Nurses and Midwives - WA Employment Requirements

To work as a nurse or midwife you need to be registered with the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia (external site). The Nursing and Midwifery Office cannot advise you in regard to your eligibility or application for registration. For queries related to registration as a nurse or midwife please see Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia (external site).

See English language skills for registration standards (external site) for registration with the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia.

Further information is available from the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia's FAQs and fact sheets (external site).

Visit the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia's forms (external site) to find out the process for students of Australian academic institutions who are completing their studies and who have never been registered or practiced as a health practitioner in Australia or overseas.

You can check your registration status via the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency’s Register of Practitioners (external site).

More information on the WA Health’s Belong incentives for Interstate relocations can be found here (PDF 1.5MB).

Nurses or midwives who are currently registered in New Zealand are eligible to apply for registration under the Application for Trans Tasman Mutual Recognition as a Registered Nurse, Enrolled Nurse or Midwife (external site).

Nurses and midwives who qualified as a nurse or midwife overseas and are not currently registered in Australia or New Zealand should review all of the information available at the Nursing and Midwifery Board’s internationally qualified nurses and midwives webpage (external site).

See English language skills for registration standards (external site).

Acceptance for skilled migration by the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Accreditation Council (ANMAC) does not guarantee that you will gain registration with the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia.

Application for general registration (graduated or trained overseas) as a Registered Nurse, Enrolled Nurse or Midwife - AGOS-04 (external site)

WA Health does not advise any overseas nurse or midwife to make any major life decisions, such as resigning from current job, selling property, or moving to Western Australia without confirmation of their registration with Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia (external site) and a firm job offer.

More information on WA Health’s Belong incentives can be found here. Please also visit the Belong website for further details.

Before starting work with WA Health, all potential employees need to pass a criminal record clearance and those who will work in an area that cares for children (under the age of 18) will also need to pass a Working with Children Check (external site). Potential employees will be provided information on how to do this when offers of employment are made by the individual health services.

We welcome the diversity and wealth of experience that overseas applicants bring to our hospitals and health services.

There are a number of visa options available to nurses and midwives entering WA.

WA Health is able to assist with sponsorship for temporary or permanent visas. However, please note sponsorship is currently only negotiated with experienced nurses and midwives applying for positions in areas of critical shortage. The State Nominated Migration Program criteria and the Western Australian skilled migration occupation list can be found here (external site).

To apply for sponsorship, you must do the following:

1. Get registered as a Registered Nurse or Midwife with the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia (external site)
2. Apply for a job (once eligibility for registration is established)
3. When successful in being offered a job – negotiate sponsorship with the employing hospital/health service.

Enrolled nurses are generally not eligible for sponsorship with WA Health. Enrolled nurses are paid under the minimum salary set by the Department of Home Affairs
as a requirement for sponsorship.

Overseas registered nurses and midwives can view the range of non-sponsored visa options available to them, including Working Holiday Visas at Department of Home Affairs (external site). However, WA Health encourages all overseas nurses and midwives to follow the steps above, even if not applying for a sponsored visa.

We are unable to assist with sponsorship for a visa for nurses or midwives to complete bridging courses, English language testing or any other training or education based in WA.