How do I check if an agency is DMW-licensed?
To check if an agency is DMW-licensed, search the Department of Migrant Workers’ register of licensed recruitment agencies by the agency’s name, then read the status beside it: only an entry marked “Valid License” is licensed to recruit.
The Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) licenses every Philippine agency that recruits workers for jobs abroad, and its register is public.
On 4 October 2026 the register held 3,796 agencies and 1,169 of them held a valid licence. Fewer than one name in three belongs to an agency that may legally recruit you, which is why the status beside the name is the part to read.
How do I check if an agency is DMW-licensed on the DMW website?
The list is the register of licensed recruitment agencies on the DMW’s website, and it searches by the agency’s name only.
1. Open the register
The page is dmw.gov.ph/inquiry/licensed-recruitment-agencies. It is public, and searching it needs no account.
2. Type the agency’s name
Use the company name printed on the agency’s documents or job advertisement. The search box says it also searches by licence number, but a licence number typed into it returns no result.
3. Try the name with and without punctuation
The register matches the name as its own records spell it, so a hyphen or a space changes the result. E-GMP International Corporation, for example, is found by searching E-GMP and is not found by searching EGMP.
4. Read the status beside the name
On a phone, tap “Cards” above the list: each agency then shows as a card, with its status in a small grey label beside the name. On a computer, the status is the small label in the “License / Status” column. “Valid License” means licensed. The licence line can show “N/A” even for a licensed agency. The address under the agency’s name is the office the licence covers.
E-GMP’s own entry reads, on 4 October 2026: E-GMP International Corporation, 1175 Don Chino Roces Avenue, Pasong Tamo, and the status Valid License.
What does the status beside an agency’s name mean?
Only a status that begins with “Valid License” means the agency is licensed to recruit. Every other status means it is not.
Valid License
The register also shows “Valid License – Provisional” and “Valid License – Full”. A new agency first receives a provisional licence, which the DMW’s rules make valid for three years from issue.
Any other status
Delisted, Cancelled, Forever Banned, Expired, Inactive, Suspended, Denied Renewal, Revoked and Ceased Operations all appear in the register. None of them is a valid licence.
The other 2,627 entries on 4 October 2026 were delisted (1,164), cancelled (919), forever banned (167), expired (153) or carried one of the remaining statuses. Any of them means the agency may not recruit you.
Check the status on the day you deal with the agency. The DMW’s rules allow a licence to be suspended, cancelled or revoked before it expires.
Is a “POEA-accredited” or “DMW-accredited” agency the same as a DMW-licensed one?
The Department of Migrant Workers replaced the POEA in 2022, so there is no current POEA accreditation for an agency to hold. The two words also mean different things: the DMW licenses recruitment agencies, and it accredits foreign employers. For an agency, the licence is what to check, and the register shows it.
In the DMW’s 2023 rules for land-based recruitment, accreditation is the authority the DMW grants to a foreign employer to hire Filipino workers through a licensed Philippine agency. A job offer through an agency involves both: a licensed agency in the Philippines and an accredited employer abroad.
The DMW took over the POEA’s work. Republic Act No. 11641, which took effect on 3 February 2022, merged the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) and other government offices into the Department of Migrant Workers, so an agency licensed today holds a DMW licence and appears in the DMW register.
Whatever licence number an advertisement shows, search the register by the agency’s name. The name returns the current status, and the number alone returns nothing.
How do I check that the job itself is approved?
Search the DMW’s register of approved job orders by the agency’s name, the employer’s name or the position. If you cannot find a matching order, ask the agency and the DMW before you conclude anything: a missing order is a reason to ask, not proof that the job is a scam.
1. Choose “Agency” in the search options
The search starts set to “Jobsite”. Choose “Agency” and type the agency’s name. The same spelling rule applies: E-GMP returns E-GMP’s approved orders, EGMP returns none.
2. Find the position and the country you were offered
Each approved order in the register shows the position, the country of the job site, the foreign employer and the agency it was approved for. Check that the position and the country you were offered appear on an order approved for that agency.
3. Check the employer
Check that the employer named on the order is the employer named in your offer.
The DMW’s rules let a licensed agency advertise vacancies covered by job orders approved for accredited employers.
The register shows the orders approved for an agency. It does not show every job that agency is working on, so a job can be real and still have no matching row you can find. Ask the agency which approved job order covers the job you were offered, and ask the DMW to confirm it. Do not pay anything and do not sign anything until you have that answer.
The licence check does not depend on any of this. An agency whose status is not “Valid License” may not recruit you for a job abroad, and that is the check to trust first.
What should I check when I deal with the agency in person?
Check that the agency recruits at the address its licence names. A licence covers only the registered office, and recruitment anywhere else needs a Special Recruitment Authority from the DMW for that date and venue.
- Recruitment at a hotel, a mall, a school or a hall away from the registered office needs a Special Recruitment Authority. Ask to see it.
- A branch office needs its own authority from the DMW.
- A jobs fair needs a Jobs Fair Authority from the DMW.
- Travel agencies, and sales agencies of airlines, may not recruit workers for jobs abroad.
- A skills test comes after you are pre-qualified for a job covered by an approved job order, and it is taken at a TESDA-accredited testing centre.
- A medical examination comes when it is reasonably certain the employer will hire you under an approved job order, and you choose the DOH-accredited clinic.
Online reviews and Facebook comments show how an agency treats applicants. Whether its licence is valid is shown only in the register.
The rules above are in the DMW’s Department Circular No. 01, series of 2023, the 2023 rules governing the recruitment and employment of land-based overseas Filipino workers.
What should I check in my OFW contract?
Check that your OFW contract matches the approved job order before you sign it. The contract is the written agreement between you and the foreign employer, and the DMW’s rules require it to be based on the master employment contract the DMW approved for that employer.
- Before you sign, the agency must tell you your rights and obligations, disclose the full terms and conditions of the job, and give you a copy of the DMW-approved contract so you have time to read it.
- The employer, the position and the country in your contract should be the ones on the approved job order for that agency. The pay in a job order is reviewed by the DMW’s Migrant Workers Office before the order is approved.
- If the job title on your work visa is different from the position you were hired for, the DMW’s rules require you to be told and to sign a declaration of awareness and consent before you can be cleared to leave.
- Once the contract is approved, no one may replace it or change it to your disadvantage without the DMW’s approval. Under Republic Act No. 8042, as amended by Republic Act No. 10022, doing so is illegal recruitment.
- You leave with an Overseas Employment Certificate, also called an OFW Clearance. The DMW issues it only after your contract has been processed, and you present it to the immigration officer when you depart.
Is there a list of scam or illegal recruitment agencies?
The DMW does not publish a list of scam or illegal recruitment agencies. What it publishes is the register, where the status beside each agency’s name shows whether it may recruit.
The DMW’s Migrant Workers Protection Bureau keeps its own blacklist of persons involved in illegal recruitment and trafficking, and uses it to issue clearances. That list is not public. A status in the register such as Cancelled or Forever Banned is a licensing decision: it means the agency may not recruit, and it is not by itself a finding that anyone committed a crime.
The law names the acts that count as illegal recruitment. These are signs to stop and check:
- Someone without a DMW licence offers, promises or advertises work abroad, even without asking for money.
- An agency whose licence is suspended keeps processing applications. A suspended agency may not recruit at all.
- A job advertisement, offer or document is false, or you are processed under a job order for work that does not exist, for a different job, or for a different employer. Check the offer against the approved job order.
- A foreign employer recruits you directly instead of through an agency. The DMW’s rules ban direct hiring except where the DMW exempts it, and accredited employers may advertise jobs only through a DMW-licensed agency or through the DMW.
- Your approved contract is replaced or changed to your disadvantage without the DMW’s approval.
- The agency keeps your passport or other travel documents, or stops you from leaving its accommodation or contacting your family.
- The agency refuses the results of a valid medical examination from the DOH-accredited clinic you chose.
The list of acts is in Section 6 of Republic Act No. 8042, as amended by Republic Act No. 10022, and in the DMW’s 2023 rules.
A real agency’s name, logo or copied social-media page does not prove that the person contacting you works for that agency. Check the agency in the DMW register, then contact it yourself at the office address the register shows, or through contact details you know are the agency’s own, not through the number, account or link in the post or message.
Who do I contact if something is wrong?
Report the agency to the DMW’s Migrant Workers Protection Bureau at the DMW central office, the Blas F. Ople Building, Ortigas Avenue corner EDSA, Mandaluyong City, or to a DMW regional office.
The bureau and the regional offices run the DMW’s work against illegal recruitment and trafficking in persons, including investigations and legal assistance and counselling for victims. The DMW’s 24-hour hotline, 1348, is for emergencies, including workers already abroad who need help.
Looking for work abroad?
E-GMP International Corporation is a DMW-licensed recruitment agency in Makati, licence number DMW-232-LB-12212023-R. Its open positions abroad are listed on its jobs page.