Prime Search, sources and trade-tests candidates; you approve the shortlist (on-site or online); and we manage the Norwegian permit process under your power of attorney while the Philippine side — contract verification, medical, pre-departure orientation and the Overseas Employment Certificate — runs in parallel. The employment contract is signed and verified before departure; your new employee lands, completes local onboarding and clocks in.
The Norwegian specifics below are the part that makes Norway different from every other market we serve.
Residence permit for skilled workers. Norway is outside the EU but inside Schengen and the EEA. Non-EU nationals need a residence permit for skilled workers: completed vocational training of at least three years at upper-secondary level corresponding to a Norwegian programme, or higher education, or special qualifications built on at least six years' experience; a concrete full-time offer (at least 80 %) at pay and conditions not poorer than the normal Norwegian level, usually the collective agreement; and authorisation first for regulated professions such as nursing. Unskilled roles are not eligible, so we qualify every profile before sourcing. The fee is NOK 6,300; applications from the Philippines are lodged through VFS Global in Manila or Cebu and decided by the Norwegian Embassy in Bangkok. Vocational-level permits are granted for up to a year at a time; permanent residence is possible after three years. UDI gives no fixed processing time and had a backlog of vocational-level cases in 2026 — in April 2026 some 779 cases were pending, 278 of them for one to two years — with the Philippines among the countries subject to additional document checks.
Labour-market test: No test; the skill requirement and the pay level are the filter.
Shortage occupations: No list; qualification level decides. Permits to third-country nationals: 10,230 in 2025, of which 852 to Filipinos — the fourth nationality after Vietnam, the United Kingdom and India.
Deploying a Filipino worker abroad is regulated by the Department of Migrant Workers (DMW). MWO London (Philippine Embassy in London) has jurisdiction for the Nordic countries — employer accreditation and contract verification; the Philippine Embassy in Oslo covers Norway and Iceland consularly. The verified contract, together with the job order approved by the DMW, allows the worker to obtain the Overseas Employment Certificate (OEC) — the exit clearance without which no Filipino worker can legally leave for a job abroad. Pre-employment orientation, medical examination at a DOH-accredited medical clinic authorised to examine overseas Filipino workers and pre-departure orientation complete the sequence. Because we operate the licensed agency ourselves, this runs in parallel with the Norwegian permit rather than after it.
Typical gate-to-gate time for Norway is No fixed processing time; vocational-level cases filed in 2025–2026 have waited many months — plan on 6–12 months from brief to arrival from signed engagement to the first arrival, driven mainly by the Norwegian permit and the embassy appointment in Manila. Sourcing and trade testing usually take two to four weeks and are not on the critical path. We give you a written timeline for your specific role before you commit.
Sectors where Norwegian employers most often hire Filipino workers through us:
Our contractual partner is the employer, and it is the employer we invoice for the service. You receive an individual offer for Norway covering sourcing, trade testing, documentation, the permit process and arrival support — there is no price list, because volumes, roles and the Norwegian route differ from project to project. Direct employment means the worker's wage is paid by you under your Norwegian contract; there is no intermediary employer.
A Norwegian employer briefs us on roles and headcount. Within two to four weeks we present trade-tested candidates from Manila with video assessments; the employer interviews online and approves. We file the residence permit for skilled workers under power of attorney while Prime Search completes the DMW documentation. The employment contracts are signed and MWO-verified before departure; on arrival the workers complete registration and local onboarding and start on the floor — with our team reachable for the first months of integration. Whether the project is one specialist or a full shift, the mechanics are identical.
Often yes, with a documented three-year vocational programme or special qualifications built on at least six years' experience; we assess documents against UDI criteria first and say so when a profile does not fit.
Not for the permit. Nurses need Norwegian at B2 on all parts, a course in national subjects and medication handling and a nurse trade test for authorisation from the Directorate of Health.
There is no fixed time for skilled-worker cases at vocational level, and UDI had a backlog of such cases in 2026 — hundreds pending, some for more than a year. We plan Norwegian recruitments on a six-to-twelve-month horizon and say so before you commit.
Through VFS Global in Manila or Cebu; the file is decided by the Norwegian Embassy in Bangkok, which has handled Philippine residence cases since 2019. The fee is NOK 6,300.