Quick answer: Filipino nurses use OET for the UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and the United States pathway. The common targets are 350 in Listening, Reading and Speaking with 300 in Writing for the UK and New Zealand. Australia has asked for 350, 360, 350, 360 since April 2026. Ireland wants grade B in three components and C+ in the fourth, in one sitting. And no, studying nursing in English in the Philippines does not exempt you from the test. The full map and the traps are below.
You are a Filipino nurse. Your English is fine. You chart in English. You endorse in English. You even dream in English on night duty. So why are you still stuck?
Read that question again. The answer is not your English. The answer is your information. The review centre gave you old files. The agency gave you their test, not your test. The Facebook group gave you a rule from 2019. Wrong information eats years. This page is the correction. Every rule below comes from the regulator’s own page, read on 2 September 2026, and the date is printed above.
First, the exemption truth
You studied nursing in English. Your board exam was in English. So you ask: why must I sit an English test at all?
Fair question. Here is the straight answer. The regulators keep exemption lists, and they are lists of countries, not lists of languages. New Zealand’s covers the United Kingdom, Singapore, Ireland, Canada and the United States. Ireland’s covers Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United States and the United Kingdom. TruMerit’s exemption for VisaScreen covers the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada outside Quebec, New Zealand, Ireland and the United States.
The Philippines is on none of them. Is that fair? No. Will it change before your application? Also no. So do not fight the rule. Beat it. Pick the test where your hospital years become your weapon. That test is OET.
Why OET fits the Filipino nurse
Look at what each test asks from you.
IELTS asks for an essay about museums. Museums. When did you last write about museums? Its band 7 Writing wall has eaten years from thousands of Filipino careers.
Now look at OET. The Writing task is a referral letter from case notes. You write endorsements every shift. The Speaking task is a patient conversation. You have one every hour. The Listening task is a consultation. That is the background sound of your workplace.
Yes, OET is hard. And it got harder. But it is hard inside your own world. A nurse fighting in her own world beats a nurse fighting in a stranger’s. The full comparison, with the score table, is here. → OET or IELTS
Where OET takes a Filipino nurse
| Destination | Regulator | The English door |
|---|---|---|
| United Kingdom | NMC | Nursing version. 350 in Listening, Reading and Speaking, 300 in Writing. OET@Home accepted. Clubbing across two sittings within 12 months. Then the CBT, and the OSCE after you arrive. |
| Ireland | NMBI | OET Nursing. Grade B in three components and C+, which is 300, in the fourth. The C+ may be any one of them. One sitting only. No clubbing. No OET at home. |
| Australia | AHPRA | Tests from 23 April 2026: Listening 350, Reading 360, Writing 350, Speaking 360. Test centre only. Two full sittings may be combined within 12 months, with floors in both. |
| New Zealand | Nursing Council | 350 in Listening, Reading and Speaking, 300 in Writing. The scores may be collected over more than one sitting, within 12 months of the first. Test centre only. |
| United States | State boards, plus VisaScreen from TruMerit | OET is on TruMerit’s approved list for VisaScreen, and the required score varies by profession. At home versions are not accepted. State boards set their own rules on top, so verify your target state and trumerit.org before planning this route. |
Two rules for every door. One: results live for two years almost everywhere, and New Zealand counts three years from your application. Two: your registration English and your visa English are different doors, and the UK visa door moved to B2 on 8 January 2026. Check both. Always.
Now stop guessing about your own result. Check your exact scores against these rules, every rule shown, pass or fail. → OET eligibility checker
Taking OET from the Philippines
The test runs in the big cities, on paper and on computer. And there is the at home option. Now read this line twice, because it decides destinations.
OET at home works only for the UK. Australia refuses it. New Zealand refuses it. Ireland refuses it. TruMerit refuses it for VisaScreen. Are you in a province, far from Manila or Cebu? Then the UK route can start from your own room. Every other route needs the trip.
Now the money. The fee is set in Australian dollars, not pesos, so what you pay moves with the exchange rate. Check the live figure on the day you book, and check it again before a retake. One avoided retake pays for any preparation system in this industry, including mine.
The four Filipino traps
- The review centre recycled files trap. The same old files travel from review centre to Facebook group to your phone. You practise them until you remember the answers. At home you score 33. In the hall you score 300. It was never your English. It was the material. → Why students fail
- The agency default trap. Many agencies push the test their partner sells, not the test that fits you. This is your career, not their commission. Decide with the comparison, not with the poster on the agency wall.
- The exemption assumption trap. Maybe they will waive it for me. No. Nobody on this page waives it for Philippine graduates. Hope costs months. Plan for the test from day one.
- The at home confusion trap. One nurse books the at home test for an Australian application. AHPRA refuses at home results. The whole fee, burned. Match the test mode to the destination before you pay.
The five step Philippines plan
- Measure first. Free. Sit a Reading paper built on the real 2026 difficulty, under the clock. One honest hour before one peso leaves your pocket. → Free practice tests
- Pick the destination. Lock the target on paper. UK and New Zealand: 350, 350, 350, 300. Ireland: three at 350 and one at 300, one sitting. Australia: 350, 360, 350, 360.
- Train on the systems. Free. The Grade B Equation for Reading. The Listening equation. The Criteria Map for Writing. The nine point pattern for Speaking. → Reading · Listening · Writing · Speaking
- Clear the Clearance Mocks. Then book. Candidates who pass the OET HQ Clearance Mocks go on to clear the real exam around 90 percent of the time, based on OET HQ candidate outcomes. Individual results vary.
- Book once. Clear once. Fly once. Whether the flight goes to Heathrow, Dublin or Sydney.
The Filipina nurse stuck as a carer, and how she came back
A nurse from the Philippines, working as a carer in the UK. Low pay. Visa expiring. Three attempts across two years, the seesaw of one sub-test up and another down. Then two months on the right system, and the third card read Listening 360, Reading 390, Speaking 370, Writing 350. Four grade Bs. Her full story, and exactly what she changed, is here. → Success stories
Heading to the UK? The full UK roadmap, CBT to OSCE, is here. → OET for the UK
How this page stays accurate
The NMC, NMBI, AHPRA, NCNZ and TruMerit rules on this page were each read from that body’s own page on 2 September 2026. When one moves, this page moves the same week, and so does the checker. One line that never leaves: the checker predicts, the regulator decides. Confirm with your regulator before you apply.
About the author
Dr. Nasir Bukhari is the Executive Director of CliniVerba, the house behind OET HQ, and an officially trained OET teacher, certified in all four skills by OET’s Head of Education. He has sat the OET exam and cleared it, and has taught healthcare professionals in more than 40 countries. More about Dr. Nasir.