Foreign nurses can work in Korea after taking the nurse license. But foreign nurses have to graduate from nursing colleges admitted by MOHW (Ministry of Health & Welfare) if they want to take the KNLE (Korean Nurses’ Licensing Examination).

Currently, MOHW acknowledges about 160 nursing colleges from about 10 countries. People who graduate from one of the colleges and get the nursing license in the country are qualified to take KNLE in Korea.

The information on the admitted colleges is available at the KHPLEI site (Korea Health Personnel Licensing Examination Institute). If people didn’t graduate from one of the admitted colleges, they can ask for approval.

MOHW approves foreign colleges based on the evaluation of curriculum and a school system. KHPLEI is in charge of approval processes. MOHW will make the final approval.

If a college name, curriculum, and a system of a nursing college are changed after the final approval, the collage has to go through the evaluation again. In the process, approval can be cancelled. There is no case to re-evaluate foreign nursing colleges until now. An official at KHPLEI said, “People who graduate from foreign colleges should keep it mind.”

Eligible foreigners will take the same conditions as Koreans do when they take KNLE. KNLE is available in January and there isn’t a preliminary test. Foreign doctors have to pass the preliminary test held in July or August every year in order to take the KMLE (Korea Medical Licensing Examination).

36 in 43 foreign applicants for KNLE passed the test in 2015. Most applicants were from the USA, Australia, Japan, China, and Canada.