Physiotherapy abroad
Every step from first year to working abroad. See all nine countries for Physiotherapy.
1 route
Physiotherapist to Australia or New Zealand About 5years to moving BSc Physiotherapy, 4 years; Community service, 1 year. Then Express pathway assessment; Ahpra registration; Skilled visa; Australia / NZ. Smaller route25 a yearAustralian permanent skilled visas granted to South African citizens nominated as physiotherapists (ANZSCO 2525) (2025)35 in 2023-24
Where it leads: Physiotherapist in a hospital or private practice. Typical employers: state health services, private practices, sports and aged-care providers.
Worth knowing: About AUD 1,650 for the pathway. New Zealand runs a similar express route that names South Africa.
- Study · 4 yrs BSc Physiotherapy4 years
- Train · 1 yr Community service1 year
- Register Express pathway assessmentSouth Africa is one of five countries on the exam-free route; about 3 weeks
- Register Ahpra registration
- Move Skilled visaPhysiotherapists are in shortage
- Work Australia / NZ
Years are typical minimums from the first year at university. Steps after a bar take no set time. Open a route for where it leads and every step.
How many have done this: 3 official counts, with sources
- 25 a year · Australian permanent skilled visas granted to South African citizens nominated as physiotherapists (ANZSCO 2525) (Australia, 2025)
Trend: 35 in 2023-24
Programme year 2024-25. A further 25 were granted 482 temporary skilled visas as physiotherapists in 2025-26.
Source: Department of Home Affairs, BP0068 Permanent Migration Program (Skilled & Family) Outcomes Snapshot, to 30 June 2025 - 557 · Physiotherapists on the UK HCPC register recorded as South African nationals (not necessarily SA-trained) (United Kingdom, 2019)
the largest single profession in the 2,274 South African nationals across all HCPC registers
Trend: 530 in December 2016 on the same measure, so up about 5% in two years
NATIONALITY, not country of qualification: the HCPC does not record where registrants trained. Nationality is unrecorded for many registrants, so this is a floor.
Source: HCPC FOI release: number of registrants by country (nationality), January 2019 · confidence low - 5 a year · UK sponsored work visas granted to South African nationals as physiotherapists (SOC 2221) (United Kingdom, 2025)
Trend: 25 in 2023
Very small count. Entry clearance (applied from outside the UK) only; excludes South Africans already in the UK who switched into the route in-country, which is now the larger flow.
Source: Home Office, Immigration system statistics data tables, table Occ_D02 (Sponsored work visas by occupation and industry, SOC 2020), year ending June 2026
How to read the board
Timelines are typical minimums from the first year at university; visas, exams and job searches often take longer.
“Well-trodden” means at least 1 000 people counted on an official register (or 200 a year); “Established” means at least 200 (or 50 a year). Counts come from regulators and statistics offices and are never estimated.
Register counts are people working there today, by where they trained. Visa counts are people per year, by occupation, because no country publishes visas by degree. UK visa figures count visas issued abroad only and understate every route: in 2025 South Africans received 793 Skilled Worker visas from abroad but 2 256 more by switching from inside the UK.
Illustrative, well-trodden routes assembled from the MatricMap research. Employers named are examples of the kind of organisation that hires on each route, not endorsements or job offers.