Which countries accept OET? Full 2026 list

Most guides answer this question with a country list. That is the wrong shape of answer, because two very different things are being counted: the hospital in Leeds that will take your OET result as evidence when it hires you, and the Nursing and Midwifery Council, which decides whether you are allowed to work as a nurse in the UK at all. Only the second kind gates your registration.

OET lists 610 organisations across 22 countries. Only 158 of them decide whether you may practise — the regulators and government departments below. The other 452 are hospitals, universities and recruiters who accept OET as evidence but do not license anyone, which is why a raw count of "organisations that accept OET" tells you almost nothing about your own registration.

Requirement columns read listening / reading / writing / speaking. Where a country's regulators disagree, the column shows the one most of them set — check your own board below.

Tap any country with a regulator to jump straight to its bodies and their required grades.

Confirm with your own regulator before booking. Everything below comes from OET's published list, refreshed weekly, but boards change thresholds on their own schedule and OET's list can lag. Your regulator's own website is the authority.

The bodies that gate registration

Grouped by country, with the grade each one requires in each sub-test. Notice how much they disagree — the "Grade B in everything" rule that circulates in prep forums is true of Australia and Ireland and simply not true of the UK, New Zealand, Canada or most of the United States.

Captured from OET's published list on 2026-08-21 and refreshed weekly. A dash means the organisation does not publish a threshold — contact them directly. Thresholds do move: confirm on your regulator's own site before you book, and screenshot it on the day.

Confirming your requirements

For whichever regulator applies to you:

1. Go to the regulator's own website, not an immigration consultant's.
2. Find the page on English language requirements or registration evidence.
3. Confirm four things:
   • The minimum grade in each sub-test. They are often not the same across all four. The UK NMC wants B in listening, reading and speaking but accepts C+ in writing; most US state boards accept C+ across the board.
   • Whether scores can be combined across two sittings. The NMC allows it, which can save you a full re-sit. The gap it permits has been six months and is being extended to twelve, so check the current wording rather than a number you read somewhere.
   • Whether OET@Home is accepted. Most boards take it; a few insist on a test centre.
   • The validity window, almost always two years from the test date.
4. Screenshot the requirement on the day you book. Requirements change, and a dated screenshot is what you will want if a board's position shifts while your application is in flight.

Next steps

• New to OET? Read What is OET?
• Deciding between tests? Read OET vs IELTS
• Understand what the grades mean: OET grades explained
• Nurse? OET for Nursing breaks down the major nursing boards specifically.
• Plan your study: How to prepare for OET

Found your board above? Claim 60 free practice minutes and start working against exactly the grade it asks for.