If you’ve spent even one evening scrolling through nursing or medical Facebook groups, you’ve probably read ten different answers to the same question: which countries actually accept OET? Some threads say only Australia and the UK count. Others throw in a dozen names with no real proof behind them. The truth sits somewhere in between, and it shifts often enough that a post written last year can already be out of date.
This guide walks through the OET accepted countries as things stand in August 2026, the exact scores each regulator is currently asking for, and a few things candidates get wrong before they’ve even booked their test date. If you’re deciding where to apply, or you’ve already picked a country and just want to know what number you’re chasing, you should have what you need by the end of this.
What Does “OET Accepted” Actually Mean?
OET itself is owned and run by Cambridge Boxhill Language Assessment, a joint venture between Cambridge Assessment English and Box Hill Institute in Australia. The test measures listening, reading, writing and speaking, but unlike IELTS, every task is built around real healthcare situations — a nurse writing a discharge letter, a doctor listening to a case handover, a physiotherapist explaining an exercise plan to a patient.
No country, as a whole, “approves” OET. What actually happens is that individual regulators, hospital groups, universities and immigration departments each make their own decision to recognise it. OET calls these recognising organisations, and more than 550 of them, spread across roughly twenty to twenty-five countries, currently take OET scores as proof of English proficiency. That number keeps growing as more state nursing boards and hospital networks sign on.
So when someone asks, “is OET accepted in Canada,” the honest answer is: it depends which province and which regulatory college you’re applying to. It’s rarely a flat yes or no, which is exactly why country-by-country detail matters more than a simple list.
Full List of OET Accepted Countries in 2026
Here’s where OET currently carries weight, grouped by region. Treat this as a starting point rather than the final word — always confirm with the specific regulator before you book.
Oceania
- Australia — AHPRA and every state and territory practitioner board, plus most universities for health-related admissions
- New Zealand — the Nursing Council of New Zealand and the Medical Council of New Zealand
Europe
- United Kingdom — the NMC for nurses and midwives, the GMC for doctors, the GDC for dentists, and a number of NHS trusts hiring directly
- Ireland — the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland (NMBI) and the Medical Council of Ireland
North America
- Canada — regulatory colleges in British Columbia, Ontario, Alberta and a growing list of other provinces, though requirements differ by province
- United States — CGFNS for the VisaScreen process, ECFMG for international medical graduates, and several individual state nursing boards
Middle East
- United Arab Emirates — the Dubai Health Authority, the Department of Health Abu Dhabi, and the Ministry of Health and Prevention
- Qatar — the Qatar Council for Healthcare Practitioners (QCHP)
Asia
- Singapore — the Singapore Nursing Board and the Singapore Medical Council
- Philippines — select hospital groups and outbound training programs, though it’s less of a blanket requirement than in the countries above
Africa
- Namibia — the Health Professions Councils of Namibia
A word of caution: this list moves. A regulator can add or quietly drop OET recognition, and score requirements get revised without much fanfare. Before you commit to a test date, check the regulator’s own page for your target country rather than relying on any blog, including this one.
OET Score Requirements by Country
Grade B — a score of 350 or higher out of 500 — used to be the number everyone quoted as the universal OET benchmark. That’s no longer accurate. Several regulators have moved to skill-specific numbers, and Australia’s update earlier this year is the clearest example. Here’s a snapshot of what’s currently required across the main destinations.
| Country | Regulator | Typical requirement (nursing pathway) |
| UK | NMC | Grade B in Listening, Reading and Speaking; Grade C+ accepted in Writing |
| UK | GMC (doctors) | Grade B across all four sub-tests |
| Australia | AHPRA / NMBA | Approx. 350 Listening, 360 Reading, 350 Writing, 360 Speaking (revised April 2026) |
| Ireland | NMBI | Grade B in three sub-tests, Grade C+ in Writing |
| New Zealand | Nursing Council NZ | Grade B in all four sub-tests |
| Canada | Varies by province | Grade B (350) is typical; a few colleges accept C+ in Writing |
| USA | CGFNS / state boards | Grade B in all four, though some state boards still list IELTS as their default |
| Singapore | Singapore Nursing Board | Grade B in all four sub-tests |
| UAE | DHA / DOH | Grade B in all four; C+ sometimes accepted for renewal candidates |
These are nursing-pathway figures. Doctors, dentists, pharmacists and other professions often face different combinations, so always pull the exact table for your own profession from the regulator’s site rather than assuming the nursing numbers carry over.
United Kingdom — NMC and GMC
The NMC’s requirement hasn’t changed much in the last couple of years: Grade B in Listening, Reading and Speaking, with Writing allowed at C+. What has changed is the test mode. As of 2026, the NMC does not accept OET at Home — you need to sit either the paper or the computer-based version at a proper test venue. Candidates who book the remote option by mistake, assuming it’s treated the same, sometimes find out too late that their result won’t be accepted for registration.
Australia — AHPRA’s Updated Tables
AHPRA and the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia revised their score tables on 23 April 2026, moving away from a flat “Grade B everywhere” rule toward skill-specific numeric bands — roughly 350 for Listening, 360 for Reading, 350 for Writing and 360 for Speaking. It’s a small shift on paper, but it changes how candidates should prepare: aiming for one blanket number across all four skills is no longer the right strategy, and Reading and Speaking now carry a slightly higher bar than Listening and Writing.
Ireland — NMBI
NMBI asks for Grade B in three sub-tests and C+ in Writing, and it accepts your best score from multiple attempts within a two-year window rather than insisting on one clean sitting. Given the ongoing demand for registered general, psychiatric and intellectual disability nurses in Ireland, OET remains the more commonly used test among non-EU applicants heading there.
Canada — More Variation Than Anywhere Else
Canada is the country where a simple country-level answer breaks down fastest. Each province runs its own regulatory college, and while a Grade B (350) baseline is common, the exact combination — and whether Writing gets any leniency — depends on where you’re applying. The College of Registered Nurses of British Columbia, for instance, has its own published requirements that differ slightly from what you’ll find in Ontario or Alberta. If you’re weighing provinces, check each college directly rather than assuming a national standard exists.
New Zealand, USA, Singapore and the UAE
- New Zealand — Nursing Council NZ asks for Grade B across all four sub-tests, with no lenient writing allowance
- USA — CGFNS accepts OET for VisaScreen, but a number of individual state boards still default to IELTS, so it’s worth confirming with the specific board before you commit to OET
- Singapore — Grade B in all four, and the Singapore Nursing Board tends to apply this consistently across nursing categories
- UAE — Grade B in all four is standard, though DHA and DOH occasionally accept C+ for professionals renewing an existing licence rather than registering for the first time
A Real Example: How Score Requirements Play Out in Practice
Numbers on a page rarely tell the full story, so here’s how this actually unfolds for a typical candidate. Divya, an ICU nurse from Kochi, sat her first OET aiming for NMC registration in the UK. Her Listening, Reading and Speaking all landed at B, but Writing came in at a straight C — just short of the C+ the NMC needs.
Instead of retaking the whole test, she used the NMC’s score-combining window and sat only the Writing sub-test again, this time working specifically on the referral-letter format nurses are tested on rather than general essay writing. She reached C+ on the second attempt, well inside the twelve-month combining period, and her registration went through without needing three more perfect sub-tests.
The lesson isn’t really about Divya — it’s about strategy. Knowing that Writing had its own, slightly lower bar, and that the NMC allows combining, meant she spent her second round of preparation on one skill instead of starting from zero. That kind of targeted approach only works if you know the regulator-specific rules going in, not after a disappointing result.
Mistakes Candidates Make When Chasing OET Accepted Countries
- Assuming “Grade B” means the same thing everywhere — AHPRA’s 2026 tables show it clearly doesn’t anymore
- Booking OET at Home for a regulator that doesn’t accept it, which is currently the case for the NMC and some Gulf authorities
- Ignoring the score-combining window — some regulators give you six months to combine two attempts, others give twelve, and missing that window means starting over
- Preparing generically instead of practicing the letter formats their own profession is actually tested on — a nurse’s referral letter looks nothing like a doctor’s discharge summary
- Checking only the national regulator’s rules and skipping the province or hospital’s own requirements — Canada is the clearest case where this catches people out
Getting Ready for Whichever Country You’re Aiming For
Once you know your target regulator’s exact numbers, preparation stops being guesswork. A study plan built around the actual score bands and letter formats your destination expects gets you there faster than generic English practice, and it’s the difference between preparing for “OET” in the abstract and preparing for the specific test your registration depends on.
This is exactly where a structured OET preparation course helps. JG Language Academy’s online OET coaching maps your practice to the score bands and letter formats your target country’s regulator actually asks for, rather than a one-size-fits-all study plan — whether you’re chasing AHPRA’s new numeric bands in Australia, the NMC’s combining rules in the UK, or a provincial college’s requirements in Canada.
Final Thought
The list of OET accepted countries will keep shifting as more regulators sign on and existing ones tweak their score tables, the way AHPRA did this April. Treat any list, including this one, as a starting point — then go straight to your target regulator’s own page before you book a test date or plan your prep around a number that might already be out of date.
