Nursing in Ireland

This guide is for a nurse registered in Nigeria who wants to work as a nurse in Ireland and has never done any of this before. It takes you from your NMCN licence to your first Irish salary, one step at a time: what you have just done, what you do now, where, what it costs, how long it takes, and what comes next. Read it once from top to bottom. Then come back to the stage you are on. Every fee, time and rule in it comes from the official page that sets it, with the date that page was read. Where a line says "nurses who did it say", it is what nurses report from their own journeys, not a rule.

Part 1. Before you start

The bodies you will deal with

The NMCN, the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria, is the council that registered you in Nigeria. It confirms your Nigerian registration to Ireland.

The NMBI, the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland, is Ireland's nursing regulator. "It is illegal to practise as a nurse or a midwife if you are not on the Register." It works in two steps: first it compares your training with Irish standards (recognition of your qualification), then it registers you. You deal with it online, on MyNMBI, its portal.

The aptitude test and the adaptation programme are the NMBI's two compensation measures: the extra step it asks of a nurse whose training does not match Irish training in every part. The aptitude test is an exam in two parts, a written exam on a computer and a practical exam, run by the RCSI (the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland) in Dublin. The adaptation programme is a placement of 7 to 12 weeks in an Irish hospital, where you work under supervision and are assessed. Both are done in Ireland. You do one of them, not both.

The HSE, the Health Service Executive, is Ireland's public health service. Private hospitals and nursing homes also employ nurses.

The Department of Justice runs the Irish Immigration Service. It gives the Atypical Working Scheme letter that lets a nurse from outside Europe come to Ireland to do her compensation measure, decides your visa through the Embassy of Ireland in Abuja, and registers you once you arrive. Your Irish Residence Permit (IRP) is the card it gives you at registration, and the stamp on it is your permission to stay: Stamp 1 lets you work on an employment permit; Stamp 4 lets you work in any job without one.

The Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment gives the Critical Skills Employment Permit, the work permit for a registered nurse. Registered nurses are on its Critical Skills Occupations List.

Your PPS number (Personal Public Service number) is the number your tax and your pay are recorded under in Ireland.

What the NMBI will ask of you

A nurse trained in Nigeria is in the NMBI's group G3: "These applications are not regulated by the EU Directive. G3 applications undergo both administrative and qualification assessments." An education assessor compares your transcript with Irish training. Then the NMBI gives one of four outcomes: your qualification is recognised; it needs more information; you must complete a compensation measure; or it provisionally refuses recognition. The NMBI's own answers for applicants from outside the EU give the shares: recognised "in less than 5% of non-EU overseas applications"; "A compensation measure is required. (This happens in 95% of applications)"; not recognised "in 1% of cases". So plan from the start on a compensation measure.

A compensation measure is done in Ireland. To be in Ireland for it, a nurse from Nigeria needs the Atypical Working Scheme letter, and that letter needs a contract of employment from an Irish employer. So the job comes before the measure, whichever measure you take.

The route this guide takes: Adaptation

The route this guide walks is adaptation, the measure the HSE's guide describes for its candidate nurses; it says only "Some hospitals or services use the RCSI Aptitude Test instead". Nurses who did it say the employer decides which measure you do, and you choose the same one in MyNMBI (Stage 6). You get your papers ready, pass your English, apply to the NMBI and receive its decision letter. Then you get a job with an Irish employer that runs an adaptation programme, come to Ireland on the Atypical Working Scheme, do the programme in its hospital, register with the NMBI, and your employer gets your Critical Skills Employment Permit.

Here is why this is the route to take today.

The NMBI's decision comes before any job, in its own words. The NMBI "strongly advises that you: 1. do not to move to Ireland, or leave your current employment, based on the expectation that your application for registration will be successful ... 2. do not to apply for nursing or midwifery positions until you have received a registration decision. We cannot fast-track applications based on offers of employment". So in Ireland you cannot look for a job first and register later: you apply for jobs the week the decision letter comes.

Adaptation needs an employer first, and so does the aptitude test. For adaptation the NMBI says: "You or your potential employer must contact healthcare facilities to secure an adaptation placement. We do not organise adaptation periods for our applicants." The Atypical Working Scheme letter that brings you to Ireland for it needs "a contract of employment from the prospective employer", of at least two years. For the aptitude test, RCSI asks a nurse who holds no European, Swiss, UK or Irish residence papers for "An Atypical Working Scheme (AWS) letter of approval that is linked to your prospective employer". A UK PIN is not a UK residence paper: a nurse in Nigeria with a UK PIN still needs the AWS letter. So on both options, the job comes straight after the decision letter and before the measure.

On adaptation you earn a salary from your first week, and the employer runs it. The HSE's guide for international staff: "During the adaptation period, you will be paid and referred to as a Candidate Nurse or Candidate Midwife." The HSE's guide also says your first pay may take up to two months to reach you (Stage 10). The HSE pays the grade STAFF NURSE (ADAPTATION PLACEMENT) EUR 33,370 a year (about ₦49.7 million). The HSE's guide also says "Some hospitals or services use the RCSI Aptitude Test instead of an adaptation programme". The aptitude test costs EUR 2,800 (about ₦4.17 million), and RCSI lists "Sufficient means to live in the Republic of Ireland prior to earning a salary" among the costs. Nurses who did it say the employer decides which measure it runs: agencies interview nurses who hold a decision letter, make an offer, then "book candidate's adaptation in one of approved facilities in Ireland or book exam through the RCSI".

What it asks of you. Money, by when you pay it. Before you have a job (Stages 2 to 6): about ₦0.90 million (the NMCN's ₦75,625 and its new letter's ₦8,750, IELTS's ₦299,000 and the NMBI's EUR 350), plus the certifier. After you sign your contract (Stages 7 to 10): about ₦0.91 million more in fees (the Atypical Working Scheme, the visa and your IRP), your flight, and the HSE's set-up figure of about ₦5.95 million (its guide says to have "in the region of €4000" to get set up on arrival, and that "It may take up to two months before you are paid"). That is about ₦7.76 million before your first Irish pay, plus your flight. The HSE's relocation package can cover up to EUR 4,710 (about ₦7.01 million) of it. The HSE's package is for nurses the HSE hires. A private hospital sets its own: ask it in writing what it pays before you sign (Stage 7). Some costs are paid directly for you. Others you claim back on receipts after you start (Stage 14), so you hold that money yourself first. Before you sign, ask in writing which costs your employer pays directly (Stage 7). A visa that can be refused, decided in Abuja. A decision letter that lasts 12 months, while you look for a job. Time apart from your spouse and children: they may not come with you on the Atypical Working Scheme. Their join family visa is applied for once your permit is granted, and the Immigration Service says to expect a decision "within 12 months" of it holding every paper (Stage 14). And the job market of 2026: the Journal, an Irish news website, reported in May 2026 that the HSE paused recruitment to some posts that are not frontline over an overspend, and that the INMO, the nurses' union, counts over 5,000 vacant nursing and midwifery posts; Nursing Times reported in October 2026 that new Irish graduates were still waiting for contracts. Look at the jobs before you pay anything ("Check that you can start", below).

The aptitude test, if your employer uses it

The aptitude test is the other option. Everything up to the job is the same. Then your employer gives you a contract linked to an RCSI test date, you come to Ireland on the Atypical Working Scheme, and you sit both parts at the Smurfit Building, Beaumont Hospital, Dublin. What changes:

• The fee. EUR 2,800 (about ₦4.17 million), or EUR 2,500 (about ₦3.72 million) when an employer entitled to the discount pays RCSI directly. Ask in writing who pays it before you sign (Stage 7).
• The dates. RCSI holds the test on set weekends, with none in July or December; a date opens 3.5 to 4.5 months ahead.
• No pay until you are registered. You do not work as a nurse while you wait for the test or its result.

Stages 1 to 6, 9, 10, 12 and 14 are the same on both options. Stages 8 and 11 have their own section for the aptitude test, and Stages 7 and 13 a short "On the aptitude test" note.

If you trained as a psychiatric nurse or a midwife, take adaptation. The NMBI's own papers disagree on whether a psychiatric nurse may take the aptitude test, and every NMBI source says a midwife has adaptation only. This guide walks a general nurse (RN), registering in the NMBI's General Nurses Division.

If you are also doing the UK, New Zealand or Australia

Many nurses apply to more than one country at the same time. If Ireland is your only country, skip to Check that you can start. Here is what you do once, what you do again, and what each registration opens.

Your English: one sitting can serve the NMBI and the NMC. The NMBI asks for IELTS Academic 7.0 overall, with 7.0 in three parts and 6.5 in one; or OET (Nursing) B (350) in three parts and C+ (300) in one. The NMC, the UK's nursing regulator, asks for IELTS Academic 7 in listening, reading and speaking and 6.5 in writing, or OET B (350) in listening, reading and speaking and C+ (300) in writing. A result of 7, 7, 6.5 in writing and 7 meets both: IELTS rounds the average of 6.875 up to an overall 7.0. The NMBI's rules are stricter than the NMC's on three points: it takes "one test result (one sitting)" and never two sittings combined; it does not take OET at home or IELTS online; and it does not take IELTS One Skill Retake. So sit it at a test centre, on a computer, and pass in one sitting. Each body has its own rule for the result's age:

Your NMCN verification: one request for each country. For the UK the NMCN verifies you to the NMC, at ₦17,500 on its verification page or ₦21,875 on its fee schedule. For Ireland it is a separate request: ask the NMCN which destination to choose first (Stage 2). Its fees are ₦66,875 for verification (the NMCN's general fee, Verification (Per Certificate)) and ₦8,750 for a letter of good standing. The papers inside are the same: your licence, your certificates of registration, your birth certificate.

Your police certificate. The NMBI asks for none, and the Irish employment visa's list names none. Your employer asks for one: the HSE wants police clearance for every country where you have had an address for 6 months or more since your 16th birthday (Stage 7). The Nigeria Police Force's certificate is the Police Character Certificate, applied for on Police Services, the same certificate the UK asks for.

What does not carry over. The UK CBT and the UK OSCE: the NMBI names no UK exam among the compensation measures. The UK TB test: the Irish visa asks for no medical; the HSE's own health assessment comes with the job (Stage 7).

Does Ireland take your UK PIN? No. Ireland does not take your UK registration in place of its own. The NMBI places you by where you trained, so a nurse trained in Nigeria is in group G3 even with a UK PIN (the number the NMC gives a nurse when it registers her): the same education assessment, the same compensation measure, and an Irish employer before it. A CBT pass alone opens nothing in Ireland. Your UK registration opens two things:

• English without a test, after three years of UK practice. The NMBI's English Pathway 2: you "must be able to prove that you have 3 years post registration practice within the last five years" in the UK, Australia, Canada, New Zealand or the USA, with a letter on headed paper or an email from your employer or nursing authority stating where you worked, your dates, your job title, and that you practised as a nurse "primarily through English". A nurse registered in the UK in 2026 does not have the three years yet: she sits the test.
• A second certificate of good standing. The NMBI wants a certificate of current professional status (CCPS) from every regulator you are or were registered with, each issued in the last six months, at the recognition step. So the NMC must issue you one as well as the NMCN. You request it in your MyNMC account, under My Registration; the NMC says "usually within 24 hours", uploads it to your account, emails the NMBI that it is ready to download, and says "The certificate is only valid for three months from the date we issue it". The NMC asks you to request it "after you've applied to register in the country you want to practise in", so you request it once everything else is uploaded to your MyNMBI draft (Stage 5, Step 2). Ask the NMC its fee when you request it.

The Common Travel Area does not cover you. "Within the CTA, Irish and British citizens can travel freely." It is for citizens. A UK visa does not let a Nigerian enter Ireland: "a valid UK visa does not entitle you to travel to Ireland without a visa." And an Irish visa does not let you enter the UK.

What Irish registration opens later.

• The UK. The NMC counts Ireland among the countries where English is the majority language. A year of registered practice there, within the last two years, with an English test taken for that registration, can serve as your English evidence for the NMC. Your time as a candidate nurse on adaptation is not registered practice. A nurse trained in Nigeria and on the NMBI's register still takes the NMC's ordinary route for nurses trained abroad.
• New Zealand. The Council's English pathway by registration names Ireland: "You have current nursing registration in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada, or the United States of America that required you to pass an English language test." It is at the Council's discretion, and the Council's tests of competence still apply to a nurse educated in Nigeria. TruMerit, which checks papers for the Council, asks you to use 1,800 hours as a registered nurse in Ireland in the last 10 years first, if you have them.
• Australia. Ireland is on the board's list of comparable countries for its shorter route, "Pathway 2", which removes "the need for NMBA examinations". It asks for a first nursing qualification dated on or after 1 January 2017, "Successful completion of a regulatory examination process for internationally qualified registered nurses" in a comparable country, registration there since 1 January 2017, and 1,800 hours of practice there. Before you count on it, ask Ahpra, the agency that registers nurses for the board, whether the NMBI's adaptation programme or its aptitude test counts as that examination process: give your Nigerian qualification date, your NMBI registration and the measure you passed, and ask whether you meet "Pathway 2". The NMBI's own pages name no shorter route into Australia or New Zealand. Ireland is also a recognised country for the board's English rule, so continuous work as a registered nurse in Ireland keeps a test result valid there.

If you have passed the UK CBT. What is left in the UK: the NMC's £167 (about ₦293,419), the visitor visa's £135 (about ₦237,195), the OSCE's £794 (about ₦1.40 million), £182 (about ₦319,774) at registration, and one trip. What Ireland asks of you from the start: about ₦2.03 million in fees for you alone, about ₦7.76 million before your first Irish pay, plus your flight (Part 7), an Irish employer before your measure, and a visa from Abuja. Put the two side by side before you decide. Your English result can serve both, if it meets the NMBI's one-sitting rule.

If you hold a UK PIN. In the UK only a job is left: an employer on the Register of licensed sponsors, then your Health and Care Worker visa, £324 (about ₦569,268) for up to three years or £628 (about ₦1.10 million) for more, with no health surcharge. In Ireland you start again at Stage 1: about ₦2.03 million in fees for you alone, about ₦7.76 million before your first Irish pay, plus your flight (Part 7), about 18 months from your Stage 5 submission to registration by the NMBI's own average with a measure (95% of nurses from outside the EU get one), your NMCN letter, forms and English before it, your permit after it, and an Irish employer before your measure. Both need a job. Put the two side by side before you pay the NMBI.

Check that you can start

Your licence. Keep your NMCN licence current from the start. The NMBI wants a certificate of good standing from the NMCN issued "within the 6-month period prior to the submission date of your application", so your licence must be current when the NMCN issues the letter and while the NMBI works, and you time your NMCN request (Stage 2) for the six months before you submit at Stage 5.

Your name. If you have just married, or your name or date of birth differs on any paper, fix that first: it sets your start (Stage 1, If you have just married).

Your training. The NMBI's assessor weighs "the duration and type of your education programme(s)", your hours of theory and clinical training, and your experience after you qualified. Its warning: "if your nursing or midwifery programme was less than 3 years in duration and you have not studied an extra course, it is likely that your application will not meet the threshold for a compensation measure." The NMBI's warning turns on the length of your programme, not its name: the Critical Skills permit takes "a third level degree or diploma accepted by the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland" (third level means education after secondary school). If your School of Nursing or BNSc programme ran three years or more, this warning is not about you, and you can start Stage 1. The assessor still weighs your hours and your experience (Stage 6). If it ran under three years, email G3reg@nmbi.ie before you pay anything: give your qualification, your school, your years of training and any course you did after it; name any post-basic course, such as midwifery, and ask whether it counts as an extra course; and ask whether your application can meet the threshold. Keep the reply.

Your division. A nurse who qualified as a general nurse applies to the General Nurses Division (RGN). If you also hold midwifery, register as a general nurse first: a second division is a separate recognition application, and the NMBI assesses your general nurse registration first. The NMBI's fee table prints EUR 200 (about ₦297,600) for an additional division; its application pages waive the recognition fee if you submit the second application within seven days of the first. Ask G3reg@nmbi.ie which applies to you before you submit the second.

What nurses say the NMCN asks. Nurses who applied for NMCN verification in 2025 and 2026 describe guidelines the NMCN brought in on 1 March 2024: two years after what they call the "permanent licence" before you may apply, no "provisional licence", at least six months left on your licence, letters of good standing sent straight to the NMCN by your nursing school and your last employer, and a minimum of six months to process. If you may be within two years of your first full practising licence, email info@nmcn.gov.ng before you pay anybody: give your RN number and the dates on each of your licences, ask which date counts and whether you may apply now, and keep the reply.

Look at the jobs before you pay anything. Look now; apply only after the decision letter. Spend one week on it:

• Search the HSE's job search, opens in a new tab under the category Nursing and Midwifery. Its Grade filter includes "Staff Nurse (Adaptation Placement) - General 2861": that is the grade an HSE hospital hires a nurse on before her NMBI registration. On 10 October 2026 the search showed 269 results in all.
• Register on HSE Career Hub, opens in a new tab for weekly job alerts. It takes an email address, your name and a password, and "less than 5 minutes".
• Read the HSE's list of its five partner agencies, opens in a new tab for staff nurse recruitment (Stage 7) and the NMBI's list of adaptation sites, opens in a new tab, by county. Note which hospitals advertise and where.

If you find adverts on the adaptation grade, write the three letters below (The WHO list). If you find none, keep looking each week before you pay the NMBI: the decision letter's 12 months start the day it is issued, and the job must come inside them.

The WHO list. Nigeria is on the WHO's 2023 health workforce support and safeguards list, which "guides ethical recruitment practices". The Journal reported in May 2023 that the HSE's recruitment suppliers ceased active recruitment in Nigeria. Nurses who did it report that Nigerian nurses still join by applying themselves. Same as the UK: Nigeria is on the UK's red list too, and the UK's list "doesn't prevent individual health and social care personnel from independently applying". Before you pay the NMBI, write to the recruitment contact on two HSE adverts and to one of the five agencies on the HSE's partner agencies page, opens in a new tab. Ask whether they take a nurse who trained and lives in Nigeria, and keep the replies. This is a question, not a job application, so it keeps to the NMBI's rule against applying before the decision. Wait two weeks for the replies. Start Stage 1 only when one says yes. If all say no, write with the same question to the private hospitals on the NMBI's adaptation list (Stage 7, Step 1). If none of them says yes, do not pay the NMBI. When you apply (Stage 7), start with the employers and agencies that said yes. Before you apply anywhere else, ask the contact on its advert the same question.

The money. Count it now: about ₦7.76 million before your first Irish pay, plus your flight (Part 7). You need only the first ₦0.90 million to reach your decision letter. Count the rest before you sign a contract. Do not sign until your employer's written answer (Stage 7) shows which costs it pays directly and how much you must hold yourself until it pays you back, and you hold that sum. The visa asks for bank statements for the last six months, and the Embassy in Abuja does not accept "micro-finance statements, mortgage statements, statements from thrift and savings societies" (Stage 9). The Irish Immigration Service's finance page for its short stay visas says "There is no minimum amount of finance for approving or refusing a visa application. The visa officer will decide if you have enough based on your own circumstances." Before you lodge, ask the Embassy of Ireland in Abuja, through its web form under Visa queries, what an Atypical Working Scheme nurse's statements should show. Nurses who did it report a nurse on the adaptation route refused her visa "because of insufficient fund in my account". Keep money in your own account from now.

If someone has already sent you a job offer. Check the agency on the Workplace Relations Commission's list of licensed employment agencies before you trust it or pay anyone anything (Stage 7). A licensed agency must state "that you will never charge a candidate a fee".

Part 2. The whole journey on one page

Stage 1. Your Nigerian documents. Put your papers in one folder with your name and date of birth the same on all, and have certified copies made. Free, apart from the certifier's fee. If you have just married, your name change comes first and sets your start: ₦10,937 to the NMCN, plus the affidavit, the newspaper notice and your passport (Stage 1, If you have just married).

Stage 2. Your NMCN letter for the NMBI. Apply on the NMCN's licence portal for verification and a letter of good standing for the NMBI. ₦66,875 and ₦8,750. Plan on six months.

Stage 3. Your school's and your employer's forms. Your school fills the NMBI's General Nursing Qualification Form and gives you your transcript in clock hours; your employer fills the NMBI's Employment Form. Free, apart from what your school charges.

Stage 4. Your English. Pass IELTS Academic or OET in one sitting at the NMBI's scores. ₦299,000 for IELTS Academic on computer at an IDP centre. Results in 1 to 5 days on computer.

Stage 5. Your recognition application. Open MyNMBI, upload everything, verify your identity and pay. EUR 350 (about ₦520,800). About 3 months to a decision once the NMBI holds every document.

Stage 6. Your decision letter. Read the outcome and choose your compensation measure in MyNMBI. The letter lasts 12 months.

Stage 7. Get a job in Ireland. Apply to the HSE, its partner agencies and private employers for a post with an adaptation programme, and sign a contract of at least two years. Nobody may charge you for a job.

Stage 8. Your Atypical Working Scheme letter. Apply online from Nigeria, with your contract and the hospital's letter. EUR 250 (about ₦372,000). At least 20 working days.

Stage 9. Your visa. Apply for a long stay (D) visa in Abuja through VFS. The naira equivalent of EUR 60 (about ₦89,280), plus VFS's own fee. About 8 weeks; the Embassy recommends applying twelve weeks ahead.

Stage 10. Travel, land and register. Enter Ireland within 90 days of your AWS letter, register your permission and get your IRP. EUR 300 (about ₦446,400). Your PPS number and a bank account.

Stage 11. Your adaptation programme. One week of orientation and at least six weeks of supervised practice in your hospital, paid as a candidate nurse. At most 12 weeks.

Stage 12. Your registration. Apply to register on MyNMBI. EUR 145 (about ₦215,760). About 20 working days.

Stage 13. Your Critical Skills Employment Permit. Your employer applies once you are registered, inside your six months on the Atypical Working Scheme. EUR 1,000, which the law does not allow your employer to take back from you. Then register your permission on the permit.

Stage 14. Your first weeks as a staff nurse. Your tax, your first pay, a doctor, a home, and your family.

The money. About ₦2.03 million in fees for you alone (the NMCN's two letters, IELTS, the NMBI's two fees, the Atypical Working Scheme, the visa and your IRP), and about ₦7.76 million before your first Irish pay, plus your flight (Part 7). If your English result already serves the NMBI (Part 5), take ₦299,000 off. If the HSE hires you, its relocation package can cover some of this (Stage 7). Part 7 has every fee.

The time. The NMBI's own figures: "It takes successful applicants on average 13 months from submission of documentation to registration", and "Including compensation measures it may take on average, 18 months for both qualification recognition and registration to be completed." Your papers and the NMCN come before that, and the permit after it. Your fixed limits are the NMBI's six months for a missing document, the decision letter's 12 months, and the Atypical Working Scheme's six months in Ireland (Part 4).

On the aptitude test the order is the same. At Stage 8 you also apply to RCSI, pay EUR 2,800 and take the test date it offers, and the Atypical Working Scheme letter rests on that date; Stage 11 is the test in Dublin, not the adaptation programme.

Part 3. Stage by stage

Stage 1. Your Nigerian documents

You can start. Now put your papers in order. The NMBI checks your identity against your passport, and it checks the name on your MyNMBI account against your current passport again before your registration. Get your name right on every paper before you pay anybody.

Step 1. Put your papers in one folder

Do. Gather your papers and check that your name and date of birth read the same on every one: your birth certificate, your passport, your nursing certificates, your NMCN licence and certificates of registration, and your transcript. Fix any difference before you pay any fee.

What you need.

• Your nursing qualification certificate (the NMBI calls it the qualification parchment).
• Your certificates of registration and your current practising licence.
• Your birth certificate or declaration of age.
• A current passport. "Passport is the primary identity document", and "Expired documents will not be accepted." A first Nigerian passport is applied for and paid for on passport.immigration.gov.ng, opens in a new tab. The 2026 fees are ₦100,000 for 32 pages valid 5 years and ₦200,000 for 64 pages valid 10 years, "Exclusive of Bank Charges", 42 days after your enrolment.
• If your name has changed, the paper that shows both names: a marriage certificate, your birth certificate or a deed poll.
• Your English test booked in the name on your current passport, the name you will use on MyNMBI (Stage 4). If you are changing your name, change your passport before you book.

Where. Your school's records office, your hospital and your own records. The NMBI's page for the whole process is Qualified outside the EU, opens in a new tab.

Cost and time. Free, unless you must correct a paper.

You are done when every paper is in one folder, and your name and date of birth read the same on all of them.

If you have just married. Choose one name for the whole journey. Keeping your maiden name lets you start Stage 2 now. Changing it adds the affidavit, the newspaper notice, 42 days for your passport and the NMCN's change. Either way, your family's visa needs your marriage certificate (Stage 14). If it is your married name, use one court affidavit and one newspaper notice for both the passport and the NMCN. In this order: 1. the court affidavit and the newspaper notice; 2. your passport (42 days after your enrolment); 3. your NMCN surname change (ask the NMCN its time when you apply); 4. then Stage 2 and your English booking. Your name change sets your start. The NMCN changes only a married woman's surname, and your Stage 2 letter must carry your married name. Ask the court registry where you swear the affidavit its fee and when it is ready. The newspaper charges for the notice on top of the NMCN's fee: ask the newspaper its price before you book it. Then open MyNMBI in that name and upload a certified copy of your marriage certificate for the old name on your school papers, your employers' forms and your older NMCN certificates. If you are married, plan to have your marriage certificate authenticated at the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Abuja: your family's join family visa needs it (Stage 14), and your own visa may (Stage 9). Ask the Ministry its fee and its time before you go. If you keep your maiden name, keep it on every paper until you are registered. Same as the UK: the NMC checks your name against your passport too, so one change serves both.

If your names do not match. The NMCN changes a name only for a married woman, and only her surname. You apply on its licence portal, licence.nmcn.gov.ng, opens in a new tab, uploading your certificates of registration, your marriage certificate or a sworn court affidavit of marriage, and a full-page notice in a national newspaper, and you pay ₦10,937 through Remita on the portal. The NMCN accepts no change of first or middle names, and no change of name for a man: "Only three consistent names in full will be acceptable for all the records of Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria records." Your NMCN record keeps three names. If you add your married surname, one name goes. Choose which before you change your passport, so the passport and the NMCN match. Before you change your passport, email info@nmcn.gov.ng with your RN number and the three names you want on your record, and keep the reply. For a wrong date of birth or a misspelt name on your NMCN papers, write to your NMCN zone office (the contacts are in Stage 2) with scans of the papers that differ, and ask what it accepts.

If your passport needs changing. You apply online to the Nigeria Immigration Service and take your payment and appointment slips to the passport office you chose. After a marriage, you upload your birth certificate or declaration of age, your state of origin certificate, an application letter, your marriage certificate, a court affidavit, a newspaper notice and your passport data page. To correct an error in your passport, the administrative charge is ₦30,000: ask the passport office whether a change after marriage takes it. A change of data takes 42 days after your enrolment.

From nurses who did it. Nurses report applications to the NMBI put "on hold" because the date of birth on the NMCN record differed from other papers. A nurse who applied in 2024 says MyNMBI has no middle-name field: "First name = first name, middle name ... Last name = Surname". Enter your names exactly as your passport prints them.

Next. Your certified copies.

Step 2. Get your certified copies

Your papers are in one folder. Now have copies certified, ready to upload to MyNMBI.

Do. Take each original and a photocopy to a certifier. "The certifying authority must confirm they have seen the original document. They must state their full name and profession, and stamp, sign and date the photocopy of the document." The copy must be "a photocopy of the original document, not a photocopy of a photocopy or a fax". Then scan or photograph the certified copy: "A copy or a picture of this must be uploaded as part of your application."

Which copies are certified. Your current passport; any evidence of a change of name (a marriage certificate, a birth certificate, a deed poll); your qualification parchment; your transcript; your registration certificate; and any certified translation.

Who may certify. The NMBI lists: "Solicitor or Lawyer, Notary public, Peace Commissioner, Justice of the Peace, Commissioner for Oaths, Post Office, United Kingdom only." Use a notary public or a lawyer. A Commissioner for Oaths is on the NMBI's list, but if you use one at a Nigerian court, email G3reg@nmbi.ie first and ask whether it accepts the copy.

Your passport file. Upload it "clear, close up and in full colour with a minimum quality of 300dpi" (dots per inch, the scanner's quality setting), as a PDF, with the MRZ (the machine-readable lines at the bottom) not covered.

Translations. Any paper not in English needs a translation "Carried out by a qualified translator", signed, stamped and dated by the translator, who confirms in English that it is exact and gives a telephone number, an address and an email address. You pay for it.

Where. A notary public or a lawyer. The NMBI's page is Certifying Documents and Translations, opens in a new tab.

Cost. The certifier's fee is yours to pay. Ask the certifier the fee before the copies are made.

You are done when you hold certified copies of your passport, your parchment and your registration certificate, each stamped, signed and dated with the certifier's full name and profession, and a 300dpi colour PDF of your passport.

If it goes wrong. "Please note that failing to provide certified copies will delay how quickly NMBI can process your application." If your passport ends within about three years of today, renew it now: your papers and the NMBI's average of 18 months to registration come before you travel, and the visa (Stage 9) needs twelve months left after you arrive. The NMBI also checks your MyNMBI name against your current passport before your registration.

Same as the UK. The same folder of originals serves your NMC application. The NMC takes scans; the NMBI takes certified copies.

Next. Your NMCN letter for the NMBI (Stage 2). Start Stage 3 the same week.

The NMBI's pages were read on 8 and 10 October 2026; the NMCN's and the Nigeria Immigration Service's on 8, 9 and 10 October 2026.

Stage 2. Your NMCN letter for the NMBI

Your papers are in order. Now ask the NMCN for the certificate the NMBI calls a CCPS. The NMBI: "You will need to provide a Certificate of Current Professional Status (CCPS), otherwise known as a Certificate of Good Standing from all the countries or jurisdictions where you are currently or were previously registered." It must be issued "within the 6-month period prior to the submission date of your application".

Do. Apply on the NMCN's licence portal for verification of your registration and a letter of good standing, for the NMBI. Since 1 September 2021 the NMCN takes verification only online, in three parts: you start with your RN or RM number and your email address, you pay by card or internet banking, then you fill in the form, upload your documents and submit. The NMCN's 2021 circular says you cannot apply until you have completed your Professional Update Form on its portal. If the portal asks for it, complete it first.

Ask the NMCN first. Before you pay, email info@nmcn.gov.ng. Give your RN number, say the letter is for the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland, and ask four things: which destination to choose on the portal, whether the NMBI's CCPS is the NMCN's letter of good standing or its verification, whether the NMCN sends it to the NMBI directly or gives it to you to upload, and how many certificates you pay the ₦66,875 verification for. Keep the reply. If no reply comes in two weeks, call 0702 923 4588, or go to your zone office (If it goes wrong, below) with your RN number and a printed copy of your email.

What you need.

• An application letter stating the purpose and the destination (the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland, 18/20 Carysfort Avenue, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, A94 R299, Ireland).
• The verification form, filled in on the portal.
• A copy of your current practising licence.
• Copies of your certificates of registration.
• A copy of your birth certificate or declaration of age.
• A card or internet banking to pay online.

Where. licence.nmcn.gov.ng, opens in a new tab: register with REGISTER, sign in, then Verification Services. The list of papers is on the NMCN's verification page, opens in a new tab.

Cost. ₦66,875 for verification of certificates of registration, and ₦8,750 for a letter of good standing, which needs the verification's papers too: ₦75,625 together, paid through Remita. Pay the amount the NMCN's reply and the portal give, and keep the receipt.

Time. Plan on six months: nurses who applied for the UK in 2025 and 2026 describe a minimum of six months, though a nurse who applied for Ireland in 2024 said two to six weeks. Apply this week, and start Stage 3 the same week.

When it comes. On MyNMBI you upload the CCPS, enter its date of issue, and tick a box if the council is sending it to the NMBI directly (Stage 5). Its issue date must be within six months before you submit. If it will be more than six months old on the day you submit at Stage 5, ask the NMCN for a new letter of good standing, ₦8,750 (the letter on its own), and ask whether it wants verification again.

You are done when you hold the NMCN's letter of good standing, or the NMCN has written that it has sent it to the NMBI, dated within six months of the day you will submit.

If it goes wrong. Call 0702 923 4588 or email info@nmcn.gov.ng, 8am to 4pm, Monday to Friday. The Lagos zone office in Yaba answers on 08064703003 and lagoszo@nmcn.gov.ng, the Ibadan office on 08136791857 and ibadanzo@nmcn.gov.ng, and the head office in Abuja on 08035056323 and abujazo@nmcn.gov.ng. The full list is on the NMCN's offices page, opens in a new tab. If you cannot get the CCPS at all, MyNMBI lets you tick a box and give an explanation; do that only after the NMCN has answered you in writing.

From nurses who did it. Nurses who applied to the NMCN in 2025 and 2026 put it among the two longest waits. The problems they report most are slow or missing letters from the school or the last employer, the wrong destination chosen, and a name that differs across papers. Call your school's head of department and your last head of nursing this week, and tell them the NMCN will write.

Same as the UK. This is a separate NMCN request, with its own fee. ₦66,875 is the NMCN's general fee, Verification (Per Certificate). The UK has its own lower fee, ₦17,500 on its verification page or ₦21,875 on its fee schedule.

If you have been registered anywhere else. The NMBI wants a CCPS from every regulator you are or were registered with, each issued in the last six months. If that is the NMC, you request its certificate at Stage 5, Step 2.

Next. Your school's and your employer's forms (Stage 3), at the same time.

The NMCN's pages were read on 7, 8, 9 and 10 October 2026; the NMBI's on 8 and 10 October 2026.

Stage 3. Your school's and your employer's forms

Your NMCN request is in. Now, at the same time, get the two NMBI forms that only your school and your employer can fill. They are the papers nurses say come slowest. Download both from the NMBI's Application Forms page, opens in a new tab. "Please make sure to use the correct form for the division to which you are applying": for a general nurse, the General Nursing Qualification Form.

Step 1. Your school: the qualification form, the transcript and the syllabus

Do. Take the General Nursing Qualification Form to your nursing school. "Sections A to C are to be completed by the Head of Nursing Education" (in a university, the Head of Department of Nursing Science), or the registrar. Ask the school for three things, each dated, signed and stamped:

• The completed form. Section C carries the school's signature, the signer's name and title, a work email, the school's official email, website and address, the date and the official stamp. "Incomplete forms will not be processed and will be returned."
• Your official transcript. "The transcript must contain a breakdown of education in clock hours. Theory and clinical hours must be outlined separately." A transcript in credit units only does not show clock hours: ask the school to state your theory and clinical hours, or email G3reg@nmbi.ie as below. If your school says it does not keep clock hours, or your school has closed or become a College of Nursing Sciences, email G3reg@nmbi.ie before you submit. Give your school's name and what it can give you, and ask what the NMBI accepts in place of clock hours. Clinical hours are hours of direct patient care; "clinical laboratory hours or simulated learning hours are counted as theory". The form asks for your clinical hours by area: general and specialist medicine; general and specialist surgery; care of the older person; primary health care and community nursing; emergency department; operating theatre; child care and paediatrics; mental health and psychiatry; maternity care; other.
• Your official curriculum or programme syllabus.

"Once completed, it should be returned to the applicant." The school gives the form back to you, and you upload it; the NMBI "may contact the HEI to clarify and validate the information provided" (the HEI is your school: the NMBI's word for a college). If the school prefers to send the form to the NMBI itself, you tick that in MyNMBI (Stage 5).

Then. Have the transcript and your parchment certified (Stage 1, Step 2). You upload "the completed qualification form, the certified copy of the transcript and the certified copy of the qualification parchment".

The syllabus. The NMBI's user guide says both "Your course syllabus is not required" and, in its glossary, to upload "a certified copy of the transcript/syllabus"; its answers add that the assessors "may require further information from you in certain cases such as a syllabus or course handbook". Ask the school for the syllabus anyway, signed and stamped, and keep it ready: if the NMBI asks, you send it the same week.

Cost and time. Ask your school what it charges and when it will finish.

You are done when you hold the completed form, the transcript in clock hours with theory and clinical hours apart, and the syllabus, each signed and stamped by the school.

Step 2. Your employer: the Employment Form

Do. Give the NMBI's Employment Form to each hospital you have worked in as a nurse. "This form must be completed by the director of nursing or midwifery, matron, nurse or midwife manager in the applicant's current or previous place of employment" (in a Nigerian hospital, the Director of Nursing Services or the Chief Nursing Officer). "It should not be completed by the applicant. Please include the employer stamp on the form." Each row records your unit, your title, your duties, your level, your dates (day, month, year) and your hours a week.

Why it matters. "This form is mandatory for G3 applicants". Without the employer forms, the NMBI's guide says, your PQE (your experience after you qualified) is not counted. The assessor uses that experience "to address deficits identified in the education programme": the more of your experience the forms show, the more the NMBI can weigh.

You are done when you hold a stamped Employment Form from each employer.

If it goes wrong. If a form comes after you have submitted, "you will need to send the form by email to G3reg@nmbi.ie". If you cannot get a qualification form at all, MyNMBI lets you say so and explain why. If your director of nursing will not sign, the form names others who may: a matron, or a nurse or midwife manager, at that hospital. MyNMBI's "unable to obtain" box is for the qualification form only, and experience without an Employment Form is not counted (Why it matters). So chase each employer's form the week you start.

From nurses who did it. Nurses who applied say the surprise was that the NMBI wants the school to fill its own form and give the transcript and the syllabus, not just a certificate. Get both forms moving the week you start, because the slowest papers set your date.

Same as the UK. For the NMC, the NMCN verifies you and you send your qualification certificate; the NMC has no school form or employer form. Both are Ireland's alone.

Next. Your English (Stage 4), while the school and your employer work.

The NMBI's forms and pages were read on 8, 9 and 10 October 2026.

Stage 4. Your English

Your forms are with your school and your employer. Now pass your English test. A nurse trained in Nigeria takes the NMBI's Pathway 3, a test: the routes by training or practice in English name only Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the USA and the UK.

The scores. IELTS Academic (or IELTS Academic for UKVI, the same test, booked for UK visas): "Overall IELTS score of 7.0 with a minimum of 7.0 in any three components and 6.5 in any one component." Or OET (Nursing): "Grade B in three components and C+ in one component", that is B (350 to 450) in three and C+ (300 to 340) in one. Some agency pages still say IELTS 7.0 in every part, or OET B in all four: the NMBI asks 6.5, or C+, in one part.

Which tests count. "We only accept one test result and do not accept combined results." "We do not accept IELTS One Skill Retake." "We do not accept IELTS online or OET at home." The NMBI's user guide: "NMBI only accept tests taken on a computer in a test centre". So pass every score in one sitting, on a computer, at a test centre.

When to sit it. The NMBI asks for your English "at the point of making an application for registration" (its second step, your Stage 12), and "We only accept IELTS/OET test results that are less than two years old." It also says: "If you make an application and don't meet the English language competence requirements, the assessment fee is non-refundable", and "You should not apply for registration with NMBI until you meet the English language competence requirements." So you need a result that meets the scores on the day you pay at Stage 5: the fee is lost otherwise. You need it less than two years old on the day you submit at Stage 12. The NMBI's own average from Stage 5 to Stage 12 with a measure is 18 months, and an average means some nurses take longer. So sit your test in the weeks before you submit at Stage 5. The week you sign your contract (Stage 7), check its date again. If it will be two years old before you can submit at Stage 12 (allow about six months from the contract: the Scheme, the visa and the programme), book a new sitting in Nigeria before you fly.

If you already hold a result. If it is from one sitting, meets the scores above and is less than two years old on the day you pay at Stage 5, use it there. Then check it at your contract, as above.

Do. Book IELTS Academic on computer or OET on computer at a test centre, sit it, and reach the scores in one sitting.

Where. OET on computer is sat in Nigeria at five venues: Lagos (Victoria Island), Ibadan, Abuja, Asaba and Kano; book on OET's Book a test page, opens in a new tab. IELTS Academic is sat at British Council and IDP centres, 57 of them in Nigeria on the IELTS test centre finder, opens in a new tab. IDP Nigeria's fees and dates are on IDP's Nigeria test dates page, opens in a new tab. The NMBI's rules are on its English Language Requirements page, opens in a new tab.

What you need. To book with IDP Nigeria, a clean colour scan or photo of your passport and a credit card. OET's computer test bookings close 7 days before the test. Book your test in the name on your current passport, the name you will use on MyNMBI. If you are changing your name, change your passport before you book (Stage 1).

Cost. IDP Nigeria charges ₦299,000 for IELTS Academic on computer at a test centre. For OET, check the fee on OET's Book a test page before you book.

Time. IELTS on computer gives results in 1 to 5 days. OET results typically come within 6 days on computer.

Keep your number. The NMBI verifies your result itself: "NMBI will use the TRF/OET number you provide to independently verify your scores." Your IELTS TRF number is the 15 to 18 letters and numbers at the bottom right of your Test Report Form; your OET candidate number is the 9 digits under your name on your Statement of Results.

You are done when you hold one result, from one sitting, with every score the NMBI asks.

If it goes wrong. If you miss one part, sit the whole test again: the NMBI takes no combined results and no One Skill Retake.

From nurses who did it. English results have expired while nurses waited on papers and visas: the Journal reported in October 2023 that the NMBI extended English results for nurses delayed by visa waits, and a nurse in Ireland lists "IELTS expiration issues" among the problems of 2026. A Nigerian nurse in 2022 held a job offer with IELTS writing at 5.5, and the offer did not carry her. Time your test to cover your registration.

Same as the UK. One sitting at 7, 7, 6.5 in writing and 7 serves the NMBI and the NMC (Part 1). The NMC accepts OET at home and two sittings combined; the NMBI accepts neither. The NMC wants the result no more than two years old when it assesses your registration application.

Next. Your recognition application (Stage 5).

The NMBI's English pages and the test owners' pages were read on 7, 8 and 10 October 2026.

Paying from Nigeria

From Stage 5 on, most fees are in euro: the NMBI's EUR 350 (Stage 5) and EUR 145 (Stage 12), the Atypical Working Scheme's EUR 250 (Stage 8), your IRP's EUR 300 (Stage 10), and, on the aptitude test, RCSI's EUR 2,800 (Stage 8). Before you start Stage 5, ask your bank whether your card pays online in euro, and what its foreign spending limit is. If the limit is lower than the next fee, have it raised before you pay.

• The NMBI takes a debit or credit card on MyNMBI at the end of your application: "Your payment may require authentication from your banking provider." "Only the registered nurse or midwife can pay the fee and not an agent." Pay it with your own card.
• The Atypical Working Scheme: "We accept debit and credit cards from most major providers. We do not accept payments from American Express cards. Payments are charged to your card in your card currency."
• RCSI (the aptitude test) takes payment only through TransferMate, by "bank transfer or a personal debit card or a personal credit card"; "A business/corporate/company debit card or credit card is not be accepted." TransferMate "allows international payments to be made via local banking networks where transfers can be made in sender's own currency"; paid in euro, it adds a charge of EUR 10 (about ₦14,880).
• The visa is paid in naira, in cash, at the VFS centre at your appointment (Stage 9).
• Your IRP registration is paid "by credit or debit card only" (Stage 10).

If a payment is refused, ask your bank why before you try again. Stages 5, 8, 10 and 12 point back here.

Stage 5. Your recognition application

Your papers, your forms, your NMCN letter and your English are ready. Now apply to the NMBI for recognition of your qualification. "All applicants are reminded that you must upload your own documentation for registration. This should never be done by a third party on your behalf."

Step 1. Open your MyNMBI account

Do. Go to my.nmbi.ie, opens in a new tab and click Create new account. Answer the questions at the start and confirm you have read the privacy notice. Enter your personal email address, the characters in the image, and click Send verification code: "The code expires in 5 minutes." Then enter your password, your date of birth and your full name "as it appears on you ID".

One account only. "If you have created a duplicate account, you will be unable to begin an application until NMBI has verified your account." Your MyNMBI account carries you to the end: "You will not be able to complete your overseas registration using a new account." Do not share your sign-in with anyone, agent or not: the NMBI reports agents who upload data for applicants to the Data Protection Commission.

Your group. MyNMBI asks a few questions to confirm your group. "You are not required to pay any fee at this stage."

Step 2. Fill in the recognition application

Do. Work through the steps in order:

1. Personal details, address and phone number.
2. Recognition pathway (the EU, refugee and family questions), then Division: enter General Nurses and the country where you qualified, Nigeria.
3. Supporting documents: your certified passport, parchment, transcript and registration certificate, and any name change evidence.
4. Education: your course and school. If your school is sending its form to the NMBI itself, select "I have contacted the education body who have advised they will send this directly to NMBI."
5. Other registrations: if the NMCN is not in the list, tick the box that you cannot find your nursing council and enter its details yourself. Upload the CCPS (Stage 2), enter its date of issue, and tick the box if the NMCN is sending it to the NMBI directly. If you hold a UK PIN, add the NMC as a second registration. Request the NMC's certificate in MyNMC under My Registration only when every other paper is uploaded to your draft and only the payment is left (your open draft counts as having applied). It lasts three months, so submit and pay within those three months. Ask the NMC its fee when you request it. The NMC sends it to the NMBI, so tick that it is being sent directly.
6. Employment: upload each completed Employment Form.
7. Other documents.
8. Identification: "To verify your ID, you will need to upload a photo of you ID and take a real-time selfie." Scan the QR code with your phone to take the picture.
9. Declaration: "I confirm that all the information provided by me in connection with this application is complete, accurate and true to the best of my knowledge."
10. Payment.

Save, do not pay, until everything is in. "DO NOT proceed to pay the fee and submit your application until you have all the documents and relevant forms uploaded. You will be able to save your draft application and edit later."

Where. MyNMBI, opens in a new tab. The NMBI's step-by-step is its Applicant User Guide, opens in a new tab.

Cost. EUR 350 (about ₦520,800), the Overseas Qualification Recognition Fee, paid on MyNMBI with your own card (see Paying from Nigeria, before this stage). "If you make an application and don't meet the English language competence requirements, the assessment fee is non-refundable."

Time. The NMBI's table for G3 once it holds all your documents: a recognition decision in 3 months. It works "in a chronological order on a first come, first served basis. We do not fast-track applications for any reason."

Your clock. "If you applied for your qualifications to be recognised and a document is missing, you have six months from the date of submission to provide the missing document(s). Otherwise your application will be automatically closed, and you will need to apply again."

You are done when your application shows as submitted and paid in MyNMBI.

If it goes wrong. If the NMBI needs more, it writes; answer the same week. The NMBI's overseas team is at G3reg@nmbi.ie; customer service answers on 00353 818 200 116 from outside Ireland, Monday to Friday, 9am to 5.30pm Irish time. When you contact it, give your name, your NMBI PIN (the NMBI's own number for you; it is not a UK PIN) and your date of birth. "Please note that our offices are closed to the public."

Never. The NMBI refers a false or altered document to its Fit and Proper Panel, and where fraud is confirmed "Registration will be refused", and the nurse may never apply for registration again. Upload only papers you got from the body that issued them.

From nurses who did it. A nurse who applied in 2021 said: "IF ALL documents from your end are processed to get to NMBI timely, it will take about 3months to get a DL" (the decision letter). Nurses say paying before every paper was in, and a missing paper left for six months, are the mistakes that cost them.

Same as the UK. The NMC's first application costs £167 (about ₦293,419) and aims at 14 days once the NMCN has answered; the NMBI's recognition step costs EUR 350 and takes about 3 months once it holds everything.

Next. Your decision letter (Stage 6).

The NMBI's pages and its Applicant User Guide (the file modified 21 September 2026) were read on 8 and 10 October 2026.

Stage 6. Your decision letter

The NMBI has assessed your application. "When all the checks are completed, the status will change and you will receive an email with a link to the decision." Now read it, choose your measure, and start on the job the same week.

The four outcomes.

1. "Your qualifications have been recognised." You apply for registration with no measure (Stage 12), and you get a job (Stage 7). When you hold an offer, ask the Employment Permits Section (Stage 13) who applies for your permit and when.
2. "Further information is required." Send it the same week; your six months for a missing document are running.
3. "You are required to successfully complete a compensation measure". This is the outcome for most nurses from outside the EU. Read on.
4. "Provisional refusal to recognise qualifications. This means that there are significant deficits in theory or/and clinical content of your training compared to NMBI requirements." See If it goes wrong.

Your clock starts today. "The Decision Letter is valid for 12 months from date of issue and is only valid for one attempt at a compensation measure. The applicant must have commenced the compensation measure on/before the expiration date of the Decision letter." Write the date it ends in your deadlines table (Part 4). The NMBI has said that it extends letters for applicants unable to travel and will give three months' notice of an end. Plan on the 12 months.

Do. Choose your compensation measure in MyNMBI: "You will be given a link to MyNMBI to inform us of your choice." For a general nurse, every NMBI source agrees: you may choose adaptation or the aptitude test. Choose the one your employer runs. If you have no employer yet, choose adaptation, the measure the HSE's guide describes, and change it if your employer runs the test: "A person can decide to change his/her mind after selecting a compensation measure."

What a measure means.

• Adaptation: "The minimum timeframe to complete the clinical learning component of an adaptation period is 6 weeks (in addition to any introduction and other theoretical learning). The period to complete the clinical component may be extended to 12 weeks". It takes place in Ireland, at a site on the NMBI's list.
• The aptitude test: a written exam and a practical exam in Dublin, run by RCSI, two attempts at each.

Then, the same week. Start on the job (Stage 7). On both measures the job comes next, and the letter's 12 months are running. The same day, ask the NMCN for a new letter of good standing for the NMBI (Stage 2): ₦8,750 for the letter on its own; ask whether it wants verification again (₦75,625). You upload it at your registration (Stage 12), the NMBI wants it ready before your adaptation starts (Stage 11), and nurses report the NMCN taking a minimum of six months.

You are done when you hold your decision letter, have told the NMBI your choice in MyNMBI, and have asked the NMCN for your new letter.

If it goes wrong. A decision requiring a measure, or a provisional refusal, can be appealed: "All provisional refusal decisions can be appealed to the Registration Committee within 56 days of being notified of the provisional decision." You log into MyNMBI, select My Appeals, give your reasons, upload any evidence and pay the EUR 150 appeal fee (about ₦223,200). "Please note that after 56 days you will no longer be able to submit an appeal on MyNMBI." The committee can confirm the decision, reverse it, or assign a compensation measure.

From nurses who did it. Nurses who received a decision letter between 2011 and 2024 report the same thing: the letter came, and then no employer, while its 12 months ran. Some say hospitals on the NMBI's list told them no when they called. A nurse writing in 2024 said the two places nurses get stuck are the NMCN and the job. Have your job search ready to start the day the letter comes.

Same as the UK. No UK step matches this one: the NMC sends a nurse trained in Nigeria to its Test of Competence without an outcome letter of this kind.

Next. Get a job in Ireland (Stage 7), today.

The NMBI's pages, its adaptation guidance and its answers for applicants from outside the EU were read on 8 and 10 October 2026.

Stage 7. Get a job in Ireland

You hold your decision letter. Now get a job with an Irish employer, and a signed contract of at least two years. The HSE: "All nurses and midwives have to register with NMBI before they can work in Ireland", and your measure is the step before that registration. Your employer is the one who brings you in for it.

Step 1. Know what the job must be

For adaptation, the job must come with an adaptation programme at a hospital on the NMBI's list, and a contract the Atypical Working Scheme accepts (Stage 8):

• From the employer itself, "not the agent", at "a facility that is licensed and registered in line with the requirements of applicable national law". A nursing home must be registered with HIQA, the body that registers them.
• At least two years long. It "can be permanent but must have a minimum duration of 2 years."
• Signed in ink and dated by you and the employer: "digitally inserted signature or date information will not be accepted". "A letter of offer is not equivalent to a contract of employment in national employment law and cannot be accepted."
• Its start date is the date of your adaptation, never before it, and it "must allow sufficient time for you to apply for and receive your permission under the Atypical Working Scheme, and your visa".
• At one location: "Your contract of employment cannot require you to work in other locations, or for other companies, not specified in your application under the Scheme."

The adaptation sites. The NMBI lists 33 sites for general nursing, by county. In Dublin: Beaumont Hospital, Bon Secours Hospital Glasnevin, Connolly Hospital Blanchardstown, the Mater Misericordiae University Hospital, the Mater Private Hospital, St Columcille's Hospital, St James's Hospital, St Luke's Hospital, St Vincent's University Hospital, St Vincent's Hospital Private, Tallaght University Hospital and the Coombe Hospital. Outside Dublin: Cavan and Monaghan Hospital; Bon Secours Hospital, Cork University Hospital and the Mercy University Hospital in Cork; Letterkenny General Hospital; Bon Secours Hospital Renmore, Galway Hospice Foundation, Galway University Hospital and Portiuncula Hospital in Galway; Bon Secours Hospital Tralee, University Hospital Kerry and Bantry General Hospital; Naas General Hospital; Midlands Regional Hospital Portlaoise; Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda; Mayo General Hospital; Midlands Regional Hospital Tullamore; Sligo General Hospital; Roscommon Hospital; and Midland Regional Hospital Mullingar. "Some sites may be full." No private nursing home is on the list.

Step 2. Apply

Do. Apply every week, on three fronts.

• The HSE. Register on HSE Career Hub, opens in a new tab for weekly alerts; HSE jobs are advertised on the HSE's job search, opens in a new tab, where the grade "Staff Nurse (Adaptation Placement) - General 2861" is the post you apply for before registration. "Use the application form included in the job advert for the specific position." "Decisions about your suitability for the role are based entirely on what you write on the application form." Keep each competency answer (the part of the HSE form where you show a skill with an example from your work) to one A4 page in Arial, size 10. Send the form as a Word or PDF attachment, under 3 MB, to the email address on the form, never as a Google Drive link, and at least an hour before the closing time: "Applications received after the closing date and time will not be accepted". The HSE "normally confirm receipt of your application within 2 working days". For a question about a post, use the contact on its advert; for Career Hub, careerhub@hse.ie.
• The HSE's partner agencies. The HSE says many international nurses come "through one of a small number of employment agencies that manage the full recruitment process on behalf of the HSE". Its partner agencies page, opens in a new tab names five for staff nurses: Adaptive, CPL Healthcare, Kate Cowhig, Servisource and TTM. All five are on the Workplace Relations Commission's list of licensed employment agencies of 1 October 2026: Adaptive HVM Ltd (EA 3782), Cpl Healthcare Ltd (EA 1673), Kate Cowhig International Healthcare Recruitment Limited (EA 1124), Servisource Healthcare Limited (EA 3416) and TTM Healthcare Limited trading as TTM Recruitment (EA 2019). Send each your CV and your decision letter.
• Private hospitals and nursing homes. The private hospitals on the NMBI's adaptation list hire for themselves: apply to each. Nursing Homes Ireland represents over 360 private and voluntary nursing homes and lists no posts on its site. Apply to a nursing home only if it names in writing the listed hospital where your adaptation will run, and check it is registered with HIQA.

The interview. The HSE usually gives two weeks' notice, and "A panel of 3 people usually conducts the interview", in person or online; you show a recent photo ID, your passport. "A recommendation from the interview board is not a job offer." Ask the contact on the advert whether you are interviewed online.

What comes after the interview, at the HSE. An expression of interest ("It is not a job offer"), then a recommendation to proceed ("This is also not a job offer"), then the pre-employment checks: references, police clearance, a health assessment and your registration. "We strongly recommend that you do not hand in your notice at this stage." "You do not have a job offer until the HSE gives you a formal contract of employment."

The pay. The HSE's scales from 1 June 2026: STAFF NURSE (ADAPTATION PLACEMENT) EUR 33,370 a year (about ₦49.7 million) while you are on adaptation; STAFF NURSE from EUR 38,166 (about ₦56.8 million) at the first point to EUR 56,592 (about ₦84.2 million) at the top, over 13 points, one increment a year. Your point on the pay scale is your step: you move up one point each year. The weekly rate is the yearly rate divided by 52.18. A Critical Skills permit in the public sector takes the rate of the public sector pay agreement.

Cost. Nothing. An employment agency "shall not charge any fee solely for agreeing to seek employment", and to hold its licence it must give the state "a copy of your 'Statement of Fees' - stating that you will never charge a candidate a fee." An employer may not recover from a permit holder any charge "arising out of or concerning ... the recruitment of the holder", nor keep your personal documents. Check any agency on the WRC's licensed agency list, opens in a new tab before you send it anything.

Time. Your decision letter's 12 months: apply every week from the day it comes.

From nurses who did it. Nurses who went in 2018 to 2024 say the offers came through agencies that interview nurses holding a decision letter and make the offer conditional on the measure; a Nigerian nurse in 2021: "It was an agency over there that got the contract for me." A nurse and midwife with a decision letter, a valid IELTS and three years' experience was still "actively seeking an employer" in 2024. Nigerians who moved in 2025 and 2026 report jobs in Donegal and Longford, outside Dublin. The Journal and Newstalk, an Irish radio station, reported in 2025 that agencies took EUR 3,000 to EUR 4,000 from nurses from India for jobs that did not exist, and the nurses arrived to "No, there is no job here". Apply every week, tailor each application to its advert, look outside Dublin, and pay nobody.

Step 3. Before you sign

Ask in writing. Ask the employer, in writing:

• Which measure it runs, adaptation or the aptitude test, at which site, and the start date.
• The hospital's letter. Ask the hospital for its letter, on headed paper, confirming the dates of your adaptation programme. At the same time, ask it who your Clinical Facilitator is (the hospital names this person) and for that person's email (Stage 11).
• Who pays what. The HSE's relocation package: up to EUR 4,710 (about ₦7.01 million) for a candidate from outside the EU: up to EUR 3,910 (about ₦5.82 million) for accommodation in the first 3 months and up to EUR 800 (about ₦1.19 million) for the flight, for a permanent post or a temporary one of at least two years. The HSE can also cover "Professional registration fees Visa costs Aptitude and language testing fees RCSI assessment charges ... Qualification recognition fees Atypical Working Scheme visa fee Recruitment agency fees (where applicable)", and "Many of these costs are paid directly on your behalf". Ask which of these your employer pays before you travel, and which it pays back. The HSE's package is for nurses the HSE hires: "To apply for the package, contact the HR department of the service you have been hired to work for." A private hospital sets its own: ask it in writing what it pays before you sign.
• Housing for your first weeks. The NMBI's guidance says the employer tells you before you come the place of work, the job, the programme, the salary during adaptation and on registration, the health checks, "Accommodation arrangements" and "Cost of living and working in Ireland". Ask for each in writing, and ask for the paper you will show as your address for your PPS number and your bank account (Stage 10, Step 4), if you stay where the employer books you.
• Pay before your registration. Ask whether you are paid between the end of your programme, when you must stop nursing, and your registration (about 20 working days, Stage 12).
• The start date. "If you are joining the HSE from outside, you must start within 3 months of getting your formal offer", and the HSE "may withdraw the offer" otherwise. The Atypical Working Scheme takes at least 20 working days and the visa about 8 weeks (Stages 8 and 9). Agree in writing a start date that leaves time for both.

The repayment. "If you choose to leave voluntarily before this period ends, repayment of some or all relocation support may be required." Read the period in your contract.

Your checks. The HSE asks for police clearance "for each country where you have had an address for 6 months or more" since your 16th birthday; "If you are not able to provide police clearance at the time of the job offer, the offer may be withdrawn." You still live in Nigeria, so your Nigerian certificate is the one you get in the weeks before you travel. When the HSE asks, apply for the Police Character Certificate, opens in a new tab on Police Services, opens in a new tab (5 to 7 working days once your papers are complete), and ask the HSE recruiter in writing whether it takes it. "Please note that you are responsible for any costs involved in this process." The HSE's health assessment starts with a questionnaire and your immunisation records, and the physical assessment comes "when you arrive in Ireland". A nursing home's offer can be made subject to Garda vetting (the Irish police check).

The NMBI's letter for the Scheme. The Atypical Working Scheme asks for "A letter from the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland confirming your acceptance to the Clinical Adaptation process" (Stage 8). Once the hospital confirms your place, email G3reg@nmbi.ie with your name, your date of birth and the hospital's letter, and ask for its letter confirming your acceptance to the Clinical Adaptation process for your AWS application. If no reply comes in two weeks, ask your employer's HR to write to G3reg@nmbi.ie with you, and tell your employer the same day that your AWS application waits on it.

Your NMCN letter again. If you did not ask the NMCN for your new letter at Stage 6, ask the day you sign. If it has not come by the week you fly, email G3reg@nmbi.ie with your Remita receipt and the date you asked, and ask what the NMBI accepts at registration while the NMCN works. Keep the reply. If you hold a UK PIN, request a new NMC certificate in MyNMC the week your measure ends: it lasts three months.

Your English again. The week you sign, check your English result's date as Stage 4, When to sit it, says. If it will be two years old before you can submit at Stage 12, book a new sitting in Nigeria before you fly.

You are done when you hold a contract of employment of at least two years, signed in ink and dated by you and the employer, naming the location and a start date on your adaptation; a letter from the hospital confirming your adaptation dates; the NMBI's letter confirming your acceptance to the Clinical Adaptation process; and your request for a new NMCN letter (Stage 6).

If it goes wrong. If anyone asks you to pay for a job, stop and pay nothing. If an offer falls through, your decision letter stays yours until it expires: keep applying.

On the aptitude test. The contract is the same, with its start date on your RCSI test date. Ask in writing who pays the EUR 2,800, whether the employer pays RCSI directly (EUR 2,500 when the employer is entitled to the discount), and whether you are repaid only if you pass. Nurses report that "Most employers only cover costs if candidates pass", and a 2018 offer to a Nigerian nurse put the fee, the flight and the accommodation on her.

Same as the UK. The UK asks for an employer on its Register of licensed sponsors; Ireland asks for an employer with an adaptation programme and a two-year contract. In both, nobody may charge you for a job.

Next. Your Atypical Working Scheme letter (Stage 8).

The HSE's pages and its International Employee Guide (June 2026), the NMBI's adaptation pages, the Atypical Working Scheme pages, the WRC's list and the Employment Agency Act were read on 8, 9 and 10 October 2026.

Stage 8. Your Atypical Working Scheme letter

You hold your contract, the hospital's letter and the NMBI's letter confirming your acceptance to the Clinical Adaptation process (Stage 7, Step 3). Now apply for the Atypical Working Scheme letter (the AWS letter). A nurse from outside Europe with a contract "is not entitled to work as a nurse in Ireland until they have successfully completed a Clinical Adaptation and Assessment Programme or Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) aptitude test in the State approved by the NMBI", and the Scheme is the permission that brings you in for it: "Nurse seeking NMBI registration on the basis of overseas qualification (6 months)".

Do. Apply online, from Nigeria: "You must make an application for a permission under the Scheme from outside the State." If you have no Immigration Online account, create one on the portal's sign-in page first. Then log into your Immigration Online account, select Applications for permission to enter the State, then Atypical application, Begin Application, and the category Nurse. Complete every section, upload your documents, pay and submit. A legal representative or an agency may submit it for you with your signed letter of authorisation; then the letter of approval goes to them, "to be sent onto you".

Where. The Immigration Online portal, opens in a new tab. The rules are on the Irish Immigration Service's Atypical Working Scheme page, opens in a new tab. "Emailed or posted application forms and Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) are not accepted." Ireland uses three separate sites: Immigration Online for the Scheme (this stage), AVATS for the visa (Stage 9), and the ISD Customer Service Portal for registration (Stage 10).

What you need.

• "A colour copy of your entire up-to-date passport", valid for at least as long as the six months you ask for.
• Your contract of employment, signed by you and your employer, with your dates, your salary in euro and the location, of at least two years (Stage 7).
• "A letter from the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland confirming your acceptance to the Clinical Adaptation process", valid until you finish: the letter you asked G3reg@nmbi.ie for at Stage 7, Step 3.
• "A letter from the hospital employing you confirming the dates of the Clinical Adaptation process you are undertaking".
• A letter of authorisation signed and dated by you, if someone applies for you.
• Every document signed in ink, as PDF, PNG or JPEG, each multi-page document as a single file. Scans "directly as received from a physical scanning machine": use a scanner (a business centre has one), not a phone photo. You cannot add a document after you submit until you are asked.

Cost. EUR 250 (about ₦372,000), by debit or credit card, never American Express (see Paying from Nigeria, before Stage 5). "The application fee is non-refundable." If the HSE is your employer, its relocation package can cover it (Stage 7).

Time. "Current processing times are a minimum of 20 working days." An application in before 3pm counts that day. If no payment email comes, wait 7 working days. The decision comes by email, and the letter follows separately. The Immigration Service's training material for its staff (6 April 2023) says the Scheme's unit expects at least 5 weeks left before your adaptation when it reviews your file. "Applications are processed strictly in the order in which they are received and no requests for applications to be expedited will be entertained."

Your clock starts with the letter. The letter of approval is "valid for 90 days from the date the letter was issued": "You must enter the State within 90 days. If you do not enter the State within 90 days you must make a new online application and pay the fee again." And "You may make only one application under this Scheme in a 12-month period." Apply for your visa the day the letter comes (Stage 9).

What it allows, and what it does not.

• It "is for the sole purpose of sitting the Clinical Adaptation Programme/RCSI exams and is not a permission to work" beyond that. "Agency work is not permitted". "Work as a Health Care Assistant while availing of permission under the Scheme is not permitted under any circumstances."
• It is "limited to a specific work location and a specific employer".
• "In all cases, you will be granted permission for a maximum of 6 months." Your adaptation, your registration and your permit all happen inside it.
• "Family members may not accompany the person availing of this Scheme."
• "Permission granted under the Scheme is not reckonable" (it does not count) towards Stamp 4.

You are done when you hold the letter of approval.

If it goes wrong. Questions go to atypicalworkingscheme@justice.ie, which "does not respond to requests for information about the status of any application" and "does not provide advice by telephone". You may make only one application under the Scheme in 12 months, and your decision letter's 12 months keep running. That is why every paper must be right the first time (Stage 7). If it is refused, send the reason to your employer the same day.

From nurses who did it. The Journal reported in June 2023 that 1,082 of 2,117 nurse applications to the Scheme were refused, over document problems and questions about agencies' licences; the ESRI (the Economic and Social Research Institute, Ireland's economic research body) reported in December 2025 that refusals fell in 2024. The Journal reported in 2025 that scam agencies sent edited nursing home contracts with nurses' applications. Get your contract signed in ink by the employer itself, and check the agency's licence (Stage 7).

Same as the UK. No UK step matches this one. The UK lets you visit for the OSCE on a Standard Visitor visa; Ireland brings you in on the Scheme, linked to your employer.

On the aptitude test: apply to RCSI first

On the aptitude test, the Scheme's application needs "confirmation of your examination dates with the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI)" in place of the hospital's letter. So apply to RCSI first, and apply for the Scheme the day RCSI gives you a test date.

Before you start. The NMBI's decision letter must be in date and say three things: the General Nurses Division applies, you must complete a compensation measure, and one of the measures is "the RCSI FNM Aptitude Test for General Nurses". RCSI's advice: have your contract "secured before applying for the test", and "The name of the prospective employer given at the point of application for the test must match that on the AWS Letter of Approval".

Do, in RCSI's order.

1. Log into MyNMBI and select RCSI as your chosen compensation measure.
2. Apply on RCSI's online portal with three uploads: a recent photograph, the picture page of your passport, and your NMBI decision letter. "The name inputted must be exactly as per NMBI decision letter." Answer the six questions: your NMBI number, the country where you trained, your citizenship, the name of your prospective employer, the name of your agent ("none" if you have none), and who will pay the fee. Submit once.
3. You receive an eight-digit RCSI ID. Wait for RCSI's message to pay, then pay "Within a maximum of 14 days" and upload TransferMate's Payment Notification email: "If correct receipt is not uploaded and submitted within the 14 days, then the application is withdrawn." Each payment is for one nurse, with your full name as on the decision letter and your RCSI number.
4. RCSI invites you to "the test date open at that point (no other test date)". Only after the invitation may you ask for a change of date.

Where. RCSI's Overseas Aptitude Test, opens in a new tab pages: Apply, Fees, Theory test, Practical test and Preparation. Payment is at RCSI's TransferMate page, opens in a new tab; TransferMate's support is edu@transfermate.com.

Cost. "The fee is €2,800 except where the fee is being paid directly to RCSI by a prospective employer who is entitled to a discount. In this case the fee is €2,500." (about ₦4.17 million and ₦3.72 million). Paid in euro, EUR 10 more (about ₦14,880). "The fee includes two attempts at each part of the test." "The fee has, so far, remained unchanged since the first test in December 2015." If EUR 2,500 is paid where EUR 2,800 is due, the EUR 300 balance (about ₦446,400) is asked, with another EUR 10.

Refunds. "There is no automatic refund of unused fees", except the practical test's part of the fee if you fail the theory test twice. Withdrawing costs 10% of the fee 30 days or more before the test, 15% from 14 to 29 days, and 20% at 13 days or less or if you do not come; EUR 100 before a test date is given; EUR 50 for each change of date. Allow one month for a refund through TransferMate.

The dates. "A test date generally opens 3.5 to 4.5 months in advance." "Thirty-five tests are planned for 2026." There is no first-attempt test in July or December, and none on a weekend tied to an Irish public holiday. On 9 October 2026 RCSI's page showed "Next test open 06/03/2027". RCSI says "an average of 20% of places per calendar month have not been filled" in 2026.

Then the Scheme and the visa. Apply for the Scheme with RCSI's confirmation of your dates (this stage), and your visa the day the letter comes (Stage 9). "You should be ready to apply for your immigration documents ... upon receipt of the invitation for the test." RCSI wants your immigration papers uploaded "no later than 13 days before the test date", in hand: "An applicant must be ready for the test date 13 days in advance of a test date, including having, in-hand, all immigration-related documentation."

Without an employer. RCSI takes an application with "none" for the employer, but you still need one of its immigration papers 13 days before the test. For a Nigerian who holds no European, Swiss or UK passport and no Irish Residence Permit, the only one RCSI names is the AWS letter, which needs your employer's contract, or "Other, as acceptable by the Irish Immigration Service for you to take the test." A UK PIN is not a UK passport or residence paper: a nurse in Nigeria with a UK PIN still needs the AWS letter. Do not book the test without an employer unless the Irish Immigration Service has told you in writing which permission you use: ask it through the Embassy of Ireland in Abuja's web form, under Visa queries.

Changes. Email marianeary@rcsi.com with your name, your RCSI number and your test date. "RCSI cannot answer any immigration-related matters. Contact the Irish Immigration Service."

Next. Your visa (Stage 9), the day the letter comes.

The Irish Immigration Service's Scheme pages (the general page last updated 30 April 2026, the nurses' page 31 October 2023) and its training material (6 April 2023), and RCSI's pages, were read on 8, 9 and 10 October 2026.

Stage 9. Your visa

You hold your AWS letter. Now apply for your visa at once: the letter gives you 90 days to enter Ireland. A Nigerian needs a visa to enter Ireland: in the Irish Immigration Service's table, "Nigeria" / "Yes".

Which visa. "Persons granted permission to remain for more than 90 days should apply for a 'D long stay' Visa." 'D' "is issued for visits to Ireland of 90 days or more". "When completing the online Visa Application Form please choose 'Employment' as the reason for travel and enter 'Atypical Working Scheme' at the field 'Purpose of Travel'." "You cannot apply for a visa prior to the approval of an application under this Scheme."

Do.

1. Fill in AVATS, the Irish Immigration Service's online visa application form, linked from the Embassy's Visas for Ireland page. Print it, sign it, and keep your 8-digit visa reference number.
2. Book your appointment at VFS Global, the company that runs Ireland's visa application centre in Nigeria, using the details on your application summary.
3. Take your documents, your photographs, the fee and your passport to VFS in person. Give your fingerprints there: "Your four fingers and thumb of each hand will be electronically scanned." Buy the prepaid envelope at VFS and hand it in with your application.
4. VFS sends your application to the Embassy's visa office in Abuja, which decides.

Where. The Embassy of Ireland in Abuja's Visas for Ireland page, opens in a new tab and VFS's Ireland page for Nigeria, opens in a new tab. The Abuja office "accepts visa applications from Nigeria, Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana and Senegal". The Embassy's page carries a link to another VFS address that leads elsewhere: use VFS's own page above.

What you need.

• A passport "valid for at least twelve months after the date you plan to arrive", and a photocopy of every page of it and of all your previous passports.
• Two colour photographs, no more than 6 months old, 35 to 38 mm wide and 45 to 50 mm high, on a plain white or light grey background, signed on the back with your visa reference number. Do not staple them.
• Your signed application summary, and an application letter: your contact details, why you are coming, how long, any family in Ireland or the EU, where you will stay, and your commitment to the visa's conditions.
• Your AWS letter of approval.
• Your contract of employment, and a letter from your employer in Ireland about the job, the salary and any accommodation, on headed paper with a fixed-line number and a signature in ink.
• Evidence of your qualifications and experience.
• "An up-to-date bank statement ... over the last six months", on the bank's headed paper. The Embassy does "not accept: micro-finance statements, mortgage statements, statements from thrift and savings societies". Explain any large sum paid in or out in a letter.
• Any previous visa refusal by any country, with its letter.
• Originals, legible, in English or with a certified translation, not in envelopes or folders, with photocopies kept apart from the originals. A Nigerian birth or marriage certificate is "attested/apostilled as genuine by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the State that issued the document". In Nigeria, the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs at Tafawa Balewa House, Abuja, authenticates it: its Document Authentication page, opens in a new tab names the birth certificate and the marriage certificate. If your school papers show your maiden name, ask the Embassy through its web form, under Visa queries, whether to send your attested marriage certificate with your own application.

You show medical or travel insurance when you arrive, not with the application.

Cost. "For applications submitted in Nigeria and Ghana through the VFS offices, visa fees are payable in the local currency equivalent of €60 euro for a single entry visa or €100 euro for a multi-entry visa" (about ₦89,280 and ₦148,800), in cash at VFS. "VFS charges its own visa processing fee in addition". "Visa fees are non-refundable." When you book, ask VFS the naira amount of the visa fee, its own fee, and which of the two fees your D visa takes, and take that amount in cash.

Time. The Irish Immigration Service: "applicants can expect a decision within approximately 8 weeks from the date their application was received". The Embassy in Abuja (updated 7 October 2026): "we recommend that you apply twelve weeks in advance of your travel dates", and "Visa processing times start from date of receipt in the Embassy, not date of lodgment at the Visa Application Centre (VAC)." You can follow the Embassy's weekly decision reports, opens in a new tab with your application number.

Do not buy your ticket yet. "We advise all applicants not to book flights until you have received and validated your visa."

You are done when the Embassy grants your visa and you have checked its dates and its type on the sticker.

If it goes wrong. "You can appeal a negative visa decision. You must submit an appeal within 2 months of the date on your Letter of Refusal. You do not have to pay to make an appeal." "All appeals are handled directly by the Irish Immigration Service." Read the refusal reasons; refusals in Abuja include papers not complete, papers not translated, and information that cannot be verified. Never send a false paper: the Embassy applies "a zero tolerance policy", and a deception can bring "a 5-year ban". If the visa will not come before your AWS letter's 90 days end, tell your employer the same week: a new AWS application means a new fee. The Embassy answers through its contact form, opens in a new tab, under Visa queries, and on +234 209 462 1080.

From nurses who did it. Nigerians who waited on the Abuja office report about 8 weeks in mid 2025 and 12 to 17 weeks from late 2025 to October 2026, and the Embassy writing that "the current processing times will exceed the stated processing times". Those who were refused name thin or unexplained bank statements and gaps not explained. A Nigerian nurse on the adaptation route in 2021 was refused for an empty account, though she sent payslips. Lodge the day your AWS letter comes, with six months of statements and every large sum explained, and tell your employer your start date depends on Abuja.

Same as the UK. Both visas take your fingerprints at a VFS centre in Nigeria. The UK asks for a TB certificate. The Irish visa asks for no medical, and you hand in your papers and your passport at VFS.

Next. Travel, land and register (Stage 10).

The Irish Immigration Service's visa pages (the employment visa page last updated 23 September 2024), the Embassy of Ireland in Abuja's pages (updated 7 October 2026) and VFS's pages were read on 7 and 10 October 2026.

Stage 10. Travel, land and register

Your visa is granted. Now fly, land, and register your permission. "An Irish visa allows you to travel to Ireland. It does not give you permission to enter the country."

Step 1. Travel and land

Do. Fly within your AWS letter's 90 days and your visa's dates. Agree the day you arrive with your employer in writing. Before you fly, ask your employer in writing whether it covers your medical insurance. If it does not, buy cover before you fly and carry the certificate; ask the Embassy, through its web form under Visa queries, what cover the officer accepts.

Pack in your hand luggage.

• Your passport with your visa.
• Your AWS letter of approval: for registration, "Letter of approval, valid for 90 days from date of issue only".
• The letter from your employer in Ireland confirming your job.
• Your medical or travel insurance certificate: "you must have evidence of medical or travel insurance when you arrive at the port of entry".
• Copies of your visa application and your bank statement, to show the officer.
• Your decision letter, your contract, and your NMBI papers for your first day.

At the border. The immigration officer stamps your passport. "The duration of stay permitted is at the discretion of the immigration officer, up to a maximum of 3 months." With a D visa you register before that stamp ends.

Money. Bring money for your first weeks. The HSE's guide: "It may take up to two months before you are paid, and occasionally longer"; a deposit for a room, "€800 to €1,500" (about ₦1.19 million to ₦2.23 million); "2 months' rent upfront (€1600 to €3,000)" (about ₦2.38 million to ₦4.46 million) for a place in a shared home; about EUR 75 a week for food (about ₦111,600); about EUR 300 for essentials on arrival (about ₦446,400); EUR 500 for transport and extras (about ₦744,000); "in the region of €4000" (about ₦5.95 million) in all. "These amounts may vary depending on location and type of accommodation." Ask your employer what of this it pays (Stage 7).

Step 2. A place to stay

Do. Stay where your employer books you, or in short-term accommodation, for your first two weeks, and view rooms in person. The law: "A landlord cannot ask for a deposit that is more than one month's rent", and no more than one month's rent in advance. "Avoid paying in cash (if possible) and always request a receipt." "Inspect the property in person. Do not rely on online videos or photos when viewing a property." Never send money for a room you have not seen. If you are scammed, call your bank at once, report it at your local Garda station, and report it to Threshold, the national housing charity.

From nurses who did it. Nigerians who moved in 2025 and 2026 say "you can't secure accomodation from Nigeria you have to get to Ireland first", book a hostel for two weeks, and many share. They report a room in Dublin at EUR 1,300 to EUR 1,500 and a shared room at EUR 500 to EUR 650; employers in Longford and Donegal booked a bed and breakfast or checked a room. Ask your employer for your first weeks' housing in writing.

Step 3. Register your permission

Do. Register within 90 days of arrival, and before the officer's stamp ends. "From 13/01/2025 the responsibility of registering all applicants in the Republic of Ireland will be transferred to Immigration Service Delivery (ISD) and will no longer be carried out by the Garda National Immigration Bureau (GNIB)." Some advice still says the GNIB: it is the Immigration Service now.

1. Create an account on the ISD Customer Service Portal, opens in a new tab: your email, a code, your name, date of birth and a mobile number as on your passport, your passport number, a password, Microsoft Authenticator (a free phone app that gives you sign-in codes) for sign-in, and an identity check. "You cannot set up a Customer Service Portal account on someone else's behalf."
2. Book your registration appointment there. "You do not have to pay a fee to book an appointment." "Any third party operator offering an appointment booking service for a fee is not operating on behalf of the Immigration Service."
3. Attend: your documents are reviewed, your photograph and fingerprints taken, and you pay. "The visit should take no longer than 30 minutes."

What you need. Your passport, your AWS letter, your employer's letter confirming your job, your visa and the landing stamp, "Proof of medical insurance", and proof of your address: the paper your employer gives you as your address (Stage 7, Step 3), if you stay where it books you.

Where. The Registration Office, 13-14 Burgh Quay, Dublin 2, D02 XK70, or the office the portal gives you.

Cost. "The registration fee is €300 (per person), if applicable. You can pay this fee by credit or debit card only." (about ₦446,400).

Time. Your IRP card comes by post: "You should receive it within 10 working days." The AWS training material: "Nursing candidates receive Stamp 1 permission and can exit and enter the State upon receipt of IRP Card".

You are done when you hold your IRP card.

Step 4. Your PPS number and a bank account

Do. The HSE's guide: "Securing accommodation will be your priority, in addition to getting a PPS (Personal Public Service) number and a bank account", because "You also need a PPS number to open a bank account to receive your salary".

• Your PPS number. Apply the week you arrive: "You cannot apply for a PPS number if you intend to relocate to Ireland - you must wait until you are in Ireland to apply" (Citizens Information, the Irish government's information service). Apply on MyWelfare with a MyGovID account (MyGovID is the Irish government's online sign-in), choose "Starting employment" as the reason, and upload a colour copy of your passport's picture page and your AWS letter. Then attend the in-person appointment at a PPS Number Allocation Centre: "You must attend your in-person appointment to complete your application." You prove your identity with your passport, and your address with a paper less than 3 months old: a bill, an official letter, a bank statement or a tenancy agreement. "If you are staying with friends or relatives, an original household bill together with a note from the bill holder confirming that you live at the address on the bill is acceptable." The number comes by post, "in 3- 5 working days" by the HSE's guide. Have your address paper ready when you apply.
• A bank account. "To open a current account in Ireland, you'll need valid proof of identity and address", and "You cannot use the same document as proof of both your identity and your address." Your passport, or your IRP, is your identity; your address paper is your address. A basic bank account is free for the first 12 months for a person legally resident in the EU without another current account.

You are done when you hold your PPS number and a bank account in your name.

Same as the UK. The UK puts your permission in an eVisa; Ireland gives you an IRP card at a registration appointment, for EUR 300.

Next. Your adaptation programme (Stage 11).

The Irish Immigration Service's registration pages (the required documents page last updated 1 October 2026), the HSE's guide (June 2026), Citizens Information, gov.ie, the CCPC and the Residential Tenancies Board were read on 7, 8 and 10 October 2026.

Stage 11. Your adaptation programme

You are in Ireland and hold your IRP. Now complete your adaptation programme at your hospital. It is your compensation measure: when you pass, the NMBI recognises your qualification.

Step 1. Your Candidate Certificate, before day 1

Do. Before your first day, apply on MyNMBI for your Candidate Certificate, which puts your name on the NMBI's Candidate Register. "Candidates will not be permitted to commence the programme without this certificate."

1. Get the hospital's letter "on headed paper" with your full name, your date of birth and your start date, "day 1 of orientation/theory/classroom-based activities".
2. On MyNMBI, open your overseas recognition application at its status "compensation measures required" or "compensation measures accepted", select "adaptation", enter the placement, upload "the confirmation letter from the hospital with the correct start date", enter your Clinical Facilitator's name and email (ask the hospital for them when it gives you its letter), and submit. The status becomes "compensation measures planned". "It must be uploaded to the portal by the applicant only."
3. Apply "at least one day before the start", and check all your details: "Changes cannot be made after this date."

When it comes. The NMBI sends it "at midnight on the date they start their adaptation and assessment programme. It will not be available before this date." It appears in My Documents. "Please email this certificate to your Clinical Facilitator on the first morning of induction." It is "valid for a total of 12 weeks or the duration of their adaptation and assessment programme, whichever is shorter". If it is not there on day 1, email G3reg@nmbi.ie.

Cost. The NMBI's fee table lists a Candidate Registration Fee of EUR 20 (about ₦29,760). Pay it if MyNMBI asks for it.

Have your registration papers ready now. "The candidate nurse should have all their CCPS documents ready before they start their adaptation and assessment programme and also ensure the English language test results have not expired." Your new NMCN letter, asked for at Stage 6, is one of them; if it has not come, do as Stage 7, Step 3, Your NMCN letter again, says. The NMBI checks that your MyNMBI name "matches their current passport".

Step 2. The programme

How long. "The duration of Adaptation is one week orientation and minimum of six weeks of supervised practice, (total of 7 weeks minimum for the programme)": at least 37.5 hours of orientation in a classroom and 225 hours of supervised practice. "The entire programme must not exceed 12 weeks. 450 hrs in total (1 week of orientation and 11 weeks of supervised practice)." "Any time missed during the minimum 6 weeks of supervised practice placement must be made up."

What it is like. You are "supernumerary (an extra member of staff)". A preceptor, a registered nurse assigned to you, supervises and assesses you for at least two-thirds of your time; the HSE says you "shadow" her "for six weeks". You follow her shifts, which "may include working on weekends and on night duty", and "Candidate nurses cannot be assigned shifts to meet operational demand." Your scope is that of a student nurse on internship, and you are assessed "at the level of a newly qualified nurse (graduate nurse)". Before you start on the ward, finish the hospital's HR and occupational health requirements.

How you are assessed. Three formal meetings: an initial meeting in the first two days, after you complete your self-evaluation form; an intermediate meeting in weeks 2 to 3; and a final meeting between weeks 6 and 11 of supervised practice, in the last week of your placement. Your preceptor judges you across six domains: professional values and conduct; nursing practice and clinical decision-making; knowledge and cognitive skills; communication and inter-personal skills; management and team; leadership and professional scholarship. "Medication management must be assessed". "Candidate nurses are deemed to be either competent or not competent in practice." If you are not progressing, you get a Performance Improvement Plan, and you or your preceptor may ask for a verifier, who attends your assessment on request. Keep your timesheets signed by your preceptor, and keep a copy of every form.

The pay. "During the adaptation period, you will be paid and referred to as a Candidate Nurse". At the HSE the grade is STAFF NURSE (ADAPTATION PLACEMENT), EUR 33,370 a year (about ₦49.7 million).

Step 3. The end of the programme

When you pass. Your preceptor and you complete the Candidate Eligibility Report (CER), and the Director of Nursing signs it. "The CER must then be forwarded within five days to NMBI for completion of the recognition of qualification and the applicant can subsequently apply for registration." Ask for your copy.

Stop nursing until you are registered. "Once the adaptation and assessment period is complete and the Candidate Eligibility Report has been sent to NMBI, the applicant's candidate certificate expires". "Legislation does not provide for un-registered applicants to continue providing nursing duties. Therefore, applicants must cease nursing duties until they receive full registration with NMBI." Apply for registration the day the CER goes (Stage 12). Your employer's written answer on pay before your registration (Stage 7, Step 3) tells you what you are paid in these weeks.

You are done when your Director of Nursing has signed your CER and it has gone to the NMBI.

If it goes wrong.

• You are ill. On long-term sick leave the NMBI takes you off the Candidate Register for the time and gives you a new certificate when you return.
• You do not reach competence. "If competency has not been achieved within the maximum 11 weeks of supervised practise, the candidate nurse will not be recommended for recognition of qualification." You may appeal to the Registration Committee within 56 days, on MyNMBI, with the EUR 150 fee (about ₦223,200). "If you are unsuccessful in the Clinical Adaptation process, you may appeal the matter, but you must leave the State before expiry of the 6 month permission, whether or not the appeal process has been completed." If your appeal succeeds after you have left, your employer applies for your permit and you come back only once you hold it. You cannot switch to the aptitude test after a failed adaptation; to try again you apply to the NMBI for recognition again.

From nurses who did it. A Nigerian nurse in Ireland made a video in 2024 on the pay of an adaptation nurse; nurses describe the pay as lower until you are registered with the NMBI. Nurses' groups reported in 2022 that a nurse who failed sign-off was "forced to leave the country while waiting" for her appeal. Keep every signed form and timesheet from the first day.

Same as the UK. The UK has no adaptation: its OSCE is a practical test at a test centre in the UK. Ireland's adaptation is weeks of supervised work in a hospital, paid.

Next. Your registration (Stage 12), the day your CER goes.

On the aptitude test: Stage 11 is the test

On the aptitude test, Stage 11 is the test in Dublin, not the adaptation programme. You are in Ireland on your AWS letter, and you do not work as a nurse until you are registered.

Before the test.

• No later than 17 days before your test, RCSI sends you information and a booking confirmation form: "The onus in on each applicant to ensure they receive the booking confirmation form no later than 17 days prior to the test."
• Immediately before you confirm, log in to MyNMBI, open "My pending compensation measures", select "Aptitude test", select Royal College of Surgeons as the test site, enter your test date and submit. "If you do not complete this correctly before submitting your booking confirmation, you will not receive a confirmation invitation from RCSI".
• Return the booking confirmation and all your immigration papers by 8am Irish time on the Monday 12 or 13 days before the test. If they are late, RCSI moves you to a later date, subject to places and your decision letter.

Where. "Both parts of the test are held in the Smurfit Building, Beaumont Hospital, Dublin 9." There is an orientation session at the centre on the day. "You are responsible for the costs/organisation of travel to/from Dublin for your RCSI exam, and any accommodation needed."

Part 1, the theory test. "You will be required to answer 150 questions over a three-hour period." Each question has four answers; you give one. "A minimum pass mark of 50% must be achieved in the Theory Test." You may not leave before 60 minutes. Bring your passport and a one-page copy of its picture page. Results come by email by 6pm the same day; a pass invites you to the practical test.

Part 2, the practical test (OSCE). "You are required to complete 14 stations", 10 minutes at each, following each station's descriptor. "In order to pass the practical part, the applicant must be deemed competent in each competency at each station". Come as you would to work, in uniform, with your footwear, hair, make-up and jewellery as on the ward. Results come by email by 2pm on the Thursday after the test.

How to prepare. RCSI: "it is essential that you base your revision on the NMBI publication: NMBI Standards and Requirements for Nurse Registration Education Programmes 5th edition". Its Preparation page lists the reading the stations use, topic by topic, from sepsis and the early warning score (INEWS) to ISBAR handover, MUST nutrition screening, Waterlow and SSKIN skin care, falls, frailty, dementia, delirium, diabetes, stoma care, safeguarding and open disclosure, with the NMBI's Code of Professional Conduct and Ethics (February 2025) and its medication guidance. "Before presenting for the test, an applicant must know how to complete and interpret/analyse each piece of documentation". From 24 January 2026 the stations use the HSE's adult sepsis form of September 2025. RCSI names why nurses fail: lack of preparation, rote learning, expecting set scenarios, not reading the descriptor, no recent general hospital experience, and differences in equipment and documentation. "RCSI does not approve or acknowledge any preparation or review sessions/courses/programmes for the test."

Your attempts. "Two attempts (that includes one repeat) are allowed for each of the two parts of the test. The theory test must be repeated in full. An applicant who fails at the first attempt of the practical part/OSCEs will be required to resit the OSCE station/s failed." Both attempts at both parts fall "within 12 weeks from the date at the first attempt at the theory part". RCSI recommends at least two weeks between attempts; the HSE's guide says "You may not get a second test for 3-4 weeks. You cannot work during this time." RCSI's own figures: "On average, 60% of applicants are successful at the first attempt, while 70% of applicants who undertake the second attempt are successful."

If you are ill on the day. Tell the centre staff and they arrange another day. "Once you have completed the test however, the outcome of the test is recorded."

When you pass. RCSI sends your result to the NMBI. "The NMBI then emails the applicant advising how to proceed with the application for registration." Keep your MyNMBI details up to date so the email reaches you. Then Stage 12.

If you fail twice. RCSI informs the NMBI, and your recognition is provisionally refused. You may appeal within 56 days (Stage 6). Your AWS permission still ends at six months: "If you are unsuccessful in securing NMBI registration you may appeal the matter but must leave the State before expiry of the 6 month permission regardless of whether or not the appeal process has been completed." You cannot switch to adaptation after a failed test.

From nurses who did it. A nurse who sat it in 2025 listed her 14 stations: infection control, fundamentals of care (Waterlow, MUST, urinary care, falls), ISBAR, sepsis, end of life care with a syringe driver, wound dressing, IV infusion, chest infection, oral drugs with a calculation, a talk with next of kin and a progress note, older adult care, teaching on a chronic disease, teaching a student nurse, and acute care with vital signs. RCSI warns that stations change and "If an applicant is advised/guided to expect specific scenarios at OSCE stations then they are being misguided." Practise the documentation as well as the skills.

Same as the UK. The UK OSCE is 10 stations at one of three centres, after the CBT at home. Ireland's test is 14 stations, in Dublin only, after a 150-question theory test in the same building, and you need an employer to sit it.

The NMBI's adaptation guidance (published 7 June 2024), its Competence Assessment Tool, RCSI's pages and the HSE's guide (June 2026) were read on 8, 9 and 10 October 2026.

Stage 12. Your registration

Your measure is passed. Now apply to join the NMBI's register, its second step. Until then you do not nurse.

Do. On MyNMBI, open the registration application, in the same account. Do not create a new one. "There are ten steps in the application process." The ones that ask something of you:

1. Your details.
2. Registration pathway: "Select the overseas recognition application that is connected to your registration."
3. Language pathway and English: choose IELTS or OET; for IELTS give your TRF number and test date, for OET your candidate number and test date.
4. Other registrations.
5. Identification: "If you have verified your ID during the candidate registration, you are not required to complete the process again."
6. Declarations, including the "fit and proper" declaration and the Registration Declaration Form: "I confirm that I am in good standing with the Regulator / Nursing Council, with no pending, new or outstanding complaints made against my licence."
7. Payment.

Your CCPS again. "If you continued to practise since your most recent CCPS was issued, and the CCPS provided is more than 12 months old when you submitted your application for registration, you will need to provide an updated CCPS." If you began to practise in another country since, you give that country's too. You asked the NMCN for a new letter the day your decision letter came (Stage 6): upload it here. If it has not come, upload what the NMBI told you it accepts (Stage 7, Step 3). If you hold a UK PIN, the week your measure ends, request a new certificate in MyNMC under My Registration. The NMC sends it to the NMBI, so tick that it is being sent directly.

Your English. It must be "valid at the point of submission of the registration application": less than two years old that day.

Where. MyNMBI, opens in a new tab.

Cost. EUR 145 (about ₦215,760), the Overseas Registration Fee (see Paying from Nigeria, before Stage 5). If the HSE is your employer, its relocation package can cover registration fees (Stage 7).

Time. The NMBI's table: a registration decision in 20 working days once it has everything. "If your application is incomplete, you will be contacted by email to provide the missing information."

The outcomes. "Registered. Registered with conditions attached. Refused registration. The last two outcomes are provisional and can be appealed": to the Registration Committee within 56 days, and then to the High Court "within three months of the Registration Committee Decision".

When you are registered. The NMBI notifies you; "Once payment has been received your certificate will be available in your My Documents section. Please note that it may take up to 30 minutes for the certificate to generate." Your employer checks the public Register for your status, its expiry date, your division and any conditions. The NMBI names two documents to read: its Code of Professional Conduct and Ethics and its guidance on Medication Management.

Your indemnity. "If you are employed in the public or voluntary/not for profit sector, professional indemnity insurance is generally provided through your employer's arrangements". In a private hospital or nursing home, "this should not be assumed": confirm it with your employer in writing.

You are done when your name is on the NMBI's Register and your certificate is in My Documents.

Keep it. Pay the Annual Retention Fee of EUR 100 (about ₦148,800) each year on MyNMBI, with the renewal email, your employment details and a card. "Any nurses or midwives who have registered for the first time, on or after 1 September 2025, are not required to renew until the 2027 annual renewal cycle." If you do not renew by the deadline, your name goes to the Board for removal, and your employer is told.

Same as the UK. After you register, the NMC charges £143 a year (about ₦251,251); the NMBI charges EUR 100 a year.

Next. Your Critical Skills Employment Permit (Stage 13), the day you are registered.

The NMBI's pages, its Registration Declaration Form and its Applicant User Guide were read on 8 and 10 October 2026.

Stage 13. Your Critical Skills Employment Permit

You are on the NMBI's register. Now your employer applies for your Critical Skills Employment Permit, and you register your permission on it. The Department of Enterprise's page for nurses says that a nurse from outside Europe who completes her adaptation and receives her certificate of registration from the NMBI may then apply for an employment permit, and that the application "must include a copy of the Atypical Working Scheme letter of approval". Your six months on the Scheme cover "completion of the Clinical Adaptation process, registration with the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland and the acquisition of an employment permit": you "must apply for and receive their Employment Permit prior to the expiration of their permission under the Atypical Working Scheme permission".

Do. Ask your employer, in writing, to apply the day you are registered. The HSE's guide: "Your new employer will arrange this for you." "The prospective employee or the employer can apply". It is applied for on Employment Permits Online, opens in a new tab.

What the application asks.

• A copy of the contract signed by both of you; the job offer "must be 2 years or more", at the location named ("Prospective employee can only work at locations of employment as stated on application").
• Your NMBI registration number or NMBI PIN.
• "If the application is in respect of a Nurse who is in the State undergoing adaptation under the Atypical Working Scheme (AWS) provide a copy of the AWS permission letter."
• A clear copy of your current immigration stamp and visa, a passport photo, and your qualifications for the role.
• The pay: your annual salary, hourly and weekly rates and hours. A Critical Skills permit's floor is EUR 40,904 a year on a 39-hour week (about ₦60.9 million), an hourly EUR 20.17; where the role is in the public sector under a pay agreement, "the annual remuneration will be the rate of pay of that agreement". "Salary refers solely to basic pay." Registered nurses are on the Critical Skills Occupations List, code 2231, so no Labour Market Needs Test (advertising the job in Ireland first) is needed.

Cost. "The processing fee for a Critical Skills Employment Permit is €1,000." (about ₦1.49 million) "If an application is unsuccessful then 90% of the fee will be refunded." Where the employer applies, it may not "seek to recover from, the holder of the employment permit concerned any charge, fee or expense related to the application." Ask your employer in writing who applies and who pays before you sign (Stage 7).

Time. The Department works in date order. On 19 October 2026 it was processing Critical Skills applications received on 9 October 2026. If it asks for more, you answer "within 28 days". "There is a cut-off deadline of 28 days from starting any application to submitting it."

You are done when the permit is granted.

If it goes wrong. A refusal can be reviewed within 28 days on the Department's review form, by "a separate and more senior official". The Employment Permits Section answers on (059) 9178900 (from Nigeria, +353 59 9178900), Monday to Friday, 9.30am to 4pm Irish time, at employmentpermits@enterprise.gov.ie, and at EPOS@enterprise.gov.ie for online and payment questions. "The Employment Permits Section does not have a public office".

An agency is never your permit holder. "There must be a direct employer/employee contract in place between the employer and non-EEA employee" (non-EEA: from outside the European Economic Area, as you are). A permit is not granted to an agency for a nurse it places with another employer.

Then register your permission on the permit. "An employment permit is not a Residence Permission." Your Stamp 1 moves from the Scheme to your permit: register it again before your AWS permission ends. The documents: your passport, your employment permit, proof of your new employment such as a letter from your employer, and proof of address; the fee is EUR 300 "if applicable". Book through the ISD Customer Service Portal, and use its Submit Query to ask whether you attend as a first registration or a change, and the fee. "It is in the best interest of the persons concerned to register as soon as possible following arrival."

What the permit asks of you. "The foreign national is expected to stay with the initial employer for a minimum period of 9 months." If the job ends, the permit goes back to the Department within 4 weeks; after a redundancy you have up to 6 months to find another job. Renew your permission "at least one month before the expiry date".

On the aptitude test. The same. You apply on your AWS letter, from inside Ireland, with your NMBI registration.

Same as the UK. The UK's sponsor gives a certificate of sponsorship before your visa; Ireland's permit comes after your registration, while you are already in Ireland.

Next. Your first weeks as a staff nurse (Stage 14).

The Department of Enterprise's pages, its Critical Skills checklist (August 2026), its processing dates and the HSE's guide were read on 7, 8 and 10 October 2026.

Stage 14. Your first weeks as a staff nurse

You are registered and hold your permit. Now start as a staff nurse, and set up your tax, your doctor, your home and your family.

Your tax, before your first pay. "To avoid paying Emergency Tax: your employer must have your Personal Public Service Number (PPSN) and your job must be registered with Revenue" (Revenue is Ireland's tax office). Register for Revenue's myAccount, then under PAYE Services (PAYE: the tax your employer takes from your pay) click "Add Job or Pension Details" and enter your employer's Tax Registration Number (ask payroll for it). Revenue then sends your employer a payroll notification. Without a PPS number, "Your employer will tax all your pay at the higher rate of tax (40%)." With a PPS number but no registered job, you pay the single person's band for four weeks, then 40% on all of it.

What comes off your pay in 2026. Income tax: a single person pays 20% on the first EUR 44,000 (about ₦65.5 million) and 40% on the rest, less the Single Person credit of EUR 2,000 and the Employee PAYE credit of EUR 2,000 (about ₦2.98 million each). USC (the Universal Social Charge): 0.5% on the first EUR 12,012, 2% on the next EUR 16,688, 3% on the next EUR 41,344, and 8% on the rest. PRSI (social insurance): 4.35% from 1 October 2026 on weekly pay over EUR 352. Claim the employee credit on myAccount. On the adaptation grade, EUR 33,370 a year, about EUR 2,390 a month reaches your account (about ₦3.56 million). At the first staff nurse point, EUR 38,166, about EUR 2,680 a month (about ₦3.99 million). Compare your rent with that. A married person with one income pays 20% on the first EUR 53,000, with the Married Person credit of EUR 4,000 in place of the Single Person credit; ask Revenue on myAccount which applies to you while your spouse lives in Nigeria. Revenue announced changes for 2027 in the budget of 6 October 2026: check Revenue's chart in January.

Your pay. Check your first payslip against your contract: your point on the pay scale (Stage 7), your tax and your PRSI. Increments come once a year. "Each employee is entitled to at least four weeks' annual leave per year, in addition to ten public holidays."

Your first courses. Create an account on HSeLanD, the HSE's training site ("You do not have a personnel number yet so type 123456 if asked"), and start on its i-START Hub. Four courses are mandatory: An Introduction to Children First (about 90 minutes), Dignity at Work (up to 40 minutes), Communicating Effectively Through Open Disclosure (about 40 minutes) and Cyber Security Awareness (about 90 minutes).

Your relocation claim. Send your claim with receipts within four months of your start date: "All relocation expenses must be submitted within four months of your start date." "You must keep receipts for all expenditure - bank records are not acceptable. Your name must be on the receipt."

A doctor. A GP is a family doctor at a local practice. "We recommend you register with a GP as soon as you arrive in the country." Find one on the HSE's Health Atlas; if a practice is full, try the next. "You do not need a Personal Public Service (PPS) number or other documentation to visit a GP." A visit costs from about EUR 45 to EUR 65 (about ₦66,960 to ₦96,720). "If you do not have a medical card or a GP visit card, you are not entitled to free GP services." A medical card is a means-tested state card: the basic rate for a single person is EUR 184 a week, below a staff nurse's pay, so plan to pay for each visit. Public hospital in-patient fees were abolished on 17 April 2023; an emergency department without a GP's referral costs EUR 100 (about ₦148,800). Prescription drugs are capped at EUR 80 a month (about ₦119,040) under the Drugs Payment Scheme.

A home. Once you have a room you will keep, the landlord registers your tenancy with the RTB (the Residential Tenancies Board, which registers tenancies) within one month, and you get a letter with your RT number. Rent on a tenancy created from 1 March 2026 rises at most once a year, by 2% or by inflation if lower, and after six months you have security of tenure. "If you are renting a room in your landlord's home you are not covered by landlord and tenant legislation."

Your family. Your family may not come while you are on the Atypical Working Scheme. Once you hold the Critical Skills permit, your husband or wife (or partner) and your children under 18 may apply to join you "immediately" (the Immigration Service's words: "spouse, civil partner or de facto partner and your minor children"). From Nigeria they apply for a long stay join family visa on AVATS, with fingerprints, sending your passport pages, your IRP, your permit, your contract, six months of bank statements for each of you, and your marriage certificate "attested/apostilled as genuine by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs": in Nigeria, the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs at Tafawa Balewa House, Abuja (Stage 9). "You can expect that your application will be dealt with within 12 months of receipt of all required documentation." Your spouse gets Stamp 1G, which "allows the holder to take up employment without the need to obtain an employment permit". The Irish Times reported backlogs of 12 to 15 months in November 2025. Apply the week your permit is granted.

Your safety. Nurses' unions reported in 2026 that some nurses from abroad travel to and from work in groups after racist abuse. Ask your ward manager on your first week how staff travel at night.

You are done when your first payslip shows your point on the scale, your tax credits and no emergency tax, and you are registered with a GP.

If it goes wrong. If your payslip shows emergency tax, register your job on myAccount the same day and tell payroll. If you have no PPS number yet, contact the Department of Social Protection.

From nurses who did it. Nurses in Dublin and Cork spend "up to 77%" of take-home pay on rent, their union said in 2025, and a union representative in Cork said many overseas nurses leave after their two-year contracts for housing. Nigerians who moved in 2025 and 2026 report rooms in Dublin at EUR 1,300 to EUR 1,500 and say the towns outside Dublin cost less. Compare your rent with your pay before you sign a lease.

Same as the UK. On a UK Health and Care Worker visa you pay no health surcharge and NHS care is free from the day the visa starts. In Ireland a GP visit costs EUR 45 to EUR 65, and your tax runs on your PPS number with Revenue.

What comes later. Stamp 4 lets you work in any job without a permit. The Irish Immigration Service's Stamp 4 upgrades page (last updated 25 February 2026) and its required documents page (1 October 2026) say: "Upon completion of 21 months from commencement of employment in the State, on the basis of: (i) a Critical Skills Employment Permit"; its stamps page (5 June 2026) says "With a valid Critical Skills Employment Permit for 2 years". Your time on the Atypical Working Scheme does not count. You may apply up to 12 weeks before your IRP card expires, and the page processes only applications that meet the 21 months on the day the card expires. After 60 months you may apply for long term residence; citizenship asks for at least 1,825 days of legal residence in the last 9 years, and Stamp 1 and Stamp 4 both count.

Revenue's, Citizens Information's, the RTB's, the HSE's and the Irish Immigration Service's pages were read on 7, 8 and 10 October 2026.

Part 4. What can stop you

These are the problems nurses meet, in the order they meet them, and what you do about each.

Your deadlines

Write each date down the day it arrives.

The three limits that close your application are the NMBI's six months for a missing document, the decision letter's 12 months, and the Atypical Working Scheme's six months in Ireland. Count your job search back from the 12 months, leaving time for the AWS letter and the visa.

What stops nurses, in order

What nurses say the NMCN asks. Nurses who applied in 2025 and 2026 say the NMCN wanted letters of good standing sent straight from their school and their last employer, two years after what they call the "permanent licence", and at least six months left on the licence. Call both offices before you start, and email info@nmcn.gov.ng before you pay if you may be within two years of your first full practising licence (Part 1).

A name or date of birth that differs. The NMBI checks your identity against your passport, and nurses report applications put on hold for a date of birth that differed. Fix any difference first (Stage 1).

The school's form and the employer's form. They are the slowest papers, and the NMBI closes an application if a document is missing for six months. Get both moving the week you start, and submit only when they are in (Stages 3 and 5).

An English result that is too old. The NMBI wants it less than two years old on the day you submit your registration, which comes after the decision, the job and the measure, and it takes one sitting only. Sit it in the weeks before Stage 5, and check its date again the week you sign your contract (Stage 4, When to sit it).

A training programme of under three years. The NMBI's warning turns on the length of your programme, not its name. Ask the NMBI before you pay (Part 1).

The decision letter with no job. This is where Nigerian nurses have been stuck since 2011. The letter lasts 12 months, and your measure must start inside it. Look at the jobs before you pay anything, and apply on every front the week the letter comes (Stages 6 and 7).

A fee for a job. No licensed agency may charge you, and no employer may recover recruitment costs from you. The Journal and Newstalk reported in 2025 that nurses paid EUR 3,000 to EUR 4,000 for jobs that did not exist. Check the agency's licence, and pay nobody (Stage 7).

A contract the Scheme refuses. From the employer, not the agent; two years; signed in ink; one location; a start date on your measure. A letter of offer is not a contract (Stages 7 and 8).

The visa wait. Nigerians report 12 to 17 weeks in Abuja from late 2025 to October 2026, against the AWS letter's 90 days. Lodge the day the letter comes, with six months of statements in your own name and every large sum explained, and agree your start date with your employer with the wait in it (Stage 9).

An empty bank account. A Nigerian nurse on the adaptation route was refused for it. Keep money in your own account from the start (Part 1).

A failed measure. You have one measure per decision letter, and your AWS permission ends at six months whether or not an appeal is heard. Prepare from the day you sign: on adaptation, keep every form and timesheet; on the test, revise from the NMBI's standards and RCSI's reading list (Stage 11).

The permit inside the six months. Your employer applies the day you are registered (Stage 13).

The cost of living. Up to two months before your first pay, and rents that take a large share of pay in Dublin and Cork. Bring the HSE's figure of about EUR 4,000, ask your employer what it pays, and look outside Dublin (Stages 7 and 10).

Part 5. If you already did some of this

Start at the first stage you have not finished.

Your training was under three years. Email the NMBI first (Part 1, Your training), and start Stage 1 only when you have its answer.

You have just married. Choose your name and fix your papers first (Stage 1, If you have just married).

Your papers are in one folder and your names match. Start at Stage 1, Step 2: your certified copies.

You hold an IELTS or OET result. Check it against the NMBI's scores (Stage 4): IELTS Academic 7.0 overall with 7.0 in three parts and 6.5 in one, or OET B in three and C+ in one, all in one sitting, on a computer at a test centre, and not IELTS One Skill Retake. If it meets them and is less than two years old on the day you pay at Stage 5, use it there. Then check its date again the week you sign your contract (Stage 4, When to sit it).

You have passed the UK CBT. Ireland does not use it: start at Stage 1. Your English result for the NMC may serve the NMBI too, if it is one sitting at the NMBI's scores and still young enough (Stage 4). Your NMCN folder is the same; the NMCN's letter for the NMBI is a new request (Stage 2). A CBT pass does not put you on the NMC's register, so the NMBI asks you for no NMC certificate. Your UK time limits keep running while you do Ireland: your CBT attempts all fall within one year, and you have two years from your first pass to complete your NMC registration. Write both end dates in your deadlines table before you pay the NMBI.

You hold a UK PIN. You are still in the NMBI's group G3, and you still do Stages 1 to 14. At Stage 3, if you have worked in the UK as a registered nurse, ask that employer for the NMBI's Employment Form too: the NMBI weighs your experience against gaps in your training. If you have not, your Nigerian employers' forms are enough. At Stage 4, if you have three years of registered practice in the UK in the last five, use the NMBI's English Pathway 2, with your employer's letter, instead of a test; if not, sit the test. At Stage 5, add the NMC as a second registration and request its certificate once everything else is uploaded to your draft (Stage 5, Step 2, item 5). At Stage 7, note the week your measure will end: request a new NMC certificate that week (Stage 7, Step 3). To keep your UK PIN while you do Ireland, you pay the NMC £143 a year (about ₦251,251) in MyNMC (Stage 12). Your UK PIN may also open the Australian board's registration Pathway 2: a first qualification dated on or after 1 January 2017, the NMC's Test of Competence passed, UK registration in adult nursing since then, and 1,800 hours of practice as an adult nurse in the UK. With no UK practice yet, you do not meet it: it needs 1,800 hours as an adult nurse in the UK.

You are registered in New Zealand or Australia. The NMBI's pages name no shorter route: you are in G3 and start at Stage 1. Three years of registered practice there in the last five serve the NMBI's Pathway 2 for English, and you need a CCPS from that regulator too (Stage 2).

You have submitted your recognition application. Start at Stage 5, Your clock: send any missing document within six months of submitting.

You hold a decision letter. Start at Stage 6 today: choose your measure in MyNMBI, ask the NMCN for your new letter, and start Stage 7 the same week. Count your 12 months from its date of issue.

You hold a signed two-year contract and the hospital's letter. Start at Stage 8.

You hold your AWS letter. Start at Stage 9 today: your 90 days are running.

You are in Ireland on your AWS letter. Register (Stage 10) if you have not, then Stage 11. Your six months are running.

You have passed your adaptation or your aptitude test. Start at Stage 12, and stop nursing until you are registered.

You are registered with the NMBI. Start at Stage 13: your employer applies for your permit today.

Part 6. The time, stage by stage

• Stage 1, your Nigerian papers: a new passport 42 days after enrolment.
• Stage 2, your NMCN letter: plan on six months; nurses applying for the UK in 2025 and 2026 report a minimum of six months, a nurse in 2024 two to six weeks.
• Stage 3, your school's and your employer's forms: no set time; ask your school and your employer when they will finish.
• Stage 4, your English: results in 1 to 5 days for IELTS on computer; about 6 days for OET on computer.
• Stage 5, your recognition application: about 3 months to a decision once the NMBI holds every document; six months to send a missing one.
• Stage 6, your decision letter: valid 12 months from its date of issue; 56 days to appeal.
• Stage 7, the job: your decision letter's 12 months; the HSE gives about two weeks' notice of an interview, and a start within 3 months of a formal offer.
• Stage 8, your AWS letter: at least 20 working days; the letter lasts 90 days. On the aptitude test, a test date opens 3.5 to 4.5 months ahead, and the fee is paid within 14 days.
• Stage 9, your visa: about 8 weeks by the Irish Immigration Service's page; the Embassy recommends applying twelve weeks ahead; nurses report 12 to 17 weeks from late 2025 to October 2026.
• Stage 10, travel and register: registered within 90 days; the IRP card within 10 working days.
• Stage 11, adaptation: one week of orientation and at least six of supervised practice, 12 weeks at most; the CER within five days. On the aptitude test, both attempts within 12 weeks, results the same day for the theory and by the Thursday for the practical.
• Stage 12, your registration: about 20 working days.
• Stage 13, your permit: on 19 October 2026 the Department was processing Critical Skills applications received on 9 October 2026.
• Stage 14, your first weeks: up to two months to your first pay, by the HSE's guide.

The whole journey: the NMBI's own figures are 13 months on average from submission to registration, and 18 months including a compensation measure. Before them come your papers, the NMCN and your English; after them, your permit.

Part 7. The money, all of it

Every fee in the order you meet it, for you alone, on Adaptation. For paying from Nigeria, see the paragraph before Stage 5.

The total leaves out the change of name, the certifier, any translations, VFS's own fee, the Police Character Certificate's fee, your flight, your first weeks in Ireland, your medical or travel insurance, the Candidate Registration Fee of EUR 20 (about ₦29,760) if MyNMBI asks for it, and the Critical Skills permit. Price your flight with the airlines before you pay the NMBI, and add it to this total. The HSE's guide puts the money to get set up on arrival at "in the region of €4000" (about ₦5.95 million): "It may take up to two months before you are paid".

Before your first Irish pay. Before you have a job (Stages 2 to 6): about ₦0.90 million (the NMCN's ₦75,625 and its new letter's ₦8,750, IELTS's ₦299,000 and the NMBI's EUR 350), plus the certifier. After you sign your contract (Stages 7 to 10): about ₦0.91 million more in fees (the Atypical Working Scheme, the visa and your IRP), your flight, and the HSE's set-up figure of about ₦5.95 million. That is about ₦7.76 million before your first Irish pay, plus your flight. The HSE's relocation package can cover up to EUR 4,710 (about ₦7.01 million) of it. The HSE's package is for nurses the HSE hires. A private hospital sets its own: ask it in writing what it pays before you sign (Stage 7). Some costs are paid directly for you. Others you claim back on receipts after you start (Stage 14), so you hold that money yourself first. Before you sign, ask in writing which costs your employer pays directly (Stage 7).

Paid by your employer, or paid back. The Critical Skills Employment Permit, EUR 1,000 (about ₦1.49 million), which the law does not allow an employer that applies to take back from you. If the HSE hires you, its relocation package, up to EUR 4,710 (about ₦7.01 million) for a candidate from outside the EU, and the costs it can cover: your registration fees, your visa, your AWS fee, RCSI's fee and agency fees. Ask in writing which your employer pays (Stage 7).

If your English result already serves the NMBI (Part 5), take ₦299,000 off: about ₦1.73 million in all.

Only if you need them. An appeal to the NMBI, EUR 150 (about ₦223,200); a multiple entry visa, EUR 100 (about ₦148,800) in place of EUR 60; an additional division, EUR 200 (about ₦297,600) for recognition and EUR 80 (about ₦119,040) for registration, unless the seven-day waiver applies; a new AWS application if you miss the 90 days, EUR 250 again; a new English test if your result will be too old, ₦299,000; a second registration of your permission on your permit, EUR 300 (about ₦446,400) if charged (Stage 13); a new NMCN letter of good standing if yours will be over six months old when you submit at Stage 5, ₦8,750 (Stage 2); a passport changed to your married name: ₦30,000 is the passport office's correction of data charge; ask the passport office whether a change after marriage takes it (Stage 1). If you hold a UK PIN: the NMC's certificate at Stage 5 and again at Stage 12 (ask the NMC its fee), and £143 a year (about ₦251,251) to keep your PIN (Part 5).

Each year after. The NMBI's Annual Retention Fee, EUR 100 (about ₦148,800). Your IRP renewal.

For each family member. A long stay join family visa at the naira equivalent of its fee, and, at registration, EUR 300 (about ₦446,400) per person "if applicable". Your spouse needs no employment permit on Stamp 1G.

On the aptitude test

You pay the same fees, plus RCSI's EUR 2,800 (about ₦4.17 million), or EUR 2,500 (about ₦3.72 million) if your employer pays RCSI directly and is entitled to the discount; EUR 10 more (about ₦14,880) if paid in euro. The total for you alone is about ₦6.19 million if you pay the fee yourself. You also pay your stay in Dublin with no pay until you are registered: RCSI lists "Sufficient means to live in the Republic of Ireland prior to earning a salary" and "Factor in repeat date (if required)". Ask in writing whether your employer pays the fee, pays it back, or pays it back only if you pass (Stage 7).

Never yours to pay: no employment agency may charge you for finding you a job, and no employer may recover from you the cost of your permit or your recruitment.

Naira figures are at the rates of record of 7 October 2026: ₦1,488 to the euro and ₦1,757 to the pound (the Central Bank of Nigeria's central rates), rounded.