Nursing in Australia

This guide is for a nurse registered in Nigeria who wants to work as a nurse in Australia and has never done any of this before. It takes you from your NMCN licence to your first Australian salary, one step at a time: what you have just done, what you do now, where, what it costs, how long it takes, and what comes next. Read it once from top to bottom. Then come back to the stage you are on. Every fee, time and rule in it comes from the official page that sets it, with the date that page was read. Where a line says "nurses who did it say", it is what nurses report from their own journeys, not a rule.

Part 1. Before you start

The bodies you will deal with

The NMCN, the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria, is the council that registered you in Nigeria. It confirms your Nigerian registration to Australia.

The Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia (in this guide, the board) is Australia's nursing regulator. It decides whether you join its register of nurses, and it sets the assessment a nurse trained outside Australia must pass.

Ahpra, the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency, runs registration for the board. You open your account with Ahpra, pay Ahpra, upload your papers to Ahpra, and Ahpra's IQNM Exams Team runs your exams. IQNM is the board's short name for internationally qualified nurses and midwives: you. Ahpra gives nurses abroad no other address for questions, so this guide sends every Ahpra question to the IQNM Exams Team at IQNMexams@ahpra.gov.au. Where the question is not about exams, ask it to pass your question on to the team that deals with it.

Pearson VUE is the company that runs the NCLEX-RN, the computer exam the board uses, at its test centres. The NCSBN, the National Council of State Boards of Nursing in the United States, sets the NCLEX-RN and its fees.

Your employer is an Australian hospital, health service or aged care provider (a care home for elderly people) that Home Affairs has approved to sponsor a worker. The state health services (NSW Health, Queensland Health, SA Health, WA Health and Victoria's public health services) are the large ones. Home Affairs, the Department of Home Affairs, is the Australian government department for visas. It gives you the visa for the OSCE trip and the visa you move on.

ANMAC, the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Accreditation Council, is a separate body. It does not register nurses. It assesses your skills only for a points visa, the option for a nurse with no employer (Stage 14).

The stream and the assessment

The board sorts every nurse trained outside Australia into a stream, by her qualification, through an online questionnaire it calls the Self-check. It checks three things: that your qualification let you register in the country where you trained; that the country's nursing education meets its standard of quality assurance and accreditation; and that your qualification is at least at the level of an Australian bachelor's degree.

• Stream A meets all three. You pay the assessment fee, complete a one-hour online course called Orientation Part 1, and apply for registration.
• Stream B meets the first and the third. You pay the assessment fee and complete, in this order, Orientation Part 1, your Portfolio (your qualification and identity papers), and the outcomes-based assessment: a multiple-choice exam, which for a registered nurse is the NCLEX-RN, then the OSCE. Then you apply for registration.
• Stream C meets the first only. You must upgrade your qualification before you can go on.

Nigeria is on the board's own list of qualifications that are unlikely to meet the second check. The board names no stream for any country. Read against the board's three checks, a Nigerian nursing degree at bachelor level meets the first and the third, which is Stream B. Nurses with a Nigerian BNSc report Stream B, or "not yet assessed" (Stage 2). The Self-check gives yours. This guide walks Stream B.

Check that you can start

Your stream. The Self-check gives it (Stage 2). Read against the board's three checks, a Nigerian qualification below bachelor level meets only the first, which is Stream C (below). If it gives no stream, Ahpra assesses your qualification at the Portfolio stage (Stage 4).

If you hold a diploma, not a degree. The board's third check asks for a qualification at the level of an Australian bachelor's degree. A School of Nursing diploma is below it, so the Self-check is likely to give Stream C. The board says Stream C can go on only by upgrading the qualification, in Australia or any other country, and that a postgraduate qualification in a related field does not count. If you have since earned a nursing degree, enter it in the Self-check as a later qualification (Stage 2). No fee is printed for the Self-check itself, and the AUD 410 is owed only for Stream A, Stream B or "not yet assessed". Do it in this order.

1. Do Stage 1, your papers. No clock runs yet.
2. Write to the IQNM Exams Team at IQNMexams@ahpra.gov.au. Give your diploma's name, your school, the year, your RN number and any post-basic certificate. Ask whether your diploma is likely to be assessed as Stream C, which upgrade Ahpra accepts, and whether your post-basic certificate counts. Keep the reply.
3. Open your account and take the Self-check on the same day, in a week when you could pay the AUD 410. If Ahpra's reply has not come by then, you may still take the Self-check, because no fee is printed for it.
4. If it gives Stream C, stop and pay nothing: you go on only by upgrading (above). If it gives Stream B, go on to Stage 3. If it gives "not yet assessed", your 90 days have started (Stage 3). Read Stage 2, What your result means, before you pay.

Your English. The board accepts English without a test only from education taught and assessed in English in a recognised country, and Nigeria is not on its list. So you take a test (Stage 5).

Your practice. The board wants at least 450 hours of practice in the past five years. If you have not practised that much, a pass in the OSCE counts for your recency of practice (the board's rule on recent practice) for two years.

What nurses say the NMCN asks. Nurses who applied for NMCN verification in 2025 and 2026 describe guidelines the NMCN brought in on 1 March 2024: two years after your permanent licence (the licence after your provisional period) before you may apply, no provisional licence, at least six months left on your licence, letters of good standing sent straight to the NMCN by your nursing school and your last employer, and a minimum of six months to process. If you are within two years of your permanent licence, email info@nmcn.gov.ng before you pay anybody: give your RN number and the date of your permanent licence (if you are not sure which date that is, after an internship year, ask that too), ask whether you may apply now, and keep the reply. Ask the NMCN about the letters and the six months in the same email (Stage 10).

If someone has already sent you a job offer. No employer can employ you as a registered nurse before the board registers you (Stage 13). Nobody may charge you for a job or a sponsorship: in Australia it is illegal for anyone to pay an employer to sponsor them for a visa.

The two exams

The first is the NCLEX-RN, a multiple-choice exam on a computer. It runs from 75 to 265 questions in five hours. It is sat at a Pearson VUE centre, and there is no centre in Nigeria. The two centres in Africa are Nairobi in Kenya and Johannesburg in South Africa. So the NCLEX-RN is a trip.

The second is the OSCE, a practical exam made of short clinical tasks the board calls stations: 10 stations of 10 minutes each, two minutes to read and eight to perform. It is sat only in Australia, in Adelaide or in Melbourne, and you must travel there for it. The OSCE runs in each calendar month at one of the two places.

The order is fixed. You pass the NCLEX-RN first; then you pay for the OSCE.

The route this guide takes: From Nigeria

Take the board's assessment from Nigeria. You open your Ahpra account, complete the Self-check, pay the assessment fee, finish Orientation Part 1 and your Portfolio, fly to Nairobi to sit the NCLEX-RN, fly to Australia on a visitor visa to sit the OSCE, come home and apply for registration. Then you get a job with an employer that sponsors you, and move on the subclass 482 work visa.

Here is why this is the route to take today.

No employer can hire you before the board registers you. The board's own order of work is registration first, then the visa, then the job, and it tells nurses not to apply for work until the board has confirmed they can register. The state health services say the same. WA Health's order is to get registered, apply for a job once Ahpra has confirmed you can register, then negotiate sponsorship with the hospital that offers it. NSW Health takes a nurse who is registered with the board and holds a visa that allows work. Queensland Health says a registered nurse must be registered with the board to work. So registration comes first, whatever happens with a job.

Offers to nurses abroad are few, even after registration. NSW Health says it recruits most of its staff from within Australia and recruits experienced nurses from overseas in some areas, mostly rural and remote places and mental health. WA Health negotiates sponsorship only with experienced nurses in areas of critical shortage. Nurses who registered from abroad in 2025 and 2026 say registration did not bring them a job, and that they were still looking for a sponsor.

On this route, every step until the job is in your own hands. You do your papers, the Self-check, Orientation Part 1, the Portfolio, your English, the NCLEX-RN, the visitor visa and the OSCE yourself, in your own time. When you apply for jobs, you apply as a nurse already on the board's register.

What it asks of you.

• Money before any job: about ₦5.81 million in fees (Part 7), plus your flights and your stay for two trips.
• Two trips before any job: one to Nairobi for the NCLEX-RN, and one to Adelaide or Melbourne for the OSCE.
• A visitor visa that can be refused. Ahpra refunds the OSCE fee if you show it the refusal (Stage 9).
• Clocks that close your file if you miss them (Part 4).

Plan for all of this from the start.

Through the UK, if you hold a UK PIN

The board has a shorter route for nurses registered in countries it approves as comparable, and the UK is one of them. It is set by its Registration standard: General registration for internationally qualified registered nurses, in effect since 23 April 2025. For a nurse first trained outside those countries, the standard's second set of criteria (its "Pathway 2") asks four things:

• your primary qualification, the one that first registered you as a nurse, gained on or after 1 January 2017;
• a pass in the exam process for internationally qualified nurses in a comparable country, which for the UK is the NMC's Test of Competence (the CBT and the UK OSCE together);
• registration as a registered nurse in that country at any time since 1 January 2017;
• at least 1,800 hours of practice as a registered nurse in that country since 1 January 2017.

Only hours worked as a registered nurse count, so hours before your NMC registration do not. No board page gives the evidence it takes for the hours, or whether part-time hours count: write to the IQNM Exams Team at IQNMexams@ahpra.gov.au before you plan on this route, ask it to pass your question on, and keep the reply. Keep your UK payslips and hours from your first month.

The board's fact sheet says it plainly: a nurse who meets every other criterion but gained her primary qualification before 1 January 2017 does not meet the standard. In the UK it must be registration in adult nursing: the fact sheet says a nurse registered in the UK in mental health, children's or learning disabilities nursing does not meet the standard.

This route removes the NCLEX-RN and the OSCE. The board's 1,800 hours are about one year of full-time work. The board says the exam route "typically takes 9-12 months", and this one 1 to 6 months.

Through the UK is the variant this guide names at each stage ("On the UK route"). You do Stages 1, 2, 4, 5, 10 and 12 to 16, and Stage 3 if Ahpra tells you the assessment fee applies (ask it first, Stage 3). Part 5 says where to start if you already hold a UK PIN.

Which to take

• You hold a School of Nursing diploma and no degree. Read "If you hold a diploma, not a degree" (Check that you can start) first. Stages 3 onward are for after the Self-check or Ahpra says you can go on. Unlike the UK: here the Self-check shows your stream before you pay the assessment fee. In the UK the NMC tells you only when it evaluates you (the UK guide, Stage 3), and its £167 (about ₦293,000) is not refunded if it says no. The UK guide does not say the NMC refuses a diploma: it decides at that evaluation.
• You hold a UK PIN (your NMC registration number) in adult nursing, you have worked 1,800 hours as a registered nurse in the UK, and your primary qualification is dated on or after 1 January 2017. Take the UK route.
• You hold a UK PIN in adult nursing and your primary qualification is dated on or after 1 January 2017, but you have not yet worked 1,800 hours as a registered nurse in the UK. Your PIN alone removes no Australian step. Choose one. From Nigeria now: about ₦9.53 million in fees with the work visa (₦5.81 million of it before any job), two trips, and 9 to 12 months to registration, then the job. Or the UK first: about ₦694,000 in UK fees from the job stage of the UK guide, opens in a new tab on (the work visa, £324, about ₦569,000, and the TB test, USD 94, about ₦125,000; the UK guide, Part 7), and £1,270 (about ₦2.23 million) held in your bank account unless your employer covers your first month. No official page states how long a UK job search takes: nurses who did OSCE first in 2025 say theirs took about four to five months, and the UK visa decision usually takes about 3 weeks (the UK guide, Stages 11 and 12). Then about a year of full-time work for the 1,800 hours. Then about ₦4.37 million in Australian fees with the work visa, or about ₦4.75 million if Ahpra charges the AUD 410 (Stage 3), plus the NMCN's ₦75,625 and a UK criminal history check (Part 7, On the UK route). That route has no Australian trips and takes 1 to 6 months to registration. Before you accept a UK offer, read its repayment terms (the UK guide, at the job stage): leaving within the repayment period can cost you. What decides it: if you hold the From Nigeria money and want Australia soonest, take From Nigeria. If you would rather earn as a nurse in the UK while you qualify for the shorter route, and skip the NCLEX-RN, the OSCE in Australia and the trip to Nairobi, take the UK first.
• Your UK application is still in progress (you are doing your NMC papers or exams now), in adult nursing, and your primary qualification is dated on or after 1 January 2017. Finish the UK first, then get a UK job and work 1,800 hours as a registered nurse there. The same English result and the same papers serve both (below).
• You have not started anywhere, and your primary qualification is dated on or after 1 January 2017. Two routes are open to you. From Nigeria now: about ₦9.53 million in fees with the work visa (₦5.81 million of it before any job), two trips, and 9 to 12 months to registration, then the job. Or the UK first: about ₦3.4 million in UK fees on OSCE first, with a trip to the UK for its OSCE (the UK guide, opens in a new tab, Part 7; it also asks £1,270, about ₦2.23 million, in your bank account unless your employer covers your first month). No official page states the UK time, and nurses who did OSCE first in 2025 say it took about six to seven months from the visitor visa to a job offer. Then about a year of full-time work for the 1,800 hours. Then about ₦4.37 million in Australian fees with the work visa, or about ₦4.75 million if Ahpra charges the AUD 410 (Stage 3), plus the NMCN's ₦75,625 and a UK criminal history check (Part 7, On the UK route). That route has no Australian trips and takes 1 to 6 months to registration. Before you accept a UK offer, read its repayment terms (the UK guide, at the job stage): leaving within the repayment period can cost you. This guide walks From Nigeria. If you choose the UK first, start the UK guide. What decides it: if you hold the From Nigeria money and want Australia soonest, take From Nigeria. If you would rather earn as a nurse in the UK while you qualify for the shorter route, and skip the NCLEX-RN, the OSCE in Australia and the trip to Nairobi, take the UK first.
• Your primary qualification is dated before 1 January 2017. A UK PIN does not open the shorter route for you. Take From Nigeria. If your degree and your RN certificate fall on different sides of 1 January 2017, in either order, write to the IQNM Exams Team at IQNMexams@ahpra.gov.au before you plan on the UK route. Ask which paper's date the board reads as the date your primary qualification was gained. Keep the reply.
• None of these. Take From Nigeria.

If you are also doing the UK or New Zealand

Many nurses work on more than one country at the same time. Here is what you do once, what you do twice, and what a registration in one country opens in another.

Your English: one sitting can serve all three. The board asks IELTS Academic 7 overall, with 7 in listening, 7 in reading, 6.5 in writing and 7 in speaking; or OET 350 in listening, 360 in reading, 350 in writing and 360 in speaking. The NMC, the UK nursing regulator, asks the same IELTS scores with no overall, and OET 350 (B) in listening, reading and speaking and 300 (C+) in writing. The Nursing Council of New Zealand asks the same IELTS scores, and OET 350 in reading, listening and speaking and 300 in writing. So:

• IELTS Academic at 7 overall with 7, 7, 6.5 and 7 serves all three.
• OET at the board's scores serves all three. OET at the UK's scores falls short for Australia in reading, writing and speaking.
• Sit it at a test centre. The board does not take a test sat at home, and does not take OET@Home; the NMC does.
• The board takes PTE Academic and TOEFL iBT too; the NMC and the Council do not list PTE.

Each body has its own rule for how old your result may be:

Your NMCN verification: one request per destination. The NMCN sends one verification for the UK to the NMC, at ₦17,500 on its verification page or ₦21,875 on its fee schedule; pay the amount the portal shows. For Australia it sends another, to Ahpra, with its own fee (Stage 10). For New Zealand it sends another, to TruMerit. Your licence, your certificates of registration and your birth certificate are the same folder for all of them.

Your police certificate: the same Nigerian certificate, different rules. The UK, New Zealand and Australia's Home Affairs all take the Nigeria Police Force's Police Character Certificate, applied for on Police Services. For the Australian work visa it is valid for 12 months from the day it is issued (Stage 14). The board's own check is different: an international criminal history check from an approved company (Stage 12).

Your papers. One folder of originals serves every country. The NMC takes scans; Ahpra takes copies certified in person (Stage 1).

What does not carry over. The UK CBT (the NMC's computer test) and the UK OSCE do not count for Australia's exams. The UK TB test does not serve the Australian visa: Australia asks for its own health examination by a doctor on Home Affairs' list (Stage 14).

What a UK PIN changes in Australia. A UK PIN on its own, with no UK work, removes no Australian step: you still sit the NCLEX-RN and the OSCE. It adds one paper: Ahpra wants the NMC's certificate as well as the NMCN's (below). Two more things open with UK work: the shorter route, once you have worked 1,800 hours as a registered nurse in the UK, and an English result that lasts longer, once you have worked continuously in the UK from within 12 months of your English test. In the board's and the NMC's words:

• The shorter route. The UK route above, if you meet its four criteria.
• Your English result can last longer. The board takes a result more than two years old if, since the test, you have been continuously working as a registered nurse in a recognised country where English was the main language of practice, starting within 12 months of the test date, and you submit your application within 12 months of finishing that work. The UK is a recognised country. "Continuously working" means at least 26 weeks full time a year. Check your test date now. This rule helps only if your first UK nursing job starts within 12 months of that date. If it will not, plan to sit the test again within the two years before you submit your registration application (Stage 12). Your UK registration does not excuse you from the test: the board's English standard counts only education in a recognised country, so a nurse educated in Nigeria still shows a test result.
• What a UK PIN adds to your file: the NMC's certificate. Ahpra wants a certificate of good standing from every country where you have been registered in the last five years, sent by the regulator itself. The NMC calls its one a certificate of current professional status (CCPS). Request it in your MyNMC account after you have applied to Ahpra. If you need certificates for both ANMAC and Ahpra, select ANMAC first and then Ahpra in the same request. The NMC usually issues it within 24 hours; it is valid for three months from the day it is issued, and the NMC emails the authority that it is ready to download. The NMC's page states no fee.
• Keep your NMC registration until you have chosen. Keeping it costs £143 a year (about ₦251,000), paid in MyNMC by card. The NMC's certificate at Stage 12 and the UK route both rest on it, so let it lapse only after you have chosen. If you take From Nigeria, keep it current until Ahpra has your CCPS (Stage 12). If you are not working in the UK, ask the NMC how you meet its practice hours when you revalidate, before your renewal date.

A points visa before you register in Australia. ANMAC's Full skills assessment, AUD 595 (about ₦552,000), takes a nurse registered in the UK whose qualification is not a UK bachelor's degree if she completed a qualification that led to general nursing registration after 1 January 2017 (ANMAC's word; the board's is "on or after"), passed the UK's regulatory exam, and has 1,800 hours of paid work as a registered nurse in the UK since 1 January 2017, with an English test result. It opens the points visas of Stage 14 to her before the board registers her. A nurse registered only in Nigeria, or registered in the UK without the 1,800 hours, cannot take it. If your qualification is dated 1 January 2017 itself, ask ANMAC whether it counts before you pay.

What a New Zealand registration opens. A nurse who holds a current practising certificate in New Zealand applies to Ahpra under the Trans-Tasman Mutual Recognition Act. The board tells her not to complete the Self-check, and the steps Ahpra lists name no exam. She applies in the Ahpra practitioner portal with her passport, any name change evidence and evidence of her New Zealand registration, and Ahpra assesses it within 30 days. She is registered in the same category as in New Zealand. No board or Ahpra page states the fee for it: write to the IQNM Exams Team at IQNMexams@ahpra.gov.au before you plan on it, ask it to pass your question on, and keep the reply. In the other direction, a nurse registered in Australia registers in New Zealand under the same Act for NZD 340 (about ₦254,000), in about ten working days, with no TruMerit.

Part 2. The whole journey on one page

Stage 1. Your Nigerian documents. Put your papers in one folder and have copies certified in person. The lawyer's or notary's fee.

Stage 2. Your Ahpra account and the Self-check. Open your account and complete the Self-check. Your stream shows when you finish.

Stage 3. The assessment fee and Orientation Part 1. AUD 410 (about ₦380,000). About an hour, within 90 days of the day you opened your account and finished the Self-check.

Stage 4. Your Portfolio. Upload your certified papers. No official time.

Stage 5. Your English. Pass IELTS Academic or OET at the board's scores. ₦299,000 for IELTS Academic on computer at an IDP centre. Results in 1 to 5 days on computer.

Stage 6. Register for the NCLEX-RN. USD 350 (about ₦466,000) today, USD 500 (about ₦666,000) if you register on or after 1 February 2027. Ahpra confirms you within 4 weeks; then you have 90 days to sit.

Stage 7. Travel to Nairobi and sit the NCLEX-RN. Your result from Ahpra within six weeks.

Stage 8. Pay the OSCE fee. AUD 4,000 (about ₦3.71 million). Ahpra's letter for your visa within four weeks.

Stage 9. Your visitor visa and your OSCE date. From AUD 250 (about ₦232,000). Half of recent decisions came within 21 days. Send the visa to Ahpra and wait for your date.

Stage 10. Your NMCN certificate to Ahpra. ₦66,875, and ₦8,750 for a letter of good standing. No official time.

Stage 11. Travel and sit the OSCE. Results by email within eight weeks.

Stage 12. Apply for registration. Within 90 days of your OSCE result. AUD 146 (about ₦135,000) for the criminal history check, AUD 346 (about ₦321,000) to apply and AUD 201 (about ₦187,000) for registration. Ahpra aims to finish in four to six weeks once it has every paper.

Stage 13. Get a job in Australia. Apply to the state health services and other employers that sponsor. No official time. Nobody may charge you for a job.

Stage 14. Your work visa. Your employer nominates you; then you apply for the subclass 482 visa. AUD 4,015 (about ₦3.73 million), plus your health examination, police certificate and biometrics. Half of recent decisions came within 4 months.

Stage 15. Travel and start work. Start within 90 days of entering Australia.

Stage 16. Your first weeks in Australia. A bank account, your tax file number, your first pay slip, and Orientation Part 2 within six months.

The money. On From Nigeria, the fees before any job come to about ₦5.81 million for you alone: AUD 5,353 to Ahpra, AIS International and Home Affairs, USD 350 to Pearson, and ₦374,625 in Nigeria. With the work visa, about ₦9.53 million. Your two trips, your stay, your health examination, your police certificate, your biometrics and your health insurance come on top. On the UK route, the Australian fees are about ₦4.37 million, most of it the work visa (Part 7).

The time. The board says the registration process with exams "typically takes 9-12 months", longer if an exam must be re-sat. No official page states how long a job search takes. Once you have an offer, SA Health puts the time from its offer to your first day at about 6 to 12 months. On the UK route the board puts registration at 1 to 6 months.

On the UK route the order is: your papers (Stage 1), the Self-check (Stage 2), the assessment fee only if Ahpra tells you it applies (Stage 3), your Portfolio (Stage 4), your English (Stage 5), your NMCN certificate to Ahpra (Stage 10), your registration application with the NMC's certificate (Stage 12), then the job, the visa, travel and your first weeks (Stages 13 to 16). There is no NCLEX-RN and no OSCE.

Part 3. Stage by stage

Stage 1. Your Nigerian documents

You can start. Now put your papers in order. Ahpra asks for your qualification, your registration, your identity and five years of your work history, every copy certified in person. The slow parts are a name that differs across your papers and the letters from your employers, so start them first.

Step 1. Put your papers in one folder

Do. Gather your papers and check that your name and date of birth read the same on every one: your passport, your birth certificate and your nursing certificates. Ahpra registers you in the name on your passport unless you give it a change of name document. Fix any difference that your marriage certificate does not explain before you pay any fee.

What you need.

• Your nursing qualification certificate (your degree, or your School of Nursing diploma), your academic transcript from the school, and any post-basic certificate, such as midwifery.
• Your original certificate of registration from the NMCN.
• Your own copy of the evidence that you sat and passed the exam that led to your registration in Nigeria, the NMCN's final qualifying examination. Ahpra asks for this evidence from the regulator too (Stage 10). If you do not know which paper shows it, or you hold none, ask the NMCN at info@nmcn.gov.ng which paper it issues and how you get a copy.
• Your passport, valid.
• At least two more papers that prove who you are: a current driver's licence, your full birth certificate, a national identity card, or a credit or debit card. If you hold a declaration of age in place of a full birth certificate, or a NIN slip in place of a national identity card, ask the IQNM Exams Team whether Ahpra takes it before you have it certified.
• If your name has changed, the evidence of it, such as a marriage certificate.
• A Statement of Service (what your hospital may call a letter of service) from every employer you have had in the past five years. Ask for each one now: they come from your employers, not from you. No Ahpra page sets out what a Statement of Service must show. Before your employers write them, ask the IQNM Exams Team at IQNMexams@ahpra.gov.au what it must show, and whether your internship year and NYSC count.

Where. Your school's records office, your hospitals and your own records. The board explains the papers on Portfolio, opens in a new tab and Applying for registration, opens in a new tab.

Cost and time. Free, unless you must correct a paper. No official page states a time.

You are done when every paper is in one folder, and either your name reads the same on all of them, or your marriage certificate links your old name to your new one.

If your names do not match. The NMCN changes a name only for a married woman, and only her surname. You apply on its licence portal, licence.nmcn.gov.ng, opens in a new tab, uploading your certificates of registration, your marriage certificate or a sworn court affidavit of marriage, and a full-page notice in a national newspaper, and you pay ₦10,937 through Remita on the portal. For your passport, the Nigeria Immigration Service changes your data after a marriage, or corrects an error, on passport.immigration.gov.ng, opens in a new tab. No official page gives the time or the fee of either change: ask the Nigeria Immigration Service and the NMCN before you start.

If you are newly married. If your passport, your NMCN licence and your certificates are all in your maiden name, keeping your maiden name until you are registered means changing nothing now. Decide the name on your passport before Stage 2. Ahpra registers you in your passport name, Pearson and the OSCE check that same passport, and it must be the same passport you gave Ahpra (Stages 7 and 11). If you get a new passport after your Portfolio, send a certified copy to the IQNM Exams Team at IQNMexams@ahpra.gov.au before you book any exam, ask it to update your file, and keep the reply. If your passport is in your married name, change your surname on the NMCN's portal too, and give Ahpra a certified copy of your marriage certificate at the Portfolio (Stage 4). If you keep your maiden name on your passport, keep it everywhere until you are registered. Then Ahpra needs no marriage certificate from you. You give it at the work visa (Stage 14, Step 3) if your husband comes with you.

Next. Have your copies certified.

Step 2. Have your copies certified

Do. Take your originals, in person, to a person Ahpra accepts in Nigeria, and have a copy of each certified. Ahpra does not accept a copy certified over Zoom or Teams.

Who may certify in Nigeria.

• A notary public.
• A legal practitioner: a lawyer, solicitor or barrister.
• A justice of the peace.
• An Australian consular or diplomatic officer.
• A health practitioner registered in Australia.

What the certifier writes. On each copy: "I have sighted the original document and certify this to be a true copy of the original", with the date, their signature, name, phone number, occupation and stamp. Each page of a paper with several pages is initialled and numbered.

Where. Ahpra lists who may certify on Certifying documents, opens in a new tab.

Cost. The certifier's own fee. No official page states one.

You are done when you hold a certified copy of every paper in your folder.

If a paper is not in English. Give a translated copy with it.

From nurses who did it. A nurse trained in Nigeria who registered with Ahpra in 2026 says every paper she uploaded was certified by a solicitor or a notary public, and nurses say the fee depends on the lawyer. Have every copy done in one visit.

Same as the UK. The same originals serve both. The NMC takes your scans; Ahpra takes copies certified in person.

Next. Your Ahpra account and the Self-check (Stage 2).

The board's and Ahpra's pages in this chapter were updated on 10 October 2026; the NMCN's on 9 October 2026.

Stage 2. Your Ahpra account and the Self-check

Your papers are in one folder. Now open your account with Ahpra and complete the Self-check, which gives you your stream. Do it only in a week when you can also pay the assessment fee and finish Orientation Part 1, because you must complete Orientation Part 1 within 90 days from creating your account after completing the Self-check (Stage 3). Open your account and finish the Self-check on the same day, and count the 90 days from that day. If you hold a diploma, see Part 1 first: you may take the Self-check before you hold the money.

Do. Create your account on the Ahpra practitioner portal and complete the Self-check. Your IQNM dashboard is the page in your Ahpra account where your assessment, your exams and later your registration form show. Type your qualification exactly as it is printed on your qualification certificate.

Type it right.

• Enter the first qualification that led to your registration, with your school's name, the award and the dates exactly as printed.
• If you hold a post-basic qualification or a later degree, enter it too.
• The Self-check asks whether you sat a final licensing exam and whether you passed it. For you, that exam is the NMCN's final qualifying examination (Stage 1). If you passed it, answer yes to both.
• What you submit cannot be changed unless you contact Ahpra, and that makes the process slower.
• You do it yourself. The board says the Self-check cannot be completed by a third party or an agent on your behalf.
• If you hold a UK PIN but are taking From Nigeria, write to the IQNM Exams Team at IQNMexams@ahpra.gov.au before you start the Self-check, ask whether you enter your NMC registration, and keep the reply.

Where. The board's page Completing the Self-check, opens in a new tab, with Qualification and registration requirements, opens in a new tab beside it.

What you need. Your qualification certificate and transcript beside you, and an email address you check every day.

Cost. No fee is printed for the Self-check itself. The fee comes after it (Stage 3).

You are done when the Self-check shows your stream, or shows that your qualification has not yet been assessed.

What your result means.

• Stream B. Go on to Stage 3.
• Your qualification has not yet been assessed. This is not a refusal. You pay the assessment fee and complete Orientation Part 1 like Stream B, and Ahpra assesses your qualification at the Portfolio stage and gives you your stream then. If your qualification is a diploma, not a degree, write to the IQNM Exams Team at IQNMexams@ahpra.gov.au before you pay, ask whether it is likely to be assessed as Stream C, and keep the reply. The AUD 410 is not refunded. If Ahpra will not say before it assesses you, the AUD 410 is the price of finding out: pay it only if you can afford to lose it.
• Stream A. Pay the fee, complete Orientation Part 1, and apply for registration (Stage 12), with no NCLEX-RN and no OSCE.
• Stream C. You cannot go on until you upgrade your qualification (Part 1, "Check that you can start"). Do not pay anything more.

If you disagree with your stream. Contact Ahpra and ask for a review. The board's fee table lists an IQNM initial assessment review at AUD 300 (about ₦278,000); ask Ahpra whether it applies to your review before you pay it. No Ahpra page gives a phone number for callers abroad: write to the IQNM Exams Team at IQNMexams@ahpra.gov.au and ask it to pass your request on.

From nurses who did it. Nurses trained in Nigeria report different results for similar papers in 2025 and 2026: Stream B, and "not yet assessed". Nurses say the two questions on the licensing exam (whether you sat a final licensing exam, and whether you passed it) must be answered yes, or the Self-check sends you to upgrade; one got a different stream only after adding her post-basic midwifery. One nurse whose first file closed and who started again was given a different result the second time. Type everything once, exactly as printed.

On the UK route. The Self-check is where you enter the board's shorter route. Enter your first qualification exactly as printed, and any degree you added in the UK: nurses report that leaving out a UK top-up degree (a degree you completed in the UK on top of your Nigerian qualification) changed their result. The board says you will be assigned a stream, which may include one of the new routes, and that you qualify only after Ahpra's full assessment of your papers. If it shows Stream B although you meet the four criteria (Part 1), ask Ahpra for a review (If you disagree with your stream, above) before you pay anything. Then ask Ahpra whether you pay the assessment fee (Stage 3 gives the address and the question) before you go to Stage 4.

Same as the UK. The UK has no Self-check. The NMC tells you whether your training qualifies only when it evaluates your application (the UK guide, Stage 3).

Next. The assessment fee and Orientation Part 1 (Stage 3), the same week.

The board's pages in this chapter were updated on 10 October 2026.

Paying from Nigeria

From Stage 3 on, most fees are in Australian or US dollars: the assessment fee (Stage 3), the OSCE fee (Stage 8) and the registration fees (Stage 12) to Ahpra; the NCLEX-RN fee to Pearson (Stage 6); the visitor visa (Stage 9) and the work visa (Stage 14) to Home Affairs; the criminal history check to AIS International (Stage 12). Before you start Stage 3, ask your bank whether your naira card pays online in Australian and US dollars and what its foreign spending limit is. If the limit is lower than the next fee, have it raised before you pay. Pearson takes a Visa, MasterCard or American Express credit, debit or prepaid card; it also takes payment from a school, agency or employer. Home Affairs says a surcharge may apply when you pay by credit card or PayPal. Ahpra takes its fees on your dashboard, and its IQNM pages name no card. If a payment is refused, ask your bank why before you try again, and ask it whether a domiciliary dollar card pays Ahpra and Home Affairs. For IELTS, ask IDP Nigeria which payment methods it takes besides a credit card. Stages 3, 6, 8, 9, 12 and 14 point back here.

Stage 3. The assessment fee and Orientation Part 1

You have your stream. Now pay the assessment fee and complete Orientation Part 1, a short online course about Australia and its health system. You must complete it to go any further.

Do. Pay the IQNM assessment fee on your account. The course then opens. Complete it on your phone or computer.

Where. Your Ahpra account. The board explains it on Orientation Part 1, opens in a new tab and the fee on Fees for nurses and midwives, opens in a new tab.

What you need. A card that pays in Australian dollars (see Paying from Nigeria, before this stage), and about an hour.

Cost. AUD 410 (about ₦380,000), paid to Ahpra. It is not refunded. It covers Orientation Part 1 and Ahpra's review of your papers at the Portfolio stage.

Time. About an hour.

Your first deadline starts here. You must complete Orientation Part 1 within 90 days of the day you opened your account and finished the Self-check (Stage 2). Write the date in your deadlines table (Part 4).

You are done when your account shows Orientation Part 1 complete.

If it goes wrong. If the 90 days run out, the file closes. A nurse trained in Nigeria says in 2026 that she missed the deadline, her file closed, and her new file came back with a different result. Finish it the week you pay.

On the UK route. No board page states whether the AUD 410 or Orientation Part 1 applies on the shorter route. Before you pay, write to the IQNM Exams Team at IQNMexams@ahpra.gov.au, ask it to pass your question on, and ask whether a nurse assessed under the Registration standard: General registration for internationally qualified registered nurses pays the IQNM assessment fee and completes Orientation Part 1. Keep the reply.

Same as the UK. The NMC's £167 at its application (the UK guide, Stage 3) is also not refunded. The two fees buy different things: this one buys Orientation Part 1 and Ahpra's review of your papers.

Next. Your Portfolio (Stage 4).

The board's pages in this chapter were updated on 10 October 2026.

Stage 4. Your Portfolio

You have finished Orientation Part 1. Now upload your certified papers so that Ahpra can check them against your Self-check.

Do. Upload every certified copy from Stage 1 to your account.

Where. Your Ahpra account. The board's page is Portfolio, opens in a new tab.

What you need.

• Certified copies of your qualification certificate and your academic transcript.
• A certified copy of your original certificate of registration from the NMCN, if your Self-check said your qualification has not yet been assessed. If you are not sure, upload it.
• Certified evidence of any change of name.
• Certified proof of identity: your passport and two more papers (Stage 1).
• A translated copy of any paper not in English.
• If you have passed the NCLEX-RN in the last 10 years, the evidence of it. Then you do not sit it again.

Cost. Paid in Stage 3.

Time. No board page states one. Ahpra told the Australian Senate in 2023 that its Stream B decisions at this stage took about three weeks on average; nurses who did it in 2025 report waits of months.

You are done when Ahpra tells you to continue to the multiple-choice exam (MCQ). If your qualification had not been assessed, Ahpra gives you your stream here.

Your second deadline starts here. Your 180 days start the day your IQNM dashboard is set to the MCQ stage, the day Ahpra tells you to continue to the MCQ. Inside them you must complete the NCLEX-RN step, or Ahpra closes your file. Sit early enough that your result, which comes within six weeks, also arrives inside them. If your file closes, ask the IQNM Exams Team whether it can be reopened, before you start again. Write the date in your deadlines table (Part 4).

If it goes wrong. If Ahpra asks for more, answer the same week, because your clocks still run.

Same as the UK. The NMC also checks your qualification certificate and your registration, but from scans and through the NMCN. Here Ahpra wants certified copies.

On the UK route. Your Portfolio shows that you meet the board's shorter route: your qualification, your pass in the NMC's Test of Competence, your UK registration, and evidence of your 1,800 hours as a registered nurse in the UK. Keep your UK payslips and hours from your first month in the UK.

Next. Your English (Stage 5), and register for the NCLEX-RN (Stage 6) as soon as Ahpra says so.

The board's pages in this chapter were updated on 10 October 2026.

Stage 5. Your English

Your Portfolio is in. Your English does not hold up the NCLEX-RN: register for it the day Ahpra tells you to (Stage 6), and sit your English while you wait. The board wants proof that you can nurse safely in English, and for a nurse educated in Nigeria that means a test. You show it when you apply for registration (Stage 12).

The scores. IELTS Academic: 7 overall, with 7 in listening, 7 in reading, 6.5 in writing and 7 in speaking. Or OET: 350 in listening, 360 in reading, 350 in writing and 360 in speaking. PTE Academic and TOEFL iBT also count, at the board's own scores.

Which tests count. IELTS Academic on paper or on computer at a test centre, and the IELTS One Skill Retake (a resit of one part only). OET on paper or on computer at a test centre. Not OET@Home, and not any test sat at home or marked as indicative (a practice result, not for official use).

When to sit it. Your result must be obtained within the two years before you submit your registration application (Stage 12), which comes after your OSCE. Sit it while you wait for the NCLEX-RN, and write its date in your deadlines table (Part 4).

Do. Book IELTS Academic or OET, sit the exam, and reach the scores above.

Where. The board lists the tests on Accepted English language tests, opens in a new tab. OET on computer is sat in Nigeria at five venues: Lagos (Victoria Island), Ibadan, Abuja, Asaba and Kano; book it on OET's Book a test page, opens in a new tab. IELTS Academic is sat at British Council and IDP centres, 57 of them in Nigeria on the IELTS test centre finder, opens in a new tab, among them Yaba, Ikoyi, Victoria Island, Lekki, Ikeja, Festac and Alausa in Lagos, and Wuse 2 and the Central Area in Abuja.

What you need. To book with IDP Nigeria, a clean colour scan or photo of your passport and a credit card (see Paying from Nigeria, before Stage 3). OET bookings close 24 days before a paper test and 7 days before a computer test.

Cost. IDP Nigeria charges ₦299,000 for IELTS Academic on computer at a test centre.

Time. IELTS on computer gives results in 1 to 5 days. OET results typically come within 6 days on computer and 12 days on paper.

You are done when you hold a result with every score the board asks for.

If it goes wrong. If you miss in one part, you may combine two sittings within 12 months. For IELTS, both sittings need 7 overall, and across the two you need 7 in listening, reading and speaking and 6.5 in writing, with no score in either sitting below 6.5. Two sittings must be from the same test: results from different tests cannot be combined. Your two years then run from the earlier sitting.

For the visa. The subclass 482 visa asks IELTS 5 in each part, or OET 220 in listening, 240 in reading, 200 in writing and 270 in speaking, from a test taken within 3 years before you apply. Your board result covers it.

From nurses who did it. Some nurses still repeat that Australia wants 7 in every band. Writing needs 6.5, and two sittings may now be 12 months apart. A nurse who shared her scores in 2024 fell short in reading and writing. Train for the test's technique, and sit it once.

Same as the UK. IELTS at these scores serves the NMC too. OET at the UK's scores is not enough here: Australia asks 360 in reading and speaking and 350 in writing. See "If you are also doing the UK or New Zealand" in Part 1.

On the UK route. Your result for the NMC can still count after two years if you have worked continuously as a registered nurse in the UK since within 12 months of the test, and you apply within 12 months of finishing that work (Part 1). Check your test date now. This rule helps only if your first UK nursing job starts within 12 months of that date. If it will not, plan to sit the test again within the two years before you submit your registration application (Stage 12).

Next. Register for the NCLEX-RN (Stage 6).

The board's and Ahpra's English pages were read on 8 and 10 October 2026; the test owners' pages on 7 and 8 October 2026.

Stage 6. Register for the NCLEX-RN

Ahpra has told you to continue to the multiple-choice exam. Now register with Pearson for the NCLEX-RN and wait for your Authorization to Test (ATT), the email that lets you book a seat. You must pass the NCLEX-RN before the OSCE.

Do. Follow the link on your IQNM dashboard to Pearson VUE, create your account, register and pay. Then wait for two emails: Pearson's acknowledgement, and later your ATT.

Where. The link on your IQNM dashboard. The board explains it on Multiple-choice question (MCQ) exam, opens in a new tab; the NCSBN's fees are on Fees & Payment, opens in a new tab and its rules on Registration, opens in a new tab.

What you need.

• Your name in your Pearson account spelt exactly as it is written on your passport. Your first and last names must match your ID on the day.
• An email address: Pearson writes only by email.
• A Visa, MasterCard or American Express card (see Paying from Nigeria, before Stage 3).

Cost. For a nurse seeking registration in Australia, the registration fee is USD 200 (about ₦266,000), plus an international scheduling fee of USD 150 (about ₦200,000) when you book, because every centre outside the United States is international for you, Australia's own included. That is USD 350 (about ₦466,000) in all. From 1 February 2027 the registration fee becomes USD 350, so USD 500 (about ₦666,000) in all. The date you register sets the fee, not the date you sit. Pearson refunds neither fee for any reason.

Register before 1 February 2027 if your Portfolio is done by then.

Time. Pearson acknowledges your registration by email within two days. Ahpra confirms that you can sit within 4 weeks. Your registration waits up to 365 days for Ahpra to do so; after that it is lost with its fee.

You are done when Pearson emails you your ATT.

Your third deadline starts here. Your ATT is valid for 90 days from the day Ahpra authorises you. If you do not sit within it, you register and pay again. Write the date in your deadlines table (Part 4).

If it goes wrong. Ahpra's handbook allows an ATT to be extended only in extenuating circumstances, with Ahpra's approval, once you have booked an exam date; the NCSBN's own leaflet says there are no extensions. Treat the 90 days as fixed. One registration is for one sitting only.

Same as the UK. The UK's CBT (the NMC's computer test) is a different exam, sat in Nigeria, and it does not count here.

On the UK route. You do not sit the NCLEX-RN.

Next. Book your seat and travel to sit it (Stage 7).

The board's and the NCSBN's pages in this chapter were read on 8 and 10 October 2026.

Stage 7. Travel to Nairobi and sit the NCLEX-RN

You hold your ATT. Now book a seat and travel to sit the NCLEX-RN. There is no NCLEX centre in Nigeria. The two in Africa are in Nairobi, Kenya and Johannesburg, South Africa. Sit in Nairobi: Kenya lets a Nigerian passport in for up to 60 days with no travel authorisation, while South Africa needs a visitor's visa applied for before you travel.

Do. Book your appointment online with Pearson, or by phone with Pearson NCLEX Candidate Services, as soon as your ATT arrives. Then book your flight and stay. Land in Nairobi at least the day before your appointment, and fly home after the exam. The exam takes up to five hours, and no result is given at the centre. Before you fly, ask your airline which health papers Kenya asks of a traveller from Nigeria at entry. Travel, sit the exam, and fly home.

Where. Pearson Professional Centers, Nairobi: 6th Floor, Principal Place, 14 School Lane. The NCSBN lists its centres on Testing Locations, opens in a new tab. Pearson NCLEX Candidate Services answers on +852 3077 4923, Monday to Friday, 9am to 6pm Hong Kong time. To change an international appointment, you must call that number.

Book early. A first-time candidate is offered an appointment 30 days after she asks for one. If you wait until your ATT is close to its end, the centre may not seat you in time, and you register and pay again.

Pack in your hand luggage.

• Your passport. It is the only ID taken at an international centre, and your names on it must match your Pearson account exactly.
• If you changed your name after your Portfolio and Ahpra has not yet updated your file (Stage 1, If you are newly married), the original marriage certificate or court document.

On the day.

• Arrive at least 30 minutes early. More than 30 minutes late, and you can lose your appointment.
• Your signature, photograph and a palm vein scan are taken before you sit.
• You have five hours, breaks included. A calculator on screen and a note board are given to you.
• No result is given at the centre.

Cost. Paid when you registered and booked (Stage 6). Your flight and your stay are your own.

Time. Your official result comes from Ahpra by email within six weeks of your exam.

You are done when Ahpra's email says you passed. Then your dashboard asks you to pay the OSCE fee.

If it goes wrong.

• If you fail, wait at least 45 days, counted from the email with your result, then register again and pay again. You get a new ATT and book a new seat. The NCSBN allows up to eight sittings a year. Your 180 days from the MCQ stage still run (Stage 4): if they run out, ask the IQNM Exams Team whether your file can be reopened, before you start again.
• If you arrive without acceptable ID, you are turned away and pay both fees again.
• If you miss your appointment, you lose your fees and your ATT.
• To change your appointment, call at least one full business day before; for a Saturday, Sunday or Monday exam, by the Friday.

From nurses who did it. A Nigerian nurse filmed her trip from Enugu to Nairobi to sit the exam in October 2025. Nurses describe the NCLEX-RN and the OSCE as testing different skills: clinical judgement on screen, then practical work under pressure.

Same as the UK. The UK's CBT is sat in Nigeria. This exam is a trip.

On the UK route. You do not travel for this exam.

Next. Pay the OSCE fee (Stage 8).

The NCSBN's pages, the board's handbook and Kenya's travel authorisation page were read on 6 and 10 October 2026.

Stage 8. Pay the OSCE fee

You have passed the NCLEX-RN. Now pay the OSCE fee, so that Ahpra sends you the letter your visitor visa needs.

Do. Pay the OSCE fee on your IQNM dashboard. Wait for Ahpra's OSCE letter by email: the letter for offshore candidates that you can use in your visa application.

Where. Your IQNM dashboard. The board's page is Objective Structured Clinical Exam (OSCE), opens in a new tab.

What you need. A card that pays in Australian dollars (see Paying from Nigeria, before Stage 3).

Cost. AUD 4,000 (about ₦3.71 million) for each sitting, paid to Ahpra.

Your fourth deadline starts here. You have 120 days to pay from the day your file is set to the OSCE stage, or Ahpra closes it. Once you pay, you have 180 days to sit the OSCE, or Ahpra closes your file and refunds the fee. Write both dates in your deadlines table (Part 4).

Time. Ahpra sends the OSCE letter within four weeks of receiving your payment.

You are done when you hold Ahpra's OSCE letter.

If it goes wrong. If the letter has not come four weeks after you paid, email the IQNM Exams Team at IQNMexams@ahpra.gov.au with your name and the date you paid.

Same as the UK. The UK's OSCE is a different exam, with its own fee. Neither counts for the other.

Next. Your visitor visa and your OSCE date (Stage 9).

The board's page and Ahpra's OSCE handbook were updated on 10 October 2026.

Stage 9. Your visitor visa and your OSCE date

You hold Ahpra's OSCE letter. Now get an Australian visa to travel for the OSCE, and send it to Ahpra. Ahpra offers you a date only after it has your visa, and Ahpra cannot advise you on the visa.

Step 1. Apply for the visitor visa

Do. Apply online from Nigeria for a Visitor visa (subclass 600). You must be outside Australia when you apply and when Home Affairs decides. Do not book your flight yet.

Which stream. The Visitor visa has a Tourist stream, for any purpose except business or medical treatment, and a Business Visitor stream, for a conference, trade fair or seminar. No Home Affairs page names the stream for a nurse travelling to sit the OSCE. Before you pay, write to Home Affairs through the contacts on its Offices outside Australia, opens in a new tab page. Attach Ahpra's OSCE letter and ask two things: which stream to use, and whether a nurse who sits the OSCE, a practical exam at Ahpra's exam centre (Stage 11, Where), counts as entering a healthcare or hospital setting. Keep the reply. If no reply has come two weeks after you write, do not wait longer, because your 180 days are running (Stage 8). Apply in the Tourist stream. Its page covers any purpose except business or medical treatment. The Business Visitor stream is for a conference, trade fair or seminar, and the OSCE is none of these. Give Ahpra's OSCE letter as your plan. Answer the health question by describing the trip as it is, a practical exam at Ahpra's exam centre, and do what Home Affairs then asks.

What you must show. That you will go home: for example, a letter from your employer stating that you will return to your job. That you can pay for the trip. Your plans while in Australia: give the month of the OSCE sitting you are waiting for.

What you need.

• Your valid passport.
• Ahpra's OSCE letter, which Ahpra says you can use in your visa application.
• Itemised personal bank statements for 3 months, your pay slips and your tax records.
• Your employer's letter.
• A police certificate if Home Affairs asks for one.

Where. Home Affairs' Visitor visa (subclass 600) Tourist stream, opens in a new tab page. Home Affairs tells you if you must give biometrics; its centres in Nigeria are in Lagos and Abuja (Stage 14, Step 3).

Cost. From AUD 250 (about ₦232,000) for each applicant, in either stream, paid to Home Affairs (see Paying from Nigeria, before Stage 3).

Health. A visitor from Nigeria staying under six months needs no health examination unless she is likely to enter a healthcare or hospital setting; then Home Affairs asks for a medical examination, a chest X-ray and a kidney blood test (eGFR). If it asks, follow its letter (Stage 14, Step 1, has the clinics). Ask about this in your letter on the stream (Which stream, above).

Time. Home Affairs' processing tool, updated 29 September 2026: in the Tourist stream, a quarter of recent decisions came within 7 days, half within 21 days, and nine in ten within 33 days. In the Business Visitor stream, half within 7 days and nine in ten within 19 days. Home Affairs generally grants a stay of 3 months. Its page says it can grant a stay of up to 12 months. In your plans, give the month of the OSCE sitting you are waiting for, so that Home Affairs sees the stay you need.

You are done when you hold the visa grant.

If it goes wrong. If your visa is refused, email the IQNM Exams Team at IQNMexams@ahpra.gov.au with the refusal: Ahpra refunds the OSCE fee on evidence that your visa application was denied.

From nurses who did it. Few Nigerian nurses have reported getting past this step yet. Nigerian nurses report friends refused in January 2026, and a nurse who had passed the NCLEX-RN still waiting for her visa in September 2026. So build this file the week you pass the NCLEX-RN: your job and family at home, and three months of bank statements that show where your money comes from. No Home Affairs page sets an amount: show that you can pay for the trip and your stay. Work out the trip's own cost (the flight, your nights and your food), and keep at least that in the account through the three months your statements cover, alongside your salary. By then the OSCE fee is already paid to Ahpra.

Same as the UK. The UK's Standard Visitor visa is a different visa. One does not serve the other.

Step 2. Send your visa to Ahpra and get your date

Do. Email a copy of your visa to the IQNM Exams Team. Ahpra then emails you to confirm when you are available, and allocates you a date.

When. To receive that email, you must have paid the OSCE fee and sent a valid visa at least three months before the exam period. An exam period is the sitting the OSCE runs each calendar month, at Adelaide or Melbourne (Part 1). Candidates abroad are put in order by the date they sent their visa to Ahpra. Counted from the day you pay: Ahpra's letter within four weeks, then the visa (half within 21 days, nine in ten within 33 days), then at least three months to the exam period. The earliest sitting is about five months after you pay, inside your 180 days with about a month to spare. So apply for the visa the day the letter comes, and send the visa to Ahpra the day it is granted.

Time. Ahpra allocates you at random to one day and one session. Its confirmation letter comes by email in the weeks before the exam, no earlier than eight weeks before. Ahpra told the Australian Senate in 2024 that dates were offered about 8 weeks after the fee and the proof of entry.

Do not book your flight or your stay until you hold the confirmation letter. Then check that your visa's dates cover the date given. If they do not, email the IQNM Exams Team at least five full business days before the date and ask to move to a later sitting, with no new fee (If it goes wrong, below). If your visa runs out before that sitting, ask Home Affairs whether you need a new visa, and ask the IQNM Exams Team whether you keep your place in the order. If the date given falls after your 180 days from paying the OSCE fee (Stage 8), email the IQNM Exams Team the same day and ask whether your file stays open.

You are done when you hold Ahpra's confirmation letter with your date.

If it goes wrong. If you cannot go, withdraw at least five full business days before your date by emailing the IQNM Exams Team: you move to a later sitting with no new fee. If you do not tell Ahpra, you fail the exam and lose the fee. A nurse in 2026 held her visa but could not get leave from work until months later: ask for your leave the day your date comes.

Next. Your NMCN certificate to Ahpra (Stage 10), as soon as your date is confirmed.

The board's page, Ahpra's handbook and Home Affairs' visitor pages were updated on 10 October 2026.

Stage 10. Your NMCN certificate to Ahpra

Your OSCE date is confirmed. Now ask the NMCN to send your certificate of good standing to Ahpra. Ahpra wants it sent by the NMCN itself, dated within three months of the day Ahpra receives your registration application (Stage 12). You apply for registration within 90 days of your OSCE result, and the result comes within eight weeks of the exam. So time this request by what the NMCN tells you (below). If you have been registered in another country in the last five years, the UK included, Ahpra wants a certificate from that regulator too: for the NMC, your CCPS (Stage 12).

Ask the NMCN first. The NMCN's verification page names no destination but the NMC (UK), and no NMCN page names Australia or Ahpra. So before you pay, email info@nmcn.gov.ng. Give your RN number, say the certificate is for Ahpra, for the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia, and ask seven things: which destination to choose on the portal; which fee applies; whether the NMCN sends it straight to COGS@ahpra.gov.au, the address Ahpra gives for certificates of good standing; whether it sends evidence of your pass in the NMCN's final qualifying examination with it, as Ahpra asks; how long it takes; whether it asks for letters of good standing from your nursing school and your last employer, and how they must be sent; and, if your certificate turns out more than three months old, whether a new one is a new paid request. Keep the reply.

Do. Apply on the NMCN's licence portal for verification of your registration and a letter of good standing to Ahpra. Since 1 September 2021 the NMCN takes verification only online, in three parts: you start with your RN or RM number and your email address, you pay by card or net banking (paying from your bank's online banking), then you fill in the form, upload your documents and submit. The NMCN's 2021 circular says you cannot apply until you have completed your Professional Update Form on the NMCN's licence portal. If the portal asks for it, complete it first.

What you need.

• An application letter stating the purpose (verification and a letter of good standing) and the destination (Ahpra, COGS@ahpra.gov.au).
• The verification form, filled in on the portal.
• A copy of your current practising licence.
• Copies of your certificates of registration.
• A copy of your birth certificate or declaration of age.
• A card or net banking to pay online.

Where. licence.nmcn.gov.ng, opens in a new tab: register with REGISTER, sign in, then Verification Services. The list of papers is on the NMCN's verification page, opens in a new tab.

Cost. For a destination other than the UK, the NMCN's verification page prints ₦66,875 for verification of certificates of registration, and ₦8,750 for a letter of good standing, paid through Remita. Pay the amount the NMCN's reply and the portal give, and keep the receipt.

Time. No NMCN page states a time. Nurses who applied for the UK in 2025 and 2026 describe a minimum of six months in the NMCN's guidelines, and some got approval within two to three weeks once a complete request was accepted. The slow part, they say, is the letters from the school and the last employer.

Time it. Ahpra takes the certificate only if it is dated within three months of receiving your registration application.

• Now: email the NMCN (above).
• If it says weeks, come back to this stage the week you get your OSCE result (Stage 11 sends you back here).
• If it says months, or gives no time, apply now, as soon as your OSCE date is confirmed.
• If the certificate is dated more than three months before you can apply, ask the NMCN for a new one.

You are done when you have submitted the application and the NMCN has emailed you about your payment and your application. Then email info@nmcn.gov.ng with your RN number and your receipt and ask the date it sent your certificate to Ahpra.

If it goes wrong. Call 0702 923 4588 or email info@nmcn.gov.ng, 8am to 4pm, Monday to Friday. The Lagos zone office in Yaba answers on 08064703003 and lagoszo@nmcn.gov.ng, the Ibadan office on 08136791857 and ibadanzo@nmcn.gov.ng, and the head office in Abuja on 08035056323 and abujazo@nmcn.gov.ng. The full list is on the NMCN's offices page, opens in a new tab. Do not use the Contact Us page on the NMCN's website: it carries placeholder text, not the NMCN's details. Keep your practising licence current while the NMCN works.

From nurses who did it. Nurses who applied to the NMCN for the UK in 2025 and 2026 put it among the two longest waits. The problems they report most are letters from the school or the last employer that are slow or missing, the wrong destination chosen, a notification of registration uploaded in place of the certificate, and a name that differs across papers. One nurse who chose the wrong foreign board in 2025 says she had to pay again. Call your school's head of department and your last head of nursing this week, and tell them the NMCN will write.

Same as the UK. This is a separate NMCN request, with its own fee. The UK request (₦17,500 or ₦21,875, the amount the portal shows, Part 1) is for the NMC only.

On the UK route. Ahpra wants a certificate from every country where you have been registered in the last five years. If your NMCN licence is current, or was at any time in the last five years, you need this certificate as well as the NMC's CCPS (Part 1).

Next. Travel and sit the OSCE (Stage 11).

The NMCN's pages were read on 7, 8, 9 and 10 October 2026; Ahpra's on 10 October 2026.

Stage 11. Travel and sit the OSCE

You hold your confirmation letter and you have emailed the NMCN (Stage 10). Now travel and sit the OSCE, the practical exam.

Do. Fly in on your visitor visa before your date. Land at least two days before your date. The exam is one day, and you may be held after it (On the day). Ask your matron for leave covering your travel there and back, the days before your exam and the exam day, counted from your confirmation letter's date. On the day, go to the place your confirmation email gives, register, and sit the exam.

Where. One of two places, both run by Ahpra: Adelaide Health Simulation, at Adelaide University in South Australia (in the Adelaide Health and Medical Sciences Building or the Helen Mayo South Building), or the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RANZCOG) in central Melbourne. Your allocation email gives the exact place.

Do not visit the centre before your day. You must not enter or contact the centre before the day of your exam; if you do, you cannot sit your allocated exam. Send every question to the IQNM Exams Team at IQNMexams@ahpra.gov.au.

Pack in your hand luggage.

• Your passport: the only photo ID taken. It must be current, in the name you gave at the Portfolio stage, and the same passport you gave Ahpra.
• Your visa grant and your confirmation letter.
• Nothing else for the exam: Ahpra supplies all equipment, including pens and stethoscopes, and water.

What to wear. No jeans or tracksuit. Bare from the elbow down. Closed, comfortable flat shoes, such as canvas shoes. No jewellery except small stud or hoop earrings, no nail polish or false nails, and long hair tied back.

On the day.

• Arrive no more than 30 minutes before the registration time on your letter. At RANZCOG, wait outside and do not press the doorbell.
• If you must check out of your accommodation that day, check out before you arrive.
• You may be held after your exam until every candidate of the day has registered.
• Family cannot come past the registration point.

What the exam is. 10 stations of 10 minutes each, two minutes to read and eight to perform, with a simulated patient or a manikin (a training dummy). The skills include observations and vital signs, drug calculations, injections, aseptic technique, resuscitation in hospital, medication, wound care, hand hygiene, communication and consent, infection control, patient identification and IV therapy. The settings are a hospital ward or emergency department, a general practice clinic, an aged care setting (a care home for elderly people) or the community. Know the ISBAR approach (Identify, Situation, Background, Assessment, Recommendation), the order Australian nurses use to hand over a patient. You are not expected to know each state's own clinical policies. Nobody coaches or prompts you during a station.

Cost. Paid in Stage 8. Your flight and your stay are your own.

Time. Results come by email within eight weeks of your exam, with your overall result and each station's mark.

You are done when your result email says you passed. If you left your NMCN request until now (Stage 10), send it this week.

Your fifth deadline starts here. From the day you receive your result you have 90 days to submit your complete registration application (Stage 12). Your OSCE pass is valid for five years, and it counts for your recency of practice for two years. Write both dates in your deadlines table (Part 4).

If it goes wrong.

• If you fail, go back to Stage 8 and pay the OSCE fee again, AUD 4,000 (about ₦3.71 million). If your visitor visa has run out, apply for a new one (Stage 9). You wait at least one exam sitting before you are given a new date, and you may re-sit only 45 days or more after the email with your result.
• Ahpra gives no feedback or recheck beyond the result.
• If something on the day affected your exam, write to the IQNM Exams Team within seven full business days of your exam date.

From nurses who did it. A nurse who passed on her first attempt in 2025 recommends practising in a hands-on lab over online classes. A nurse who made a mistake in one station in 2026 still passed. Practise every skill above with your hands, under exam conditions, before you travel.

Same as the UK. The UK's OSCE is also 10 stations, but a different exam with its own fee. Neither counts for the other.

On the UK route. You do not sit the OSCE.

Next. Apply for registration (Stage 12), within 90 days of your result.

Ahpra's OSCE handbook and the board's OSCE pages were updated on 10 October 2026.

Stage 12. Apply for registration

You have passed the OSCE. Now apply to the board for registration. The board invites you through your IQNM dashboard, where the application form appears.

Step 1. Get your international criminal history check

Do. Order an international criminal history check (ICHC) from an Ahpra-approved company: AIS International or Fit2Work. Ahpra asks for one from every applicant who has lived outside Australia for six months or more continuously as an adult, and that includes your years in Nigeria. You need it before you submit your application.

Where. Ahpra's International criminal history checks, opens in a new tab page links both companies. AIS International prints its prices on Check the pricing for your country, opens in a new tab.

Cost. AIS International: AUD 146 (about ₦135,000) for Nigeria, before Australian GST (Australia's sales tax). Ask Fit2Work for its price for Nigeria before you choose.

Time. No price page states a time for Nigeria. A nurse trained in Nigeria said in 2026 that her AIS check was slow at the Nigerian end. Order it the week you get your OSCE result.

You are done when the company gives you your ICHC reference page and check reference number. You give both in your application.

If it goes wrong. The check is valid for three months from the day it is issued. If your application slips past that, order a new one.

Step 2. Send your registration application

Do. Complete the registration form in your IQNM dashboard, upload your papers, declare your criminal history, and pay.

Where. Your IQNM dashboard. The board explains it on Applying for registration, opens in a new tab and Registration application stages, opens in a new tab.

What you upload.

• Your qualification papers, certified.
• Certified evidence of any change of name, and certified proof of identity.
• A certified Statement of Service from your employers covering the past five years (Stage 1).
• Your English result (Stage 5).
• Your ICHC reference page and number (Step 1).

What the regulators send for you.

• A certificate of good standing from the NMCN, sent straight to Ahpra (Stage 10), dated within three months.
• If you have been registered in another country in the last five years, the UK included, a certificate from that regulator too. For the NMC, request your CCPS in MyNMC once you have applied to Ahpra; it is valid for three months (Part 1).
• Evidence that you sat and passed the exam that led to your registration in Nigeria.

What you declare. Your whole criminal history from every country, including any spent or old conviction. The board's criminal history standard in effect from 15 July 2026 says not every applicant with a criminal history is refused. Ahpra also runs an Australian check on every applicant, paid by your application fee.

Cost. The application fee, AUD 346 (about ₦321,000), which is not refunded, and the registration fee for general registration, AUD 201 (about ₦187,000), or AUD 193 (about ₦179,000) if you will work mainly in New South Wales. Ahpra refunds the registration fee if your application is refused or withdrawn. See Paying from Nigeria, before Stage 3.

Time. Ahpra aims to finish its assessment within four to six weeks of having every paper; when the board or its delegate must decide, about eight to ten weeks. It does not start until every paper has arrived. To know where your application is, contact Ahpra.

You are done when the board registers you, or, because you live abroad and cannot meet the local identity check, Ahpra sends you a letter of in principle approval of registration.

If it goes wrong. If the board proposes to refuse you or to register you with conditions, you can make a submission to it within 30 days. If it then refuses, you can appeal within 28 days of the decision; for an applicant living outside Australia the tribunal (the body that hears appeals against the board's decisions) is in New South Wales. Giving a false or misleading paper is grounds for refusal.

What you hold at the end. Registration lets you practise anywhere in Australia. It runs to 31 May each year, and you renew it every year.

Same as the UK. The NMC also wants your police record and your English, but takes your Nigerian Police Character Certificate. Ahpra wants this check from AIS International or Fit2Work instead.

On the UK route. This is your next stage after the Portfolio. Ahpra also wants a certificate from the NMC: request your CCPS in MyNMC once you have applied to Ahpra, and it is valid for three months (Part 1). You need an ICHC for each country where you have lived six months or more continuously as an adult, the UK included.

Next. Get a job in Australia (Stage 13). Start applying the week Ahpra confirms you.

The board's and Ahpra's registration pages were updated on 10 October 2026.

Stage 13. Get a job in Australia

You are registered, or you hold Ahpra's in principle approval. Now get a job with an employer that will sponsor your visa. Your work visa comes from the job: the employer nominates you, and only then can Home Affairs grant you the visa.

Where nurses from abroad are hired.

• NSW Health recruits most of its staff within Australia, and experienced registered nurses from overseas in some areas, mostly rural and remote places and mental health. It takes a nurse registered with the board and holding a visa that allows work, and you usually need at least 24 months of nursing experience for a public hospital job with sponsorship. Apply through NSW Health Careers or a nursing agency. Its page is Internationally qualified nurses and midwives, opens in a new tab.
• Queensland Health says it is hiring nurses from overseas, can help with the visa, and usually sponsors the subclass 482, 186 and 494 visas. Its page is Visas and migrating to Queensland, opens in a new tab.
• SA Health sponsors the visa of international applicants who meet its criteria, for registered nurses who hold or can get Ahpra registration. Apply online with a cover letter of no more than two pages and your CV. Its page is International applicant guidelines, opens in a new tab.
• WA Health negotiates sponsorship only with experienced nurses applying for posts in areas of critical shortage. Its order: get registered, apply for a job, then negotiate sponsorship with the hospital that offers it. Its page is Nurses and Midwives: WA Employment Requirements, opens in a new tab.
• Victoria has nursing jobs in more than 80 public health services and 180 public aged care homes. Applications go straight to each employer, through its own careers page and the Health jobs list. Victoria expects most overseas health workers to come on an employer-sponsored subclass 482 visa. Its page is Working as a nurse or midwife, opens in a new tab.

Do. Apply to every one of these that fits your experience, regional and rural services and aged care included, each on its own careers page. For each post, ask whether it sponsors the subclass 482 visa.

What you need. Your registration (or Ahpra's in principle approval), your CV covering your full work and education history for at least the last five years, and references on your employers' letterheads. Keep your service letters: NSW Health sets your pay by your years of experience after qualifying, up to the eighth year, from evidence your past employers give.

The pay. Queensland Health pays a registered nurse at Grade 5, pay point 1 (the step on the pay scale, set by your years of experience), AUD 87,790 a year (about ₦81.5 million) from 1 April 2026, rising to AUD 112,607 (about ₦104.5 million) at pay point 7, and pays up to 12.75% of your salary into your superannuation, your retirement fund. NSW pays a first-year registered nurse AUD 1,566.70 a week from 1 July 2026, about AUD 81,700 a year. For the visa, your employer must pay you at least AUD 79,423 a year (about ₦73.7 million) and the market rate for the job.

What the employer does. It must be an approved sponsor, and for most posts it must have advertised the job in Australia for at least four weeks in the four months before it nominates you. It pays its own sponsorship and nomination fees and a levy, and it cannot pass any of them to you.

Cost. Nothing. In Australia it is illegal for a person to pay an employer to sponsor them for a visa, including by a deduction from your pay. The employer must pay all its recruitment costs, agents included, and cannot charge them to you or your family.

Time. No official page states how long a job search takes. SA Health puts the time from its offer to your first day at about 6 to 12 months.

Before you accept.

• Ask in writing whether the employer pays your visa fee, your move and your health insurance for the visa (Stage 14, Step 3), or arranges the insurance for you. Queensland Health may help with flights, short stay, moving your belongings, visa costs and your first registration costs, and puts what it agrees in your offer letter.
• Read any repayment rule. At Queensland Health, if you leave within 12 months, you repay all of the relocation help before 6 months, two thirds between 6 and 9 months, and one third between 9 and 12 months.
• A NSW Health offer to a nurse who is not a permanent resident is temporary, until the date on her visa.
• Confirm the offer with the employer yourself, through the email or phone number on its own website, not the one in the message, and ask it in writing whether it is an approved sponsor.

You are done when the employer gives you an offer in writing, and then submits its nomination for you and gives you the nomination's Transaction Reference Number (TRN).

If it goes wrong. If anyone asks you to pay for a job, a nomination or a sponsorship, stop and pay nothing. If no employer sponsors you, take the points visa as well (Stage 14, Step 5).

From nurses who did it. Nurses who registered from abroad in 2025 and 2026 say registration did not bring a job: some were still looking for a sponsor while abroad. The Australian nurses' union reported in October 2026 that many nurses from abroad start again at entry-level grades, and studies place many in aged care. So apply widely, regional services and aged care included, from the week you are registered.

Same as the UK. In the UK you apply for nurse posts as soon as you pass the CBT. In Australia you apply once you are registered.

On the UK route. The same. You apply as a nurse registered in Australia.

Next. Your work visa (Stage 14).

The state health services' pages and Home Affairs' sponsor pages were updated on 10 October 2026.

Stage 14. Your work visa

You hold a job offer in writing, and your employer has submitted its nomination. Now get the subclass 482 visa, the Skills in Demand visa, Core Skills stream. It lets you work in Australia for your sponsor, in the job you were nominated for, for up to 4 years, and your family can come with you. It asks for at least 1 year of work experience as a nurse, and has no age limit. Do your health examination first: Home Affairs says to do it before you apply.

Step 1. Your health examination

Do. Use Home Affairs' My Health Declarations service, which lets you do your health examinations before you apply for the visa, to get your HAP ID, the reference for your examinations. Then book with a panel physician in Nigeria on Home Affairs' list, quoting your HAP ID.

Where. Home Affairs' panel physicians in Nigeria, on its list of offices and locations, opens in a new tab:

• IOM Migration Health Assessment Centre, Lagos: No 1 Isaac John Street, Ikeja GRA; +234 (0) 201 465 6600; iomlagosmedicalbooking@iom.int.
• IOM Migration Health Assessment Centre, Abuja: No. 55 Hassan Musa Katsina Road, Asokoro; iomabujamedicalbooking@iom.int.
• The Consultants Practice: 25 Raymond Njoku Street, Ikoyi, Lagos; +234 706 585 9845.
• Medbury Medical Services: Admiralty Way, Lekki, Lagos; bookings@medburytravelclinic.com.
• Cerulean Health Consulting Services: 2A Akin Adekomaya Close, Maryland, Ikeja, Lagos; info@ceruleanhealth.ng.
• Upper North Junction Hospital and Maternity: Trans Ekulu, Enugu; +234 (0) 915 706 9119.

What the examination is. Nigeria counts as a country with a high risk of TB. As a nurse you need a medical examination, a chest X-ray, a kidney blood test (eGFR), an HIV test, hepatitis B and C tests, and, as a health worker from a country with a higher risk of TB, a test for latent TB.

What you need. Your passport, the original (no photocopy), and your HAP ID with your Health Examination List letter or referral letter. Bring your glasses or contact lenses, any specialist reports, and any earlier chest X-rays.

Cost. You pay the clinic. No official page states the cost: ask the clinic when you book.

You are done when the clinic has sent your results. They are generally valid for 12 months.

Step 2. Your police certificate

Do. Apply on Police Services, the Nigeria Police Force's portal, for the Police Character Certificate. Create your account with your National Identification Number (NIN) or your BVN, apply, and give your fingerprints. Download and print the certificate once it is signed.

Where. Police Services, possap.gov.ng, opens in a new tab. The Police Force describes the service on its Police Character Certificate page, opens in a new tab.

Where you give your fingerprints. The two official pages differ. The Police Force's page says your biometric capture is at your designated police station. Home Affairs' entry for Nigeria says fingerprints are taken at the Central Criminal Registry, Alagbon Close, Ikoyi, Lagos. Go where Police Services sends you when you apply.

What you need.

• Your valid National Identity Card (a NIN slip is accepted for now).
• Your valid international passport and its data page.
• Two recent passport photographs on a white background, 35 by 45 mm.
• Your birth certificate or statutory declaration of age.
• Your employer's or sponsor's letter, for an application for a job.
• Evidence that you paid the fee.

Cost. A fee, paid on Police Services. Keep the receipt.

Time. 5 to 7 working days from when your documents are complete, or 2 to 3 working days by the express service, at extra cost.

Which countries. A certificate from every country where you have spent 12 months or more in total in the last 10 years since you turned 16. Each is valid for 12 months from the day it is issued. If your sponsor is an accredited sponsor (an employer Home Affairs has given that status; ask your employer whether it holds it), you need no certificate from a country other than Australia when you attach your sponsor's reference confirming your good character.

You are done when you have downloaded and printed your certificate.

Step 3. Apply for the visa

Do. Apply online with your employer's nomination TRN, and attach your papers. Include your family in the same application: you cannot add them after you submit it.

Where. Home Affairs' Skills in Demand visa (subclass 482) Core Skills stream, opens in a new tab page.

What you need.

• Your employer's nomination TRN.
• Your valid passport.
• Your registration with the board.
• Your CV with your full work and education history for at least the last five years, and references on your employers' letterheads.
• Your English result (Stage 5).
• Your health examination done (Step 1) and your police certificates (Step 2).
• Evidence of adequate health insurance for you and your family for your whole stay. You are personally liable for your healthcare costs in Australia. Home Affairs' guide to adequate health insurance, opens in a new tab asks for hospital, medical, pharmacy and ambulance cover, and allows waiting periods of no more than 12 months for a condition you already have and 2 months for other treatment. Buy a policy that meets it before you apply.
• For your partner: your marriage certificate, or enough papers to prove a de facto relationship (living together as a couple without marriage). For a child: the birth certificate.
• A translation of any paper not in English, with the translator's name, address, phone number, qualifications and experience. You need not have any paper certified for the visa.

Biometrics. Home Affairs tells you if you must give biometrics. Its Australian Biometrics Collection Centres in Nigeria, run by VFS Global, are in Lagos and Abuja. Book an appointment, take the passport linked to your application, and pay the centre's service fee.

Cost. AUD 4,015 (about ₦3.73 million) for you and for each family member aged 18 or over, and AUD 1,005 (about ₦933,000) for each child under 18, paid to Home Affairs. Home Affairs does not refund it if it refuses you. Your health examination, police certificate, biometrics and English test cost extra. The nomination fee, AUD 330, is your employer's. See Paying from Nigeria, before Stage 3.

Time. Home Affairs' processing tool, updated 29 September 2026, for the 482 Core Skills stream: a quarter of recent decisions within 51 days, half within 4 months, three quarters within 8 months, and nine in ten within 9 months. Since 19 September 2026 visa applications in healthcare are first in Home Affairs' order, inside or outside Australia. Older reports of a 12-month wait for nurses abroad describe the order before that date.

You are done when Home Affairs tells you in writing that it has granted your visa. Do not arrange your travel before that.

If it goes wrong. If Home Affairs asks for more, answer the same week. One applicant reported in 2025 being asked four times for more proof of a marriage, so put strong evidence of your relationship in from the start.

Step 4. Your visa's rules

• You work only in the job you were nominated for, and only for your sponsor.
• You start work within 90 days of entering Australia.
• You keep adequate health insurance for your whole stay.
• If your job ends, you have up to 180 days to find a new sponsor or leave Australia.
• After 2 years of full-time work on this visa within 3 years, your employer can nominate you for permanent residence (subclass 186, Temporary Residence Transition stream: AUD 6,140, about ₦5.7 million; half of recent decisions within 21 months). You must be under 45 when you apply, unless you earned at least the Fair Work High Income Threshold in each of the 2 years.

Step 5. The points visa, if no employer sponsors you

A permanent visa needs no employer if you have the points. Run it beside your job search.

Do.

1. Have your skills assessed by ANMAC. As a nurse registered with the board you take its Modified skills assessment.
2. Count your points on Home Affairs' points table. Then submit an expression of interest (your profile in SkillSelect, saying you want to be invited) in SkillSelect, Home Affairs' online system, and wait for an invitation.
3. Apply for the visa you are invited to.

The visas.

• Subclass 189, Skilled Independent. Permanent, with no sponsor. You must be under 45 when invited, with at least competent English and a skills assessment from the 3 years before the invitation. Home Affairs invites no one under 65 points; in its round of 4 June 2026 it invited registered nurses at 75 or 80 points. AUD 6,135 (about ₦5.69 million). Half of recent decisions within 61 days.
• Subclass 190, Skilled Nominated. Permanent, with a state's nomination. Each state sets its own criteria. NSW, for example, takes a person living offshore continuously for six months and assesses its nomination within about six weeks. AUD 6,140 (about ₦5.7 million).
• Subclass 491, Skilled Work Regional. Five years in a designated regional area (Home Affairs lists which places count), with a state's nomination or a family sponsor, then permanent residence after 3 years. From AUD 6,140.

The points. For age: 25 from 18 to 24, 30 from 25 to 32, 25 from 33 to 39, 15 from 40 to 44. For English: 0 for competent, 10 for proficient, 20 for superior. For work outside Australia: 5 for 3 to 4 years, 10 for 5 to 7 years, 15 for 8 years. For a bachelor's degree of a recognised standard: 15. For a single applicant: 10. If you are married: 10 for your partner's skills, 5 for your partner's competent English. Check on Home Affairs' points table which test scores count as proficient and superior, what counts for your partner, and, if you hold a diploma, what it gives, before you pay ANMAC.

ANMAC. Its Modified skills assessment is AUD 395 (about ₦367,000), for a nurse registered in Australia, with a wait of 6 to 8 weeks for the assessment to start. It needs no English test. ANMAC takes only Visa or MasterCard. ANMAC has announced new names and fees with no date; until it says they apply, use the current assessment.

Where. ANMAC's fees, opens in a new tab page, Home Affairs' Skilled Independent visa (subclass 189), opens in a new tab page, its Invitation rounds, opens in a new tab, and NSW's Skilled Nominated visa (subclass 190), opens in a new tab page.

From nurses who did it. A nurse's family in 2026 says they were invited for subclass 189, 190 and 186 at once, and took the 189.

Same as the UK. The Australian visa asks for the same Police Character Certificate from Police Services. The UK's TB test does not serve here: Australia's examination is its own, even at the same clinics (IOM in Lagos and Abuja, and The Consultants Practice in Ikoyi, are on both lists).

On the UK route. The same, with a police certificate from the UK too if you have spent 12 months or more there in the last 10 years. You still need the Nigerian certificate. Home Affairs' entry for Nigeria says an applicant outside Nigeria is given a form for her fingerprints, which is scanned and sent back to Nigeria, and advises getting the certificate on a visit home. Police Services takes an application from the diaspora with proof that you live abroad, paid in dollars or your host country's currency, the exact amount the portal shows. If you hold ANMAC's Full skills assessment (Part 1), you can submit your expression of interest before the board registers you.

Next. Travel and start work (Stage 15).

Home Affairs' visa, health, police, biometrics and points pages, ANMAC's pages and the Police Force's page were read on 8, 9 and 10 October 2026.

Stage 15. Travel and start work

Your visa is granted. Now fly, land and start with your employer.

Pack in your hand luggage.

• Your passport, the one linked to your visa.
• Your visa grant letter.
• Your registration details from Ahpra, and your offer letter.
• Your health insurance details.

When. You must start work within 90 days of entering Australia.

If you hold in principle approval. Ahpra sent it because you could not meet its local identity check from abroad. Before you travel, write to the IQNM Exams Team at IQNMexams@ahpra.gov.au, ask it to pass your question on: what you must show in Australia to complete your registration before your first shift. Keep the reply.

Money. Keep money for your first weeks: your first rent and bond (a deposit the landlord holds and returns, like a caution fee; Stage 16) come before your first pay.

You are done when you have landed and started with your employer.

If it goes wrong. If your start date moves, agree the new date with your employer in writing, inside your 90 days.

From nurses who did it. A nurse trained in Nigeria who registered in 2026 says she plans to bring her family once she holds permanent residence.

Next. Your first weeks in Australia (Stage 16).

Home Affairs' pages and Ahpra's pages were updated on 10 October 2026.

Stage 16. Your first weeks in Australia

You are working as a nurse in Australia. Now set up five things in your first weeks and check your first pay slip.

Do.

• Open a bank account. Go to a bank branch, ask for an everyday (transaction) account with no fees, and show your passport. Your wages are paid into it.
• Get your tax file number (TFN) from the Australian Taxation Office (ATO), and give it to your employer so that tax is taken from your pay correctly. Ask your employer's payroll team on your first day how and when to apply.
• Check your first pay slip. It shows what you earned, the tax paid and the money paid into your super fund. The super belongs to you.
• Complete Orientation Part 2 in your Ahpra account within 6 months of your registration. It takes about 2 to 3 hours. Without it, you may be unable to renew your registration.
• Keep your registration current. Renew it by 31 May each year, complete 20 hours of continuing professional development (training for your work: courses and study) each registration year (fewer in your first year, in proportion to the months left before 31 May), and practise only with professional indemnity insurance (cover if a patient makes a claim against you), through your employer or your own.

Renting in New South Wales. A landlord may ask a holding fee of no more than one week's rent, and only once your application is approved; a bond (the deposit the landlord holds and returns) of no more than 4 weeks' rent; and rent in advance of no more than 2 weeks. You must not be charged any other cost to search for, apply for or start a tenancy. Keep every receipt. NSW Fair Trading answers on 13 32 20. Other states set their own rules; ask your employer.

Health cover. On the 482 you keep the health insurance the visa asks for, for your whole stay. Whether a 482 holder can also join Medicare, Australia's public health scheme, is for Services Australia to answer: ask it.

Cost. Ask the bank for an account with no fees.

You are done when your first pay slip shows your pay, your tax and your super, and Orientation Part 2 is complete.

If it goes wrong. If your pay slip shows a lower pay point than your offer, write to payroll the same week with your service letters.

From nurses who did it. The Australian nurses' union journal reported in July 2026 that nurses could afford very few of the homes listed for rent. Nurses from abroad interviewed in its October 2026 issue describe a good welcome and induction, and later barriers to promotion. Ask your employer, in writing before you travel, what housing it offers for your first weeks.

Same as the UK. Nothing carries over: Australia's tax file number, super and Orientation Part 2 are its own, as the National Insurance number is the UK's.

What comes later. After two years of full-time work with your sponsor, your employer can nominate you for permanent residence through subclass 186 (Stage 14, Step 4). Permanent residents can enrol in Medicare.

The Moneysmart, NSW Government, board and Home Affairs pages in this chapter were updated on 10 October 2026.

Part 4. What can stop you

These are the problems nurses actually meet, in the order they meet them, and what you do about each.

Your deadlines

Write each date down the day it arrives.

What stops nurses, in order

A diploma, not a degree. A qualification below bachelor level is likely to be Stream C. Read "If you hold a diploma, not a degree" (Part 1) before you pay anything.

A Self-check typed wrong. Type your first qualification exactly as printed, answer the licensing-exam questions, and add any post-basic or later degree. What you submit cannot be changed without contacting Ahpra (Stage 2).

"Not yet assessed" read as a refusal. It is not. Pay the fee and let Ahpra assess your qualification at the Portfolio stage (Stage 2). If your qualification is a diploma, not a degree, ask the IQNM Exams Team at IQNMexams@ahpra.gov.au in writing first whether it is likely to be assessed as Stream C: the AUD 410 is not refunded.

A clock that closes your file. Orientation Part 1 in 90 days; the NCLEX-RN in 180 days from the MCQ stage; the OSCE fee in 120 days; the OSCE in 180 days from paying; registration in 90 days from the result. Write each date the day it starts. If a file closes, ask the IQNM Exams Team at IQNMexams@ahpra.gov.au whether it can be reopened, before you start again.

An ATT that runs out. Ask for your seat the day your ATT arrives: a first seat is offered 30 days after you ask (Stage 7).

The trip to Nairobi. Plan it when your Portfolio is in, not when your ATT arrives. Your passport must be valid and your names must match your Pearson account (Stage 7).

A visitor visa refused. Few Nigerian nurses have reported getting past this step yet. Ahpra refunds the OSCE fee on evidence of the refusal. Build your file with your ties at home and your money, and ask Home Affairs which stream to use before you apply (Stage 9).

The OSCE failed. Another AUD 4,000, at least one sitting's wait, and at least 45 days after your result (Stage 11; then Stages 8 and 9 again). Keep money for a re-sit from the day you pay the first fee.

The NMCN certificate too slow or too old. Ahpra takes it only dated within three months of your application, and sent by the NMCN itself. Ask the NMCN first how long it takes, and time your request by its answer (Stage 10).

Registration without a job. Nurses registered from abroad in 2025 and 2026 report months with no sponsor. Apply widely from the week you are registered, regional services and aged care included, and run the points visa beside it (Stages 13 and 14).

Paying for a job. It is illegal in Australia to pay an employer to sponsor you. Pay nothing to anyone for a job or a nomination (Stage 13).

The cost. Put the whole money table (Part 7) against your savings before you pay the assessment fee, with two trips and a possible OSCE re-sit. No official page states the cost of the two trips: price the flights and the nights (Stages 7 and 11 give how many) with your travel agent before you open your account. You can do Stage 1 and save for as long as you need: no Ahpra clock runs until you open your account (Stage 2). From then the clocks follow one another: Orientation Part 1 within 90 days, the NCLEX-RN within 180 days of the MCQ stage, the OSCE fee within 120 days of your file reaching the OSCE stage. So before you open your account, have the money for Stages 3 to 7 in hand (if you hold a diploma, see Part 1 first): about ₦1.15 million in fees (the assessment fee, IELTS and the NCLEX-RN) and the Nairobi trip. Then have the OSCE fee, about ₦3.71 million, ready within 120 days of your NCLEX-RN pass. Counting each wait at its stated length, the OSCE fee becomes payable about 4 months after Ahpra tells you to continue to the MCQ (4 weeks for Ahpra's confirmation, a seat 30 days after you ask, and your result within six weeks), and must be paid at the latest about 11 months after it (180 days, six weeks, then 120 days). If you cannot save ₦3.71 million in that time, keep saving at Stage 1, where no clock runs. By Stage 8 you will have paid about ₦4.86 million in fees; by Stage 12, about ₦5.81 million.

On the UK route. A UK PIN in mental health, children's or learning disabilities nursing does not meet the board's shorter route: it asks for adult nursing. A primary qualification dated before 1 January 2017 does not either. Nurses report one UK mental health nurse told by Ahpra in 2025 that she must sit the OSCE.

Part 5. If you already did some of this

Start at the first stage you have not finished.

You hold a diploma and no degree. Start at Stage 1, and follow the order in Part 1 ("If you hold a diploma, not a degree"). Take the Self-check (Stage 2) only in a week when you could pay the AUD 410. If it gives Stream C, stop and pay nothing.

Your papers are in one folder and certified. Start at Stage 2.

You have your stream. Start at Stage 3 the same week, because your 90 days for Orientation Part 1 have started.

You have finished Orientation Part 1. Start at Stage 4.

Ahpra has told you to continue to the MCQ. Start at Stage 6. Your 180 days have started.

You have an IELTS or OET result. Check it against the board's scores (Stage 5), and check its date: it must be obtained within the two years before you submit your registration application, after your OSCE. If it was for the UK, check OET especially: the board asks more in reading, writing and speaking.

You have passed the NCLEX-RN within the last 10 years. Upload the evidence at your Portfolio (Stage 4), and you do not sit it again.

You have passed the UK CBT. It does not count for Australia. If you are on the UK route, see "Which to take" in Part 1.

You have passed the NCLEX-RN for Australia. Start at Stage 8, within 120 days of your file reaching the OSCE stage.

You hold Ahpra's OSCE letter. Start at Stage 9.

You hold your visitor visa. Send it to Ahpra (Stage 9, Step 2), and ask the NMCN how long its certificate takes (Stage 10).

You have passed the OSCE. Start at Stage 12. You have 90 days from your result.

You are registered with the board. Start at Stage 13, and look at the points visa (Stage 14, Step 5).

You hold a UK PIN. Read "Through the UK, if you hold a UK PIN" and "Which to take" in Part 1. If you meet the four criteria, start at Stage 2 and enter your UK registration in the Self-check, ask the IQNM Exams Team whether the assessment fee applies (Stage 3), then Stage 4, then Stage 12, where you also need the NMC's CCPS. Keep your UK payslips and hours. If you do not yet meet the four, you have two choices ("Which to take", Part 1): From Nigeria now, or the UK first. On From Nigeria, start at Stage 1. Before the Self-check, ask the IQNM Exams Team whether you enter your NMC registration (Stage 2, Type it right). On the UK first, go to the UK guide's job stage, and come back to Stage 1 here once you have worked 1,800 hours. What you did for the UK that serves here: your papers folder (certified again in person, Stage 1), and your English result if it meets the board's scores and dates (Stage 5). What does not: your CBT, your UK OSCE, your UK TB test, and your NMCN verification to the NMC (a new one goes to Ahpra, Stage 10). You will also need the NMC's CCPS at Stage 12. Keeping your NMC registration costs £143 a year (about ₦251,000), paid in MyNMC by card; the NMC's certificate at Stage 12 and the UK route both rest on it, so let it lapse only after you have chosen. If you take From Nigeria, keep it current until Ahpra has your CCPS (Stage 12). If your NMC registration has lapsed or will lapse, ask the NMC whether it issues a CCPS for a lapsed registration before you let it go.

You are registered in New Zealand. You apply to Ahpra under the Trans-Tasman Mutual Recognition Act, with a current New Zealand practising certificate, and skip Stages 2 to 12 (Part 1). Then start at Stage 13.

You hold a job offer in writing. Start your health examination (Stage 14, Step 1) once you have your HAP ID, and your police certificate (Step 2).

Your work visa is granted. Start at Stage 15. Start work within 90 days of entering Australia.

Part 6. The time, stage by stage

• Stage 1, your papers: not stated; certification is done in person.
• Stage 2, the Self-check: your stream shows when you finish.
• Stage 3, Orientation Part 1: about an hour, within 90 days of the day you opened your account and finished the Self-check.
• Stage 4, your Portfolio: not stated on any board page; about three weeks on average for Stream B decisions in 2023, as Ahpra told the Senate.
• Stage 5, your English: results in 1 to 5 days for IELTS on computer; about 6 days for OET on computer and 12 on paper.
• Stage 6, the NCLEX registration: Pearson's acknowledgement within two days; Ahpra's confirmation within 4 weeks; the ATT valid 90 days.
• Stage 7, the NCLEX-RN: a first seat offered 30 days after you ask; your result within six weeks.
• Stage 8, the OSCE fee: Ahpra's letter within four weeks of your payment.
• Stage 9, your visitor visa and date: half of Tourist stream decisions within 21 days and nine in ten within 33 days; your visa sent to Ahpra at least three months before the exam period; the confirmation letter no earlier than eight weeks before.
• Stage 10, your NMCN certificate: not stated on any NMCN page; nurses describe a six-month minimum in the NMCN's guidelines.
• Stage 11, the OSCE: results within eight weeks.
• Stage 12, registration: your ICHC with no stated time; Ahpra's assessment in four to six weeks once complete, about eight to ten where the board must decide.
• Stage 13, the job: not stated; SA Health puts its offer to your first day at about 6 to 12 months.
• Stage 14, your work visa: half of recent decisions within 4 months and nine in ten within 9 months; the police certificate in 5 to 7 working days (2 to 3 by express).
• Stage 15, travel: start work within 90 days of entering Australia.
• Stage 16, your first weeks: Orientation Part 2 within 6 months of your registration.

The whole journey: the board says the registration process with exams typically takes 9 to 12 months, longer if an exam must be re-sat. No official page states the time for the job. On the UK route, the board says registration takes 1 to 6 months.

Part 7. The money, all of it

Every fee in the order you meet it, for you alone on From Nigeria. For paying from Nigeria, see the paragraph before Stage 3.

Paid by stage, at today's NCLEX-RN fee: before you open your account (Stage 2), have about ₦1.15 million for Stages 3 to 7 (the assessment fee, IELTS and the NCLEX-RN), and the Nairobi trip. By Stage 8, about ₦4.86 million; by Stage 12, about ₦5.81 million (Part 4, The cost). Counting each wait at its stated length, the OSCE fee becomes payable about 4 months after Ahpra tells you to continue to the MCQ (4 weeks for Ahpra's confirmation, a seat 30 days after you ask, and your result within six weeks), and must be paid at the latest about 11 months after it (180 days, six weeks, then 120 days). If you cannot save ₦3.71 million in that time, keep saving at Stage 1, where no clock runs.

The total leaves out the change of name, your certified copies, your flights to Nairobi and to Australia and your stay in each, your health examination, your police certificate, your biometrics, your health insurance, your flight to start work, and your first rent and bond.

Before any job. From Nigeria asks about ₦5.81 million in fees of you before any job. With one OSCE re-sit, AUD 4,000 (about ₦3.71 million), it is about ₦9.52 million. Your two trips come on top.

Only if you need them. An NCLEX-RN retake, USD 350 again (USD 500 from 1 February 2027); an OSCE re-sit, AUD 4,000; an IQNM initial assessment review, AUD 300 (about ₦278,000); a late renewal of registration, AUD 50 (about ₦46,000); ANMAC's Modified skills assessment for the points visa, AUD 395 (about ₦367,000); a subclass 189 visa, AUD 6,135 (about ₦5.69 million), or a subclass 190 visa, AUD 6,140 (about ₦5.7 million).

For each family member on the 482. AUD 4,015 (about ₦3.73 million) for a family member aged 18 or over, AUD 1,005 (about ₦933,000) for a child under 18, a health examination each, a police certificate for each aged 16 or over, and health insurance for each.

On the UK route

There is no NCLEX-RN, no OSCE, no visitor visa and no trip before the job. The Australian fees come to AUD 4,708 (about ₦4.37 million): the application and registration fees (AUD 547), the AIS check for Nigeria (AUD 146) and the 482 visa (AUD 4,015). On top, if they apply to you: AUD 410 (about ₦380,000) if Ahpra charges the IQNM assessment fee on this route (ask Ahpra, Stage 3); ₦66,875 and ₦8,750 to the NMCN if your NMCN licence is current, or was at any time in the last five years; and a criminal history check for the UK, at the price AIS International or Fit2Work gives you. The NMC's page states no fee for its CCPS.

Never yours to pay: your employer's sponsorship and nomination fees and its levy, and its recruitment costs. No employer may pass them to you, and no one may charge you for a sponsorship.

Naira figures are at the rates of record of 7 October 2026: ₦928 to the Australian dollar (a cross rate from the Central Bank of Nigeria's dollar rate and the Reserve Bank of Australia's), ₦1,331 to the US dollar (the Central Bank of Nigeria's central rate), ₦1,757 to the pound and ₦748 to the New Zealand dollar, rounded.