There is no single best country — it depends on your qualification, your clinical experience, your English result, and whether you want a fast start or a long-term residency path. The UK and Ireland are the most familiar routes for Indian-trained physiotherapists; Australia and New Zealand put a formal assessment in front of registration; the Gulf is usually the quickest to a licence. We have written up the trade-offs in more detail in our comparison of the UK, Ireland, Australia and the Gulf, and we talk it through properly in a free session rather than pushing one country.

In most cases no. Every route on this page is a recognition or assessment process for the physiotherapy degree you already hold, not a fresh qualification. What varies is how much evidence each regulator wants, and whether they add an exam, a supervised-practice period or a language certificate on top.

APEP — the Australian Physiotherapy Entry Pathway — is the current route for internationally qualified physiotherapists, replacing the older APC exam process. It assesses whether your education and clinical practice meet Australian entry-level standards, and AHPRA registration follows a successful outcome. We guide you through whichever pathway currently applies to you.

No — India is not on PBNZ’s Express list, which is limited to a handful of countries. Indian-qualified physiotherapists go through the General Pathway instead, where the Board assesses your qualification and experience against New Zealand’s practice thresholds. It takes longer than Express, but it is a well-established route and a competence exam is only asked for when your application does not give the Board enough to assess you directly.

IELTS Academic and OET are the two tests accepted across these routes. The UK generally looks for IELTS Academic 7.0 overall with no band below 6.5, or OET grade B; New Zealand commonly asks for 7.5 overall with no band below 6.5; Australia and Ireland accept IELTS or OET at the level their regulator publishes. Requirements and validity windows do change, so we confirm the current one for your route during your eligibility check.

Usually not. For the UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand, registration normally comes first and employers expect you to be registered or well into the process. In the Gulf the licence and the employer are more closely linked. Either way, you can start the registration side now — and you can see the roles we are currently aware of on our overseas jobs page.