Long-term care is where the Philippines has the deepest workforce and where destination rules differ most. The same Filipino caregiver is an unregulated care worker in Croatia, a healthcare assistant on an employment permit in Ireland, and not a recognised care qualification in Germany. This page sets out the role levels, the mix a care home needs, and what each country calls — and allows — each level.
A residential home runs on four levels of staff and the Philippines supplies all four. Registered nurses lead care, administer medication and own documentation; care assistants and caregivers deliver personal care, mobility and nutrition support; support workers keep the home running — housekeeping, laundry, catering, activities, transport. An illustrative 60-bed home on three shifts needs about six nurses, eighteen assistants or caregivers and six support workers from overseas if the local market supplies none; most operators recruit the middle layer first and the clinical layer as recognition allows.
The names matter because the law attaches to them. In Finland the practical nurse (lähihoitaja) is a protected title and the care assistant (hoiva-avustaja) is not; in Germany the assistant titles are earned by state-regulated training and a federal 18-month Pflegefachassistenz arrives in 2027; in Ireland a healthcare assistant holds a General Employment Permit and should hold a relevant QQI Level 5 qualification after two years in the State; in Croatia and Malta the care worker is simply employed. We write the offer in the destination's title, not in the Philippine one.
Caregivers are selected by scenario at our Makati facilities — transfers and mobility, personal hygiene, feeding and hydration, dementia communication, documentation in English — with your head of care watching live and interviewing the same day; references from previous care employers are verified by us. Nurses are selected by clinical interview and a skills assessment against your care model. For every level we brief the candidate on the shift pattern, the residents, the housing, the climate and the net pay before the offer is signed, because a carer who was briefed honestly stays.
Care operators recruit in waves of ten to twenty-five, housed near the home, inducted by a named mentor, with the clinical layer following as recognition allows. Where the country attaches a language or qualification step to renewal — Croatian A1.1, Irish QQI Level 5 — the programme schedules it in year one rather than discovering it at renewal. The caregiver profile and testing are on the caregivers guide; the country details on the guides linked here.
Recruitment runs through our own DMW-licensed agency, Prime Search Manpower Agency Inc. in Makati (licence DMW-027-LB-11182024): your organisation 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 nurse or carer pays for an interview, an assessment, a language course or a place on a shortlist. Your organisation is the employer from day one; we never employ or lease the workers.
Everything here is subject to the professional-recognition, registration, language and immigration rules of the destination country and Philippine DMW rules.
No. Caregivers hold the TESDA Caregiving NC II and care-home experience; registered nurses hold a four-year BSN and a PRC licence. Many Filipino nurses work as care assistants abroad while their recognition runs, and some operators recruit nurses specifically for that reason — but the offer must say which title and which pay.
Croatia and Malta: unregulated care roles, three to five months from brief to arrival — Malta exempts health and care roles from the vacancy advert; in Croatia the 15-day HZZ labour-market test applies, because care occupations are not on the HZZ exemption list. The Gulf is comparable where the employer is already accredited.
Not as recognised care staff. Germany's routes are nurses as assistants during recognition, the state assistant trainings and the three-year Ausbildung. See the Germany care-assistants guide.
Not for new overseas applicants since July 2025. In-country switching continues during a transition expected to end in July 2028. Registered nurses remain eligible for the Health and Care Worker visa after NMC registration.
Housing near the home for the first period, a named mentor, induction in English, a shift pattern that matches the briefing, and — where the country requires it — the language or qualification step scheduled in year one. These, more than pay, decide retention.
General information for employers, not legal or migration advice. Rules change; we re-verify before each hire.