US to AUS RN registration questions & frustration.

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Hello. I'm planning to move to Aus in about a year and have been scouring the net looking for information and advice, and at this hour of the night I just want to throw my laptop on the floor!!

I have been seeing/reading conflicting things, so, someone PLEASE help if you can, preferably another US-educated RN who made the switch to AUS recently. (Just as a brief background: US-born/educated RN with bachelor degree, several years of PICU/NICU experience, want to move to AUS, pref in NSW.)

1) How exactly do I go about registering?? This looks like an incredible stupid question, I'm sorry. I've searched and searched and had up to 13 tabs in my firefox browser looking for a good answer. I've heard AHPRA, ANMC, etc over and over. I've looked on the AHPRA website and all that "internationally qualified nurses" section gives me is a link to a stupid PDF file. Ok, great. That's helpful (not). It's not something I can fill out nor does it tell me anything I didn't already know. I meet the requirements but now what? I look at all their documents that I'm supposed to fill out, but there's a lot of things that say I am REQUIRED to fill out but I CANT because I live in the US, not AUS.

2) ANMC?? Really? Do I have to get approval from these people first? Then wait more (and forever) for AHPRA? or is ANMC just something I need once I'm approved by AHPRA??

3) VISA. Two things. First, do I absolutely need a sponsor (as in, a job offer) to apply for the working visa? Second, as RNs we file under the skilled workers visa category. Ok... so what kind of documentation do I need to prove I'm an RN? will an acceptance from AHPRA be sufficient? Is this where ANMC comes in to play?

I hope someone will be able to answer my questions. I have been up for about 40 hours now and my brain is really starting to hurt just thinking about the registration process.

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Most nurses first contact their respective employers. THere are six states in Australia, NSW, QLD, VIC, WA., SA, and TAS with Nothern Territory. Just type in the abbrev and health after it. Most states have a dedicated option for foreign nurses, start there. WIth your ICU exp you should have no issues.

Ellen

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Hello!

I just moved to Brisbane about 2 weeks ago. The registration process was not so bad for me .

the AHPRA was my best friend/biggest enemy. I printed all the forms, all the documents that were needed. You have to apply for the specific state that you are going to relocate to. I focused on QLD

I needed my colllege transcript, 2 letters of recommendations, a letter from your current US state stating that you have not been in any legal trouble (Letter of good policy), an updated CV (as per the AHPRA standards) that was signed and dated from my most recent nurse manager, we are grandfathered in for the english test however, I did have to show some sort of documentation that my classes were taught in english ( I got a letter from my high school guidenance counselor) There might of been more, but I can not remember. OH! certified copies of my passport. Honestly, I handed that all in during my vacation to Brisbane in August.

I got my 457 VISA from my boyfriends work visa so that was easy for me .

Then the day i landed in brisbane 2 weeks ago. I walked to the AHPRA office and handed them a copy of my VISA and my passport with my stamp of entrance into Australia. What I needed to show was my proof of address (I used a letter from the NAB bank that showed the bank account and my address )

Then in 10 days I got my acceptance email. Now, I am just trying to figure out whether to get a full time job or work per diem. I hoped this helped.

Love,

Cristina

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Hello!

I just moved to Brisbane about 2 weeks ago. The registration process was not so bad for me .

the AHPRA was my best friend/biggest enemy. I printed all the forms, all the documents that were needed. You have to apply for the specific state that you are going to relocate to. I focused on QLD

I needed my colllege transcript, 2 letters of recommendations, a letter from your current US state stating that you have not been in any legal trouble (Letter of good policy), an updated CV (as per the AHPRA standards) that was signed and dated from my most recent nurse manager, we are grandfathered in for the english test however, I did have to show some sort of documentation that my classes were taught in english ( I got a letter from my high school guidenance counselor) There might of been more, but I can not remember. OH! certified copies of my passport. Honestly, I handed that all in during my vacation to Brisbane in August.

I got my 457 VISA from my boyfriends work visa so that was easy for me .

Then the day i landed in brisbane 2 weeks ago. I walked to the AHPRA office and handed them a copy of my VISA and my passport with my stamp of entrance into Australia. What I needed to show was my proof of address (I used a letter from the NAB bank that showed the bank account and my address )

Then in 10 days I got my acceptance email. Now, I am just trying to figure out whether to get a full time job or work per diem. I hoped this helped.

Love,

Cristina

Thanks for the feedback. I guess my biggest frustration is that the AHPRA application for overseas qualified nurses wants, on like page 2 or 3, the address of employment (or something along those lines) in AUS. Well, I don't have that ! I'm merely doing this to get it out of the way so that when the time comes to apply for jobs, I dont have to say, "Yes, I would love to work for you, but could you hold my position for a few months while I do all the paperwork and processing??" Lol. (>_

Do you recommend I open an account overseas to help with the process? Every thing I have is anchored here in California.

Also, did you have to deal with the ANMC site at all to show you're a skilled worker class or did you get around that?

Thanks again!

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