Are you a Nurse looking to settle down or extend your stay down under? Australian Permanent Residency can be a great way for Nurses to stay, travel and work.
Let me help you!
Quick Disclaimer: I am not a migration agent of any kind. I am purely sharing my personal experience from applying for PR. If you need specific/ professional help I encourage you to seek advice from a professional migration agent.
Why Should I Apply for Australian Permanent Residency?
PR in Australia offers Nurses the flexibility to continue to work casually with agencies and pick up ad hoc shifts to suit your lifestyle.
If you’re looking to pick up some extra, high paying shifts, I recommend the Network Nursing Agency. They have been great at giving me opportunities to try different specialties and work around my schedule.
A PR visa also means you’re not tied down to one facility like an employer sponsorship visa. You don’t need to commit to a set number of hours per week and risk your annual leave being rejected.
Added Benefits and Entitlements
You will also be entitled to government benefits like Medicare, maternity leave and Centrelink payments if you find yourself unemployed.
Why Not Pick the Working Holiday Visa?
Working Holiday Visas are great short term and a lot cheaper, but they don’t allow you to have children on this visa. Also not everyone is entitled to a WHV
What Australian Visa is the right fit for me?You can only stay for a maximum term of three years on a WHV. Please check out my post on What Australian Visa is the Right Fit for Me?
PR is exactly what it says on the tin. It’s more of a permanent visa, for people who intend to stay long term.
Personally I didn’t know if I would want to stay long term before I moved here.
So, rather than paying for an expensive PR visa upfront. I tested the waters here first for 3 years on a WHV before applying for PR.
Luckily, I was invited to apply 2 days later. The whole process was complete within 6 months. This was super quick and definitely not the norm, I just had quite high points.
If you’re thinking about citizenship in the future
You can apply for citizenship in Australia after living here for 4 consecutive years. At least one of those years must be on a PR visa.
The Different PR Visas
Nurses can apply for the 189 Skilled Independent Visa and 190 State Nominated Visa.
You can also apply for the Employer Nominated Sponsorship Visa 186. This is where you ask your hospital to sponsor you for PR.
The downside to this visa is you need to commit to work there. Typically, this commitment is for a minimum of 2 years.
The Australian Government has a list of all the skilled occupations that are in high demand that they can’t fill.
Essentially this is how they prioritize who they want to stay in the country and how fast they process the visas.
Luckily for us Nurses, healthcare is a priority. Visas for Nurses and Doctors etc are usually processed a lot faster than other sectors.
Getting Started on Australian Permanent Residency
You will need to check your eligibility
Both the 189 and 190 Visas are points tested.
In a nutshell, Immigration wants to allow the Nurses with the most experience and best level of English to stay. The more experience you have the more points you will have.
You can check your points on the immi website: https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/help-support/tools/points-calculator
You need a minimum of 65 points to apply. If you want to be invited faster, increasing your points is a good idea.
If you’re pushed for time there are things you can do to increase your points.
How to Increase Your points for PR and Increase Your Chance of Getting Invited to Apply
If you are from an English speaking country: Ireland, UK, Canada, The US or New Zealand, automatically you will receive 5 points for “competent” English.
However, if you want to be invited quicker or if you’re just short of the required 65 points, you can take an English test.
I took the PTE, but you can take the IELTS or OET. If you score full marks on the test you can boost your points from 5 to 20.
It’s up to you which English test you want to take.
For the PTE, I watched youtube tutorials and completed a mock test with E2. They have a lot of free Youtube videos. I prepared for about 2-3 weeks before the test and got full marks.
All of the tests are expensive. I paid approx 400 AUD for the PTE. So, if you have enough time and enough points you can save your money. It’s not necessary.
You Need a Skills Assessment for Australian Permanent Residency
Once you’ve identified that you’re eligible and have a minimum of 65 points, you need to complete a skills assessment with ANMAC.
ANMAC is the board that assesses and accredits other international nursing and midwifery degrees. They ensure they are the same standard and equivalent to the Australian nursing standard.
Depending on whether you’re registered with AHPRA or not will dictate which assessment you will apply for.
If you’re not registered with AHPRA yet, be sure to check out my AHPRA post made easy to help you get started.
ANMAC
ANMAC takes FOREVER! Once you know you’re eligible for the PR visa, get cracking on your skills assessment. It can take about 4-6 weeks just to gather all your documents.
It will be super helpful if you have already registered with AHPRA as a lot of the documents you need for AHPRA are the same.
Once I submitted my application to ANMAC it took 9 weeks to process my application. This means I had spent 3 months sorting out my skills assessment.
All before I could even start the visa application process.
Processing Times
Please take this into account and don’t leave yourself stuck at the last minute.
You ideally should start the process as early as possible( at least 12 months), before your current visa expires or intend to move here.
According to the Immigration website at the time of writing this post 90% of applications are processed within 19 months.
Expression of Interest for Australian Permanent Residency
The expression of interest is basically where you complete a form on the immi website and create a skill select account.
You don’t have to pay for the visa at this point. You’re telling the government you have “x” amount of points as a Nurse. You want to stay in the country as an Australian Permanent Resident.
The government will then process all the “expressions of interest” and invite you to apply when they deem fit. Then it’s a waiting game. Processing times can really vary.
This is why it’s so important to leave yourself enough time to apply for PR. If you’re on a WHV and they have not invited you to apply and your WHV expires you will have to leave the country.
However if they invite you before your current visa expires, you will then go onto a bridging visa as you are in the middle of an active application.
Once You’ve Been Invited for Australian Permanent Residency
Medical Exam
You will have to complete a medical test including a chest x-ray, bloods, physical examination and urine sample. This has to be done in an approved Bupa centre. It’s quite expensive and cost me approximately 500-600 AUD.
You can only book this once you have been invited. Immigration will provide you with a reference number known as a HAP ID to provide Bupa to book your medical.
Total Cost of My 189 PR Visa
I applied and completed the whole PR process myself. The total cost for mine and fiance’s visa (defacto) including English test, medical and police checks etc were 8500 AUD.
It’s definitely a more expensive visa. It gives you security. You can stay and work in the country long term. It allowed my partner to stay. Now we’re both entitled to medicare, Centrelink and maternity leave.
I’ve recently just applied for citizenship and will have the amazing opportunity to have dual citizenship.
This offers so much peace of mind for us in the future. If we move home and decide we don’t like it we can always come back.
Let me know if you’re planning to make Australia your home or if you need help with the process. It’s overwhelming to start, but I hope this has broken it down into a more simple actionable process.
