Which 1st. Visa or nursing registration

[Njan]

So my husband and I have decided to join our good friends in Cairns. Im a paediatric nurse and he’s works construction. I think things have changed a lot since my friends sister moved out as a midwife 8years ago. 

I am interested to find out which I should do first, apply for visa,  which I believe will be a 189,  or apply for my registration so I can apply for jobs 1st!? 

 

[Amber2106]

I’d apply for your Skills Assessment first and foremost with  Amnac,  this is compulsory for your EOI, plus it can take a couple of months. 

Ahpra can also take a while, it took 4mths in my case to get the Registration in Principle and you have to present in person in Australia within 90days to finalise it.

You would be fine doing both simultaneously.

Good luck x

[Njan]

Also looking at other peoples comments, will my husband be automatically entitled to come with me or does he have to fulfill certain criteria. 

[CivCdn]

English language, which passport country?

[Jenki75]

3 hours ago, Njan said:

So my husband and I have decided to join our good friends in Cairns. Im a paediatric nurse and he’s works construction. I think things have changed a lot since my friends sister moved out as a midwife 8years ago. 

I am interested to find out which I should do first, apply for visa,  which I believe will be a 189,  or apply for my registration so I can apply for jobs 1st!? 

 

Personally, I would go for your AHPRA registration first. This can take a while, and depending on number of schools, where they were located, taught in english, etc. can take a bit to go through.

There is not much point in going further down the process, until you know you are going to get registration, or what is required before you can get it.

Once you have your registration, a modified or modified plus skills assessment from ANMAC does not take too long, and is not too complicated ( i believe it takes longer for a full assessment - than a modified one).

As for husband, should be no problem with him coming along. Might need a recent english test, depending on country of passport, to prove functional english.

Also, in order to claim 5 points for him - his occupation must be on the same skills list as yours (long term, medium long term, etc.) and he needs a valid skills assessment.

If you do not need the points from him, then no need for any of that except english.

[ChrisH1]

As an RN working in Cairns, I would suggest that it will be difficult to motivate the hospital to show any interest in pursuing your recruitment until you are registered with AHPRA. A crucial issue is whether you a RN/RM or only RM? I gather Cairns Hospital and Hinterland Health Service (CHHHS) are reluctant to employ RM only midwives as this limits role flexibility (what I have heard, not a declared position by CHHHS). I would also pursue registration first in case you have any areas of practice to make up - AHPRA will tell you.

 

 

[Njan]

On 09/03/2019 at 18:28, CivCdn said:

English language, which passport country?

Me? I’m British with British passport

my husband is Brazilian with indefinite leave so has passed his English test, but we are in the process of applying for his British passport before we start. 

[Njan]

The thing that makes me nervous about just applying for the AHPRA first is that as AMBER2106vsaid you have to present with in 90days to register in person. The last thing I want to be doing is taking (and paying for) an unnecessary trip to Oz, before the big move.

[ChrisH1]

Yes, I see your issue with having to present in ninety days to an AHPRA office. It would therefore be worth pursuing your visa first.

Before absolutely committing to any one location (even though Cairns is a wonderful place to live), I suggest that you keep your options as open as possible by considering other acceptable locations to live and secure employment. Cairns has only two main hospitals - the Cairns Hospital (a public hospital run by Queensland Health), and the Cairns Private Hospital (owned by Ramsey Health). Whether you can get employment before you exhaust your savings will totally depend on whether there are positions available at whichever hospital you wish to work. You seem to imply that you only wish to work in paeds. There is one busy paediatric ward at Cairns Hospital with an interesting variety of work due to the tropical location and distance from the nearest tertiary hospital with paediatric facilities in Townsville (four and a half hours by road). We typically refer our very unwell paeds patients in ED to the paeds referral centres in Townsville or Brisbane via our on-site paeds team.

I gather that it is common for the Cairns Hospital to initially recruit nursing staff on short term contracts, often into a casual or floating position. I would discuss this with them as early as possible, as you may find yourself obliged to work in adult patient care areas for at least some of the time. 

I would also strongly suggest that you discuss your education and experience with AHPRA as early as possible, to make sure that your paediatric education and experience to date does not require you to undertake further clinical placements to achieve RN registration. We do not have a special category for paeds only nurses (it's a long time since I worked in the UK, but such a category was present when I did) - you will be expected to be competent in all areas of nursing to achieve registration in Australia. Some hospitals around the country are willing to offer such experience to achieve registration, but then require you to work for them for a fixed term.

Don't forget to factor indemnity insurance into your costs as well. There are various ways to arrange this. We are not nearly so litigation obsessed as the USA, but AHPRA requires you to have it. 

Hope this helps.

[Marisawright]

5 hours ago, Njan said:

The thing that makes me nervous about just applying for the AHPRA first is that as AMBER2106vsaid you have to present with in 90days to register in person. The last thing I want to be doing is taking (and paying for) an unnecessary trip to Oz, before the big move.

The point, I think, is that if you get the visa, arrive, and then AHPRA says your qualifications aren't sufficient to get registration, what will you do?

[Jenki75]

34 minutes ago, Marisawright said:

The point, I think, is that if you get the visa, arrive, and then AHPRA says your qualifications aren't sufficient to get registration, what will you do?

That's exactly the point. If I could not get my AHPRA registration I would not have gone one step further. Once I knew I had my registration I felt that Australia was a viable option.

[Yasmin1991]

On 09/03/2019 at 17:56, Njan said:

So my husband and I have decided to join our good friends in Cairns. Im a paediatric nurse and he’s works construction. I think things have changed a lot since my friends sister moved out as a midwife 8years ago. 

I am interested to find out which I should do first, apply for visa,  which I believe will be a 189,  or apply for my registration so I can apply for jobs 1st!? 

 

Hi! I am also a paediatric nurse hoping to move to Melbourne next year. I spoke to a emigration advisor this week. His advice was to do the skills assessment and English test and then once they invite to submit EOI to apply for my registration same time as that. He said this usually allows them to finalise similar times. Hope this helps

[Njan]

Thanks Yasmin1991 I’ve actually now bitten the bullet and paid for an agent to help with everything. She said the same só have my English test booked for Saturday. We want Queensland so that will hopefully mean once my skills Assessment is done it will be July and they will have reopened for applicants.