How to Recruit From the Philippines: A Step-by-Step Guide for Overseas Staffing Agencies

If you place workers for clients abroad, the Philippines is probably already on your shortlist — and the process probably looks more complicated than it needs to be. Most of the confusion comes from one fact: recruitment from the Philippines is a regulated, government-supervised process, not a private transaction between you and a supplier. This guide walks through how that process actually runs, who does what at each stage, and where placements most often stall.

First: you cannot simply hire a Filipino worker directly

This is the single biggest surprise for agencies new to the market, and it is worth getting right before anything else.

Article 18 of the Philippine Labor Code states that “no employer may hire a Filipino worker for overseas employment except through the Boards and entities authorized by the Secretary of Labor.” The Labor Code itself lists three exemptions — members of the diplomatic corps, international organizations, and “such other employers as may be allowed by the Secretary of Labor” — and later regulation (POEA Memorandum Circular No. 8, series of 2018, on the registration of direct hires) expanded the exempt categories further.

In practice, for ordinary commercial hiring — construction, automotive, hospitality, manufacturing, care work — the lawful route is through a licensed Philippine recruitment agency (PRA) working with the Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) and its overseas arm, the Migrant Workers Office (MWO), formerly POLO. So when a search engine turns up the phrase “hire Filipino workers directly,” read “directly” as without a chain of brokers and middlemen — not without a licensed agency.

The five parties in a Philippine placement

Before the steps make sense, it helps to name everyone at the table.

• Your client (the principal / employer) — the company abroad that will actually employ the worker.
• You (the overseas recruitment or staffing agency) — the party holding the client relationship and the destination-country compliance.
• The Philippine recruitment agency (PRA) — the DMW-licensed entity that sources, screens, documents and deploys the workers. It is the only party legally able to recruit inside the Philippines.
• The DMW — the Philippine government department that licenses agencies, registers employers, and governs the terms workers may be deployed under.
• The MWO — the DMW’s office in the destination country, which verifies the employer’s documents and the job order. Requirements and appointment procedures differ from one MWO to another.

The process, step by step

1. Define the requirement before you shop for a partner

A Philippine agency cannot begin anything useful from “we need welders.” What moves the file is: job title and trade test level, number of positions, destination country, salary and allowances in the contract currency, contract duration, accommodation and transport, and working hours.

2. Choose a licensed PRA — and verify the licence yourself

Do not accept a scanned certificate as proof. The DMW publishes the status of licensed agencies at dmw.gov.ph/inquiry/licensed-recruitment-agencies, and a licence can be valid, suspended, cancelled or expired — a certificate photographed a year ago tells you nothing about today.

Our own licence details, including the number and validity period, are published on our about and contact page so partners can check them against the DMW record rather than taking our word for it.

3. Put the commercial relationship in writing

You (the foreign recruitment agency) and the PRA sign a Recruitment Agreement. Separately, you and your client — the foreign direct employer — sign a Service Agreement. Both agreements are submitted together as part of the employer’s accreditation package.

4. Employer accreditation and job order verification at the MWO

This is the stage that agencies underestimate, and the one that most often decides how fast everything else moves.

The employer’s documents are submitted to the MWO covering the destination country. Across MWO offices the core set is consistent, even though the exact checklists differ:

• the job order (also called the manpower request), stating occupational classifications, positions, number of workers, and salary and allowances;
• the master employment contract, signed on every page by the authorised representative;
• the recruitment agreement or special power of attorney;
• proof that the employer is a real, operating company — commercial registration, trade licence, or chamber of commerce certificate;
• an undertaking from the principal.

Some posts require additional items — MWO Dubai, for example, lists a contingency and evacuation plan and requires every submission in two complete sets, arranged in the order of the published checklist, lodged only by an authorised person. MWO Singapore publishes per-document verification fees and accepts cash only. Staffing and outsourcing companies are generally asked for a client list and the end-client’s manpower requirement alongside the job order.

The practical lesson: check the specific MWO’s published checklist before your client prepares anything. A document set assembled from a generic template is the most common reason a first submission is rejected.

5. Sourcing and screening in the Philippines

Only once the job order is approved does recruitment properly begin. A serious PRA will run a layered process: verification of trade certificates and prior employment, a practical trade test, interviews against your client’s own criteria, and a shortlist you can interview yourself, in person or by video.

The screening bar matters more than the size of the database: a candidate who passes a paper check and fails on site costs your client a replacement cycle and costs you the account. How we structure screening by sector is set out on our construction recruitment page and across the other trades on our industries overview.

6. Selection, contract signing and medical

Your client makes the selection. The worker signs the employment contract in the form that was verified, undergoes a medical examination at an accredited clinic, and completes the pre-departure orientation required of departing migrant workers. Visa processing runs in parallel and is governed entirely by the destination country, not by the Philippines.

7. Deployment clearance and departure

Before leaving, the worker must hold valid exit documentation issued through the DMW system. Flight booking, arrival handover and the first days on site are then coordinated between the PRA, you and your client.

8. Aftercare is part of the job, not an extra

Workers sometimes leave soon after they start. This usually happens when the job does not match what they were told — the housing, the overtime, the deductions, or the job itself. Staying in touch with the worker after they arrive helps prevent this, and it protects your relationship with your client.

What actually drives the timeline

We deliberately do not publish a number of days here, because any honest answer depends on variables outside anyone’s control. What moves the timeline:

• whether your client is already accredited and registered, or starting from scratch;
• the destination country’s MWO, its appointment availability and its specific checklist;
• how complete and correctly ordered the first document submission is;
• destination-country visa and licensing requirements for the trade (some require destination-side trade certification or a skills assessment before a visa is issued);
• how tightly the requirement is defined — a vague job order generates revisions, and every revision re-enters the queue;
• the scarcity of the trade itself. Certified 6G pipe welders and licensed heavy equipment operators do not move at the same speed as general labour.

What decides cost

Cost structures differ by destination country, and some markets prohibit charging the worker anything at all. The position that holds up under audit is that recruitment costs are borne by the employer. What varies is the fee structure your client agrees to, government and documentary charges, medical and trade-test costs, and mobilisation costs such as airfare.

Four things that most often stall a Philippine hire

1. A job order that does not match the visa. The title on the verified job order and the title on the destination-country visa application must line up.
2. Documents prepared before reading the specific MWO checklist. See step 4.
3. Salary stated in the wrong currency or without allowances. The job order carries the salary figures; changing them later means re-verification.
4. Silence between selection and departure. Candidates with a verified contract in hand receive other offers. Keep them informed or lose them.

Questions worth asking any Philippine agency before you sign

• What is your DMW licence number and validity period, and where can I verify it independently?
• Who prepares the employer’s accreditation pack — you, or my client?
• Do you ever approach the end client directly?

That last question matters more than agencies admit. When you hand a Philippine partner your client’s name and documents, you are handing over your commercial relationship. We put our answer in writing: we work with overseas agencies and never approach your client. That position, and how our partnership model works in practice, is set out on our for partners page.

Working with Jezem

Jezem Manpower Agency Inc. is a DMW-licensed Philippine recruitment agency based in Quezon City, sourcing, screening and processing workers for construction, automotive and hospitality roles for destination markets worldwide. If you are scoping a requirement and want a straight answer on whether it is workable, send us the requirement — position, destination country, headcount, and the salary your client has in mind — and we will tell you what the process looks like from there.