Cost of Moving

[iwannabeaussie]

Hi All,

I am a pediatric nurse with a couple years of experience in the US. I'm getting restless and have started looking into international nursing. After doing a little research, Australia seems like the perfect place for me... For a little while. My question is, how much does it cost to relocate to Australia and is it worth it if I only want to be there for say, 6 months? I don't need rent estimates or plane ticket prices- just the total cost of registration, tests, or any other kind of paperwork I'll need to submit. Hopefully there's someone out there who's been through all this before, thanks for the feedback =)

[ceridwyn]

Do not like your chances of a reply from a US nurse, they seem to come and go.....

Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency - Home is the national registration board. Costs about 400 au dollars for assessment and 1 year registration for international applicants. Which recently is about 410.00 US dollars!!

Have no idea how much visa's are have a look on the immigration site:

Department of Immigration & Citizenship

Is it worth the money for 6 months stay, well.....not sure, you can get perhaps very roughly, as each state pays differently....1500 to 2100 au a fortnight- shift work maybe a bit more if you work week ends and night shifts, with penalties, then tax tax off which is about 200.00 to 400.00 dollars.

Think you need health insurance as well as part of the condition on visa's, have heard it is much less then we pay if decide to pay for private health....about 100.00 a month a heard one nurse say!! you will need it to access doctors, hospitals in the public system.

www.medibank.com.au

[joanna73, BSN, RN]

Honestly, I can't see how relocating for only 6 months is worth it. You would end up spending a lot of money with the license, visa, flight....and a hospital would require at least a year commitment. You could try searching for an agency.

[iwannabeaussie]

Actually I already found a hospital willing to hire me for a 6 month period.

Maybe I did things backwards, but I decided to find a job before paying for all that stuff and I guess it worked. Now I just have to add up all the paperwork costs and make a decision.