Paramedic Jobs Abroad (2026): Registration and Visa Lists

United Kingdom: Health and Care Worker visa code, pay scales and HCPC registration

The GOV.UK page on the UK Health and Care Worker visa lists the occupation codes that can apply, and the list includes “2255: paramedics”. The job must be with a UK health and care sector employer approved by the Home Office. The page says “You’ll usually need to be paid at least £25,000”, or the going rate for the job if that is higher, and for health and care jobs outside its separate list of codes with different salary requirements it points to the table of national pay scales for eligible healthcare jobs.

That GOV.UK table sets minimum annual salaries (the ‘going rate’) by NHS pay band and area of the UK, and its bands apply to code 2255 Paramedics. For Band 5 the figures are £29,970 in England, £31,892 in Scotland, £30,420 in Wales and £28,407 in Northern Ireland; for Band 6 they are £37,338, £39,912, £37,898 and £35,392. They are based on a 37.5-hour week (37 in Scotland) and are pro-rated for other working patterns. The page presents these as minimum salaries for the visa, and it does not say which band a paramedic job sits in.

The Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) regulates paramedics, and “Paramedic” is one of its protected titles: to use one of these titles, a person must be registered with the HCPC. Its international route is for applicants who trained and obtained a qualification outside the UK, in a profession it regulates, and who have not been on its register before. Applications are assessed against the standards of proficiency for the profession. A separate Free Trade Agreement route exists for what the HCPC calls Specified State professionals.

UK Visas and Immigration: Health and Care Worker visa, Your job · UK Visas and Immigration: National pay scales for eligible healthcare occupation codes · HCPC: Professions and protected titles · HCPC: Eligibility to apply for registration

Australia: skilled occupation list and the Paramedicine Board

A search of the Department of Home Affairs skilled occupation list for “paramedic” shows the entry Intensive Care Ambulance Paramedic, ANZSCO 411112, on the lists marked “STSOL;CSOL”, with Vocational Education and Training Assessment Services (VETASSESS) as the assessing authority. The visas it names for this entry include the Skilled Nominated (subclass 190) visa, the Skilled Work Regional (subclass 491) visa where State or Territory nominated, the Skilled Employer Sponsored Regional (subclass 494) employer sponsored stream, the Skills in Demand (subclass 482) Core Skills stream and the Employer Nomination Scheme (subclass 186) Direct Entry pathway. Ambulance Officer, ANZSCO 411111, appears on the same lists with the same assessing authority. The page says applicants must also meet all other requirements.

To practise in Australia, the Paramedicine Board of Australia says that anyone applying for registration as a paramedic without an approved or accepted qualification must first have a qualifications portfolio assessed, and that this applies mainly to overseas qualified paramedics. The outcome may be advice to apply for registration, to complete the Board's paramedicine competence assessment at the applicant's own cost, or to consider upgrading qualifications. The Board says registration cannot be obtained solely by having qualifications assessed. Paramedics with current registration in New Zealand can apply under the Trans-Tasman Mutual Recognition Act. The Board also requires applicants to be able to satisfy its registration standards on English language skills, criminal history, recency of practice and professional indemnity insurance.

Home Affairs: Skilled occupation list (search “paramedic”) · Home Affairs: Skilled occupation list (Ambulance Officer) · Paramedicine Board of Australia: Assessment of overseas qualifications

Ireland: Critical Skills Occupations List and PHECC recognition

The Critical Skills Occupations List published by the Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment includes, under “Health Associate Professionals”, the employments “PHECC registered Paramedics” and “PHECC registered Advanced Paramedic Practitioners”. The Department says occupations on this list are eligible for a Critical Skills Employment Permit. The list pages read here do not state the permit's salary threshold or its other conditions.

In Ireland, the Pre-Hospital Emergency Care Council (PHECC) register has three divisions: EMT, paramedic and advanced paramedic. For qualifications obtained outside Ireland, PHECC publishes an application for recognition of qualifications. It accepts only certified copies of documents, says the process usually takes 3 months and may be extended due to the volume of applications, and says applicants can appeal a decision made following the recognition process.

DETE: Critical Skills Occupations List (CSOL) · DETE: Critical Skills Occupations List (document) · PHECC: Recognition of qualifications

New Zealand: Paramedic Council registration and the Green List

Te Kaunihera Manapou Paramedic Council says people who trained overseas can apply to have their qualification considered on a case-by-case basis: under the Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act 2003 it can treat an overseas qualification as a prescribed qualification if it considers it equivalent. Applicants who do not hold an appropriate paramedic qualification cannot apply by this route, and the Council does not give preliminary assessments. If standards have not been demonstrated, it may invite an applicant to a competence assessment, held in New Zealand at the applicant's own expense. It asks applicants to allow a minimum of 8 weeks once the application is complete, and its English language requirements apply.

Immigration New Zealand's operational manual, in Appendix 13 – Green List (effective 23/03/2026), lists Ambulance Paramedic (411112) with the Green List requirement “New Zealand registration with the Paramedic Council”.

Te Kaunihera Manapou Paramedic Council: Overseas-qualified paramedics · Immigration New Zealand: Appendix 13 – Green List

Canada: Express Entry healthcare category

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada's 2024-2025 Report to Parliament on category-based selection in Express Entry lists “Paramedical occupations”, NOC 32102, in Annex B, the 2025 list of eligible occupations, under Healthcare and Social Services Occupations. That is the 2025 list. The current category table on IRCC's category-based selection page did not load in full when it was read for this revision, so this page does not say whether code 32102 is on it now. Paramedic licensing in Canada is outside the pages read here.

IRCC: Report to Parliament on category-based selection in Express Entry

What the official pages used here do not cover

Silence on these points is not a rule. The pages read for this revision do not settle:

• whether Paramedical occupations is in the current Express Entry healthcare category table, which did not load in full;
• Canadian provincial paramedic licensing for internationally trained paramedics;
• United States state licensing for foreign-trained paramedics, which no state EMS office page read here covers;
• salaries for paramedics outside the UK, and which NHS band a given UK paramedic job sits in;
• Critical Skills Employment Permit salary thresholds, visa processing times and Express Entry score cut-offs;
• other destinations, which are left out because no official page read here says something specific about paramedics.

Related pages: the healthcare workers overview of official pages and the UK Skilled Worker visa guide.