Healthcare employers who have recruited from the Philippines successfully all did the same thing first: they classified each role against the destination's rules before anyone was interviewed. This page is that process in order — what we need from you, what we decide together, what runs in parallel and what cannot.
Four things have to be true before a Filipino nurse or carer works a shift in your facility, and they are decided by four different bodies: the recruitment (the agency and you), the professional recognition of the Philippine qualification (the destination's health regulator), the immigration permit (the immigration authority) and, for regulated professions, the registration or licence to practise (the regulator or chamber). A visa does not grant recognition; recognition does not grant a visa; and neither grants the right to use a protected title until the register says so. Programmes fail when one layer is assumed from another.
In practice that means a two-week classification phase before any advertisement in Manila. For each role we establish: is the title regulated in your country; which body recognises the Philippine qualification and on what criteria; which language level the regulator requires and which level your wards need; which immigration route applies and what it requires of the employer; and in what order these decisions are taken. The answers differ enough between neighbouring countries that a plan copied from one to another fails.
Language preparation, recognition files, MWO accreditation and the DMW job order all run in parallel with selection. What cannot be parallelised is the regulator's decision: in most countries the immigration permit for a nurse depends on a recognition decision or at least a filed, complete application, and the regulator's clock starts only when the file is complete. The single most effective acceleration is a complete recognition file on the day of selection — authenticated transcripts, licence verification, curriculum hours, employment certificates in the regulator's format.
Care workers to Croatia or Malta, where the role is unregulated: three to five months from brief to arrival — in Croatia including the 15-day HZZ labour-market test, because care occupations are not on the HZZ exemption list; in Malta health and care roles are exempt from the Jobsplus vacancy rule. Care workers to Germany or Austria: the route runs through training or through nurses working as assistants, and the language level sets the calendar — nine to fourteen months is normal. Registered nurses to Germany or Austria with B2: ten to fourteen months from brief to licensed practice, with arrival possible earlier under a recognition partnership. Nurses to the Gulf: four to six months, with licensing adding two to four months before the visa. Nurses to Finland: the Supervisory Agency's decision takes at least four months from a complete file and the language requirement is the long pole. We give you a per-cohort calendar, not a single number.
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.
We can brief the market and pre-qualify, but we do not interview or make offers until the route for the role is settled. Candidates selected before the recognition and language requirements are known are the ones who wait a year or withdraw.
Yes, where the country allows it and the candidate agrees in writing to the interim title and pay — Germany's recognition partnership and Finland's care-assistant roles are examples. The offer names both the interim role and the target role, and recognition is planned, not left to the worker.
The employer, under the employer-pays principle that governs Philippine overseas recruitment and the ethical-recruitment standards of the destinations we serve. We budget it per cohort in the plan.
Open and fast for care workers: Croatia, Malta, the Gulf. Structured and language-led for nurses and assistants: Germany, Austria, Finland. Ireland for assistants on the General Employment Permit and nurses after NMBI registration. The United Kingdom only for registered nurses — the care-worker route closed to overseas applicants in July 2025. Australia for aged care under the industry labour agreement.
The Philippines is not on the WHO Health Workforce Support and Safeguards List, trains nurses for overseas practice as a matter of national policy and regulates recruitment through the DMW. Germany's Faire Anwerbung Pflege Deutschland seal and the employer-pays principle define the standard we recruit to.
General information for employers, not legal or migration advice. Rules change; we re-verify before each hire.