How to verify healthcare qualifications when hiring internationally

When you recruit healthcare professionals internationally, verifying a degree or training certificate is only part of the job. You need to confirm that the qualification is genuine, establish whether it meets the requirements of the role and, where relevant, separately confirm that the candidate is authorised to practise in the country where you are hiring.

Healthcare recruitment is increasingly international.

‍The World Health Organization estimates that the global health workforce now exceeds 70 million people, while the projected shortage by 2030 stands at 11 million. At the same time, WHO reports that the number of migrant doctors and nurses working across OECD countries increased by 60% over a decade.

That mobility creates a practical problem for employers. A qualification issued in one country may need to be checked with an institution thousands of miles away, under a different education system and in another language. Even once you confirm it is genuine, it may not give the individual the right to practise where you are hiring them.

We see this distinction missed surprisingly often.

Start by establishing what you actually need to verify

Healthcare qualification verification should start with the requirements of the role. A hospital recruiting a consultant physician will need different evidence from a care provider recruiting a healthcare assistant. Your screening process should reflect that difference.

For a regulated clinical role, you may need to establish:

• where the candidate studied
• what qualification they received
• when it was awarded
• whether the institution is recognised
• whether the qualification satisfies local professional requirements
• whether the candidate holds the necessary registration or licence to practise

The first four points are primarily qualification checks. The final two may sit with a regulator or licensing body.

Keeping those processes separate makes your hiring decisions much easier to defend.

An academic achievement check from Veremark can confirm information including the academic institution attended, dates, subjects and grades directly with the nominated institution.

Healthcare qualification vs permission to practice: what you need to know

This is the most important distinction in international healthcare recruitment. As healthcare recruitment becomes more international, employers increasingly need to verify qualifications issued by institutions and regulators outside their own country, as well as the candidates permission to practive.

Imagine you are recruiting a nurse who qualified and worked in Country A before moving to Country B. You verify the candidate's nursing degree directly with their university. The university confirms that the qualification is genuine. That tells you the person earned the qualification they claimed. It does not necessarily tell you that they can legally work as a registered nurse in Country B.

In 2023, more than 600,000 foreign-trained doctors and 800,000 foreign-trained nurses were working across OECD countries (a country that belongs to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development). The number of foreign-trained doctors had risen by more than 50% since 2010, while the number of foreign-trained nurses had increased by 69%.

Healthcare qualifications show that a person has completed the required education or training. Permission to practise confirms that they are legally authorised to work in a regulated healthcare role in a specific country or jurisdiction.

A candidate can hold a genuine medical or nursing qualification and still be unable to practise if they are not registered with the relevant regulator, their licence has expired, or local requirements have not been met. For employers, that means qualification verification and professional registration checks should be treated as separate parts of the hiring process.

Depending on the profession and jurisdiction, a regulator may separately assess overseas qualifications, clinical experience, language capability or examinations before granting registration. There may also be conditions attached to an individual's licence.

The exact process differs considerably between countries and professions, so you should establish the registration requirements in the country of employment before deciding which checks to order. This becomes particularly important when people have trained, registered and worked across several jurisdictions.

A background screening provider, like Veremark, can help you navigate these international requirements.

Verify information with the original source

A certificate supplied by a candidate can help you identify what needs checking. It should not always be treated as the final evidence.

Where possible, verify material qualifications against an authoritative source, such as the university, medical school, awarding institution or relevant official database.

You want to confirm that the record held by the institution matches what the candidate has provided.

Check details such as the candidate's name at the time of study, qualification, course, attendance dates and award date. Where grades or classification matter to the role, these can also form part of the verification.

This is particularly useful where names have changed, qualification terminology differs between countries or an unfamiliar institution appears on the candidate's CV.

Our approach to education verification allows candidates to provide supporting education documents as part of the process while the relevant information is checked.

Expect international checks to take different routes

Healthcare qualification verification becomes harder across borders because education records are not stored in a single global system.

One university might provide electronic confirmation within days. Another may require a signed candidate authority before releasing records. An institution may have changed its name, merged with another university or closed altogether.

Older qualifications can create further work, particularly where records have not been digitised.

Language is another consideration. A qualification may be perfectly legitimate while using terminology that means little to your recruitment team. The name of a degree should therefore be verified rather than interpreted from the CV alone.

Build these differences into your hiring process rather than assuming every international qualification can be checked in the same way.

The same principle applies across your wider screening programme.

Our global background screening checklist recommends matching checks to the hiring country, employment model and specific risks associated with the role.

Check professional registration separately

For regulated healthcare positions, verify the candidate's current professional status with the relevant authority.

Depending on what information is legally available, that could include whether registration is current, its expiry date and whether any restrictions apply.

Do not assume that previous employment proves current registration. A doctor might have worked in a country five years ago and since allowed their registration there to lapse. A nurse may hold active registration in one jurisdiction without being registered in the country where you want them to work.

You should also define who owns this part of the process. If recruitment agencies or staffing suppliers provide candidates, establish whether they check professional registration themselves and what evidence they give you.

Your organisation should know what has been verified before the person starts clinical work.

Apply the same standard without applying the same check

Background screening for healthcare roles needs consistency, although consistency does not mean ordering an identical screening package everywhere. Your standard might require every regulated healthcare professional to have their identity, relevant qualifications and current professional status verified before starting work.

How you satisfy that standard will vary by location.

Different countries have different regulators, privacy requirements and access to records. Your screening policy therefore needs enough flexibility to account for local law while keeping the underlying hiring standard clear.

This matters as international recruitment grows. WHO Member States amended the Global Code of Practice on the International Recruitment of Health Personnel in May 2026, reinforcing international attention on the fair management of healthcare worker mobility.

A wider global employee background checking process can give your recruitment team one workflow while allowing checks to reflect local requirements.

Treat qualification checks as evidence, not administration

When somebody is being hired to deliver healthcare, their qualifications are part of the evidence that supports the hiring decision.

That makes healthcare qualification verification more than a request for a copy of a certificate.

Confirm the qualification with an appropriate source. Check whether it satisfies the requirements of the position. For regulated roles, confirm professional registration separately. Document what you checked and when.

For an international healthcare workforce, that gives you a repeatable standard even when the institutions, regulators and hiring rules change from one country to another.