OTinOz

I am from the UK and moved to Oz a few years ago. I have been through the registration process and yes it is confusing, in my experience if you can do your best to learn as much about it as possible then when you get interviews you can confidently say that you can manage the paperwork and registration process so your employer won’t have to do much (makes you more appealing). The skills assessment is the same as the stage one of the registration and costs $1200. This allows you to apply for jobs and work as an OT with ‘limited registration’. Stage two is completed when you have got a job. This costs $1000. You have to go through stage two to turn your limited into full registration. Although this process states it takes 6 months, it can be done in less time, even if you are on part time hours. I had a great employer who was confident in my skills and was keen for me to be fully registered ASAP. I struggled to find work in Perth so had to apply for regional areas in WA, they are much more likely to take you as Australian OTs generally get all the desirable city jobs. So I would encourage you to apply for regional areas if you can. I was lucky enough to find a job in WA, but also had a job offer over east in Wollongong outside of Sydney, not helpful if you are in Melbourne, but it gives you an idea of looking outside of major cities. I would recommend printing off the “Step-by-step Process for Internationally-qualified Practitioners” on the OT council website and follow the steps. All up it costs $2200. Any questions let me know

Hey I am an OT from the UK and went through this supervised practice. It took me about 6 months to find an employer who would take me on, I'm in WA and all the jobs got snapped up really quickly by Aussie OTs. Most companies were honest and said they do not want to do the supervision (papework etc). When I found my job i then applied for limited reg which took 3 months! Thankfully i had a great employer, i was employed part time in this OT role and worked really hard so i ended up completing my practice audit in 3 months (despite being PT). There is hope and flexibility with the practice audit. Wanted to share & help on the forum as i could have done with this when i was applying for jobs!