Can I work in
Australia?
If the life makes sense, the next question is whether you can practise here.
Kettle on. About 13 min
Three things you can do right now
Check my pathway
Answer a few questions about your profession, where you trained and your current registration. Two minutes, and it points you at the official Australian routes.
Open the pathway checker I want the detail for my professionFind my profession
What registration involves for your role, board by board, with the requirements that apply to you rather than to everyone.
See the professions I want the official linksGet the forms and contacts
Ahpra, the National Boards and the official pages you’ll need, in one place and kept current.
Open the directoryRegistration is what lets you practise, and it’s very doable
Reviewed July 2026 · checked against the current published guidance of the relevant Australian national board or accrediting authority
Australia runs one national scheme, so registration is recognised in every state and territory. For most medical-imaging professions that means Ahpra and the MRPBA.
The one thing to hold onto: registration lets you practise; a visa lets you live and work here. They’re separate, run by different bodies, and getting them in the right order is most of the battle. We’ll come to visas in Stage 07; this stage is about the right to practise.
“Can I work there?” is four questions, and registration is one of them
Ahpra and your National Board decide whether you can practise. Whether you can live and work in Australia at all is decided elsewhere, and each part has its own owner. This page is the first.
- Registration — the right to practise. This page, then your profession.
- The visa — the right to live and work here, decided by the Department of Home Affairs, not the board, and for most clinicians sponsored by an employer. A skills assessment for migration is a third, separate thing. Immigration & visas owns all of that.
- English, health and character — asked by the board and by Home Affairs in slightly different forms. English requirements.
- Time and money — months rather than weeks, with fees at each stage. How long it takes; what it costs sits in Make the numbers work.
The quickest first pass is Check my pathway: your profession, where you trained and what you already hold, and the route most likely to apply to you.
There’s a second thing worth knowing early: for the professions that use radiation, national registration is separate from a state radiation use licence. Registration is Australia-wide; the licence to operate radiation equipment is issued by each state or territory, and your employer usually helps you arrange it.
Registration and migration are two separate things
These sound alike, are run by different bodies, and you may need one, the other, or both, depending on your visa.
Professional registration
Assessed by the relevant board (the MRPBA for radiographers, radiation therapists and nuclear medicine technologists). This is what legally lets you work in your role, whatever your visa says.
A skills assessment
Required for certain skilled-migration visas, by a separate assessing authority: ASMIRT for radiographers and radiation therapists, ANZSNM for nuclear medicine. It’s a migration step, not a registration one.
Lead with registration
Registration never needs a skills assessment. Whether the visa does depends on the occupation, your passport, the visa stream and any exemption that applies: for many medical imaging professionals on an employer-sponsored (482) visa a separate assessment is not required, but some applicants still need one even with registration in hand. Lead with registration, and confirm the skills assessment position for your own visa early, especially if permanent residence is the plan.
How registration unfolds
Registration is a sequence, and two of these steps depend on other people and can’t be rushed at the end.
Work out which pathway is yours
Your profession, where you qualified and which regulator you’re currently registered with together decide whether you’re assessed as substantially equivalent, streamed through a comparable-regulator route, or assessed individually.
Request the slow documents first
Certificates of good standing from every regulator you’ve held registration with, and verified copies of your qualifications. These come from other organisations on their timetable, not yours. Start them on day one.
Settle the English question
Either evidence an exemption or book a test. Doing this third rather than last is what separates a smooth application from a stalled one.
Ahpra’s revised English language skills standard took effect on 18 March 2025. It widened the recognised-country list from seven countries to thirty — and removed South Africa from it, with a twelve-month transition that has since closed. If you trained in South Africa and were told you were exempt, that may no longer hold. Check your position against the standard before you budget or book anything: Ahpra — English language skills.
Submit a complete application
Identity, qualifications, registration history, English, criminal-history check and your practice history, all in one properly evidenced pack. Incomplete applications don’t get assessed slowly; they get set aside.
Respond quickly to any request
Assessors often come back with a question or ask for one more document. How fast you answer is one of the few levers you control after submitting.
Registration, then the state licence
Once you’re registered, the professions that operate radiation equipment arrange a state or territory radiation use licence. Employers deal with this routinely and usually help.
Where we fit: we can’t assess or approve anything, and we’d be wary of anyone who says they can. What we can do is tell you which pathway looks like yours before you spend money, keep the role and the visa moving alongside the registration, and flag a gap while it’s still cheap to fix.
Find your profession
Australia is opening in stages, beginning with medical imaging and radiation therapy. Each profession has its own full guide.
What every application needs
The documents depend on your profession, your pathway and your visa, and the board and the Department of Home Affairs ask for different things. A complete pack is the factor most within your control on timing; check what each actually requires before paying for anything.
Your qualifications
Your qualifying award and full academic transcript, and, where required, evidence of supervised clinical training and recent practice.
Good standing & identity
Certified proof of identity, your registration history, and a current Certificate of Good Standing from each authority you’re registered with.
English language
The board’s English Language Skills Registration Standard, by an approved test or an exemption. Covered below.
Two things some applicants also meet: a national MRP examination (where your qualification isn’t assessed as substantially equivalent: comparable-regulator applicants are generally exempt), and a state radiation use licence for the professions that operate radiation equipment. Your profession page sets out which apply to you.
Start these now, they depend on other people
- For the board: certificates of good standing from the regulators you’ve been registered with
- For the board: verified or certified copies of your qualifying award and transcripts
- For the board and the visa, in different forms: criminal-history checks, which the visa may require from each country you’ve lived in
- Certified translations of anything not in English
- For the employer: references who can be reached, and who know you’re using them
These you can settle yourself
- A clear, dated practice history with no unexplained gaps
- Your continuing professional development records
- Evidence of recent practice in your profession
- Proof of identity, certified as the board requires
- Your position on English: the evidence for an exemption, or a test booking
The English requirement, plainly
Every national board sets an English language skills standard. It catches out more experienced clinicians than anything else on this page.
You may already be exempt
Boards recognise pathways based on where you were educated and where you’ve practised, in English, over a sustained period. If that’s you, gather the evidence rather than booking a test.
If you do sit a test
Several approved tests are accepted, and the minimum scores are set per component, not as an average. One low component can fail an otherwise strong result, so prepare for your weakest, not your strongest.
Results have a shelf life
Test results expire, and registration and immigration don’t always accept the same tests or the same scores. Check what both require before you book, rather than paying to sit twice.
How long it takes
Timing depends on your pathway and how complete your application is; we do not quote weeks, because the slow steps are other organisations’ to run. Plan your notice period and your move date around registration being granted, not around the job offer, and these are the things that move the date.
Faster: a comparable-regulator route
Where your qualification and current registration are recognised as comparable, assessment is more streamlined and an examination generally isn’t required.
Faster: one complete submission
Applications that arrive complete get assessed. Applications that arrive missing a document wait, then wait again for the answer to come back.
Slower: individual assessment
Where your qualification needs assessing on its own merits, expect more evidence, more questions and, sometimes, an examination.
Slower: documents from elsewhere
Good-standing certificates, verified transcripts and overseas police checks all move at another organisation’s pace. This is the most common reason a timeline slips.
Slower: a gap in practice
Boards look at recency of practice. A significant break isn’t a barrier, but it usually means more evidence and sometimes a supervised period.
Slower: leaving English to the end
If a test turns out to be needed, booking, sitting and waiting for results can add months to an application that was otherwise ready to go.
Registration looks daunting on paper, but it’s really a sequence, and the people who move fastest are the ones who started the slow items early and kept their evidence organised. Our job is to tell you, which pathway is yours, help secure the role and sponsorship, and flag issues while they’re still easy to fix. The decisions rest with the boards; getting you to them in good shape is where we come in.
SophieFounder, Ethicare Resourcing
The things people ask us first
Is my registration valid in every state?
Yes. Australia’s registration is national, so once you’re registered (or accredited, for sonographers) it’s recognised in every state and territory. The exception is the radiation use licence, which is issued by each state separately for the professions that operate radiation equipment.
Do I need to sit an exam?
It depends on your profession and how your qualification is assessed. Applicants recognised through a comparable regulator (such as the UK’s HCPC or Ireland’s CORU, for radiographers and radiation therapists) are generally exempt; others may sit the national MRP examination. Your profession page explains what’s likely for you.
Can I start applying for jobs before I’m registered?
You can, and many employers will support you through the process. That said, Australian employers generally expect your registration to be in place or well underway, so it’s wise to get your application moving first. We help line the role, the registration and the visa up so they don’t hold each other up.
How long does it take?
It varies with the completeness of your application, document verification and your circumstances. The single biggest lever is a complete, well-evidenced submission, and starting the slowest items (certificates of good standing, document verification) early.
Do I need a skills assessment as well?
Only if your visa route requires one. Registration itself never does. On an employer-sponsored route many applicants do not need one, though it depends on the occupation, your passport and the visa stream, so check your own case rather than assume. For points-tested skilled visas it is required, and it’s done by a separate authority: ASMIRT for radiographers and radiation therapists, ANZSNM for nuclear medicine. Two different processes, often confused.
What if I’ve had a break from practice?
It’s common and it’s manageable. Boards apply a recency of practice standard, so a significant break usually means more evidence about what you’ve been doing, and occasionally a period of supervised practice. Tell us early and we’ll be straight with you about what it’s likely to mean.
Will my overseas CPD count?
Generally yes, and it’s worth having your records in order. Keep evidence of what you’ve completed and when. Once registered you’ll meet Australian CPD requirements going forward, which most clinicians find familiar rather than onerous.
What does it cost?
There’s an application fee and then annual renewal, plus the costs around it: document verification, certificates of good standing, any English test, and a state radiation licence where one applies. None of it is unaffordable, but it adds up, so budget for the whole set rather than the headline fee.
Do you charge me for any of this?
No. Our support is free to you, employers pay us. The boards, assessment authorities and test providers charge their own fees, and we’ll tell you which are coming before they arrive.
Read a little deeper
Not sure which pathway is yours?
The pathway checker shows how the registration pathway looks for your profession and where you trained, and what to get moving first.
Ethicare Resourcing · your guide to a life and career in Australia.