How to read a regulator's document checklist
Passport, degree, transcripts, good-standing letters, name changes and certified copies: what each is for, and why files get sent back.
Every regulator publishes a document checklist. Most candidates read it as a shopping list: find each item, scan it, upload it. That is how files get sent back.
A checklist is not a list of things. It is a list of questions, and each document is an answer. Read it that way and the file starts to build itself.
What every regulator is asking
The regulators in the UK, Ireland, Australia and Canada word it differently, but they ask the same three questions.
- Does your training meet our standard? The HCPC maps your degree, transcripts and syllabus against its Standards of Proficiency. CORU reads your syllabus, placement hours and scope of practice.
- Are you who you say you are, in good standing at home? The HCPC looks at your registration and experience in your home country. CORU asks for good standing.
- Can you practise in our language? Each of them asks for a language test. In Canada, that can be English or French.
Source: hcpc-uk.org · coru.ie · ahpra.gov.au · canada.ca · as recorded in our regulator registry · Sept 2026
Hold each document up against those questions. If you cannot say which one it answers, ask why it is on the list.
The documents, one by one
Passport
Your passport is the anchor for your identity. Every other document is matched back to it, so the name on your passport is the name the file is built around. Check the spelling, the order of your names and the expiry date before anything else.
Degree certificate
The degree certificate proves the award: that you completed the course and were given the qualification. It does not show what you studied. That is the job of the next two documents.
Transcripts
Transcripts show the subjects you took, year by year. They are what a regulator reads when it asks whether your training meets its standard. Send every year, not only the final one.
Syllabus
The syllabus shows what each subject taught and for how many hours. When a regulator maps your training against its standard, this is the document it maps. Ask your college for the syllabus that applied to your batch, not the current one.
Internship and clinical hours
Your internship certificate is the evidence of supervised practice. A certificate that says “completed” is weaker than one that names the departments, the settings and the hours.
Registration and good-standing letters
Your registration at home, and any letter confirming you are in good standing, answer the second question. They tell the regulator a body at home has you on its books and has no concerns.
Experience letters
An experience letter should say what you did, not only that you were employed. Your role, your duties, the settings, your dates, on letterhead, signed by someone with authority to sign it.
Language test result
Check which test and which level your regulator accepts before you book. A good score in a test the regulator does not accept answers nothing.
Name mismatches
This is the most common problem we see, and the easiest to prevent. An initial expanded on one document and not another. A surname added after marriage. A spelling that changed between school and college.
A regulator cannot assume two names are the same person. If your names differ, check what evidence your regulator accepts to link them. Find the mismatch now and gather that evidence before you file, not after a query arrives.
Certified copies, scans and direct sends
When a checklist asks for a certified copy, look for the line that says who may certify it, and follow it exactly. Do not carry one regulator’s rule over to the next. A copy certified by someone the checklist does not name invites a query.
None of the regulators we file with asks for an apostille or embassy attestation. Each names the copy it accepts: a certified copy (HCPC, CORU, Ahpra, the New Zealand boards), a colour scan of the original (the Australian Physiotherapy Council, OCANZ, AIMS), or a document sent directly by your university or WES (Canada).
Why files get sent back
A file draws a query when a document is missing, arrives out of order, or does not say what the regulator needs it to say. The common versions:
- A transcript missing for one year
- A syllabus from the wrong batch
- An experience letter with no duties or no dates
- A name that does not match the passport, with nothing linking them
- A copy certified by someone the regulator does not accept
- A scan that cuts off a seal, a signature or a page edge
Each query adds a round trip between you, your college and the regulator. Every one on this list can be caught before you file.
Sources
The regulator facts above were read on each regulator’s own pages and are recorded, with dates, on our sources page. Each regulator has its own page on this site, starting with the HCPC and CORU.
Your regulator’s own checklist comes with your route. Choose your profession and country in the Route Finder below to see it.
What we do
How Credentis Global helps
You trained. We file. The regulator decides. Here is what that means for your file.
Your fit, read before anything is filed
we read your degree, transcripts and experience against the regulator’s published standard first, so you know where the file is strong and where it needs evidence.
Every document, in the order the regulator reads it
Each item is checked against the regulator’s own list: names matched to your passport, hours in writing, copies certified by the person the list names.
One portal, and a person who answers
Upload your documents, see every stage of the file and message us in one place. The person who replies is the specialist preparing your file.
We prepare and file. The regulator decides.
Your application goes in from your own regulator account with every page prepared, and every query is drafted against the regulator’s exact question.
One specialist owns your file
The specialist who reads your documents builds the file and answers the regulator’s queries. You always know who has it, and you pay the regulator directly.
