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Do I Need ANMAC and AHPRA Registration? Why Both Matter for Nurse Migration

August 31, 20254 min read

If you’re a registered nurse planning to migrate to Australia, you’ve probably heard two acronyms thrown around: AHPRA and ANMAC.

🔹 AHPRA stands for the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency.

🔹 ANMAC stands for the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Accreditation Council.

They are two completely different organisations—and if you’re planning to work as a nurse and apply for a skilled independent or employer-sponsored visa, you may need registration with AHPRA and a Skills Assessment from ANMAC.

In this blog, we break down:

✅ What AHPRA and ANMAC each do

✅ When and why you need both

✅ The key visa pathways that require each one

✅ How to know which ANMAC assessment applies to you

✅ The updated English language test requirements


🏥 What is AHPRA?

AHPRA is the national regulator for health professionals in Australia. If you want to work as a nurse in Australia—whether in public or private hospitals, aged care, clinics, or community—you must be registered with AHPRA.

AHPRA registration is a mandatory professional requirement. Without AHPRA registration, you cannot work as a nurse, even if you already have a visa.


🧾 What is ANMAC?

The Australian Nursing and Midwifery Accreditation Council (ANMAC) is the skills assessing authority for migration purposes.

If you’re applying for a Skilled Independent visa (subclass 189, 190, 491) or an Employer-Sponsored visa (subclass 482, 494, 186), you will need a positive Skills Assessment from ANMAC under one of these pathways:

🔹 Full Skills Assessment

🔹 Modified Skills Assessment


🧠 Why Do I Need Both?

If you want to:

  • Work in Australia as a nurse, and

  • Apply for a skilled independent or employer-sponsored visa.

… then you’ll always need both:

  • AHPRA registration (to be employed as a nurse)

  • ANMAC Skills Assessment (to meet migration requirements as a nurse).

There is no exemption for nurses who studied or worked in English-speaking countries.


🔍 Full vs Modified ANMAC Skills Assessment

Which ANMAC pathway applies to you depends on your registration, qualification, and English test scores.

✅ Full Skills Assessment

To be eligible, you must:

  1. To qualify for a Full Skills Assessment (nursing), you need to:

    • hold a relevant nursing qualification

    • be currently or previously registered as a nurse in Canada (B.C. or Ontario), Hong Kong, Ireland, Singapore, Spain, the United Kingdom, or the United States.

  2. If your qualification is not a Bachelor of Nursing from Canada, Hong Kong, Ireland, the United Kingdom or the United States, you must have: 

    • completed a qualification that led to general nursing registration after 1 January 2017

    • successfully completed a regulatory examination process in Canada, Ireland, Singapore, Spain, the United Kingdom or the United States (where applicable), and 

    • completed a minimum of 1,800 hours of paid registered nurse work experience since 1 January 2017 in that same jurisdiction.

  3. Provide evidence of Proficient English via one of the approved tests.

    📝 Note: Even if AHPRA registration doesn’t require an English test (e.g. you have an exempt passport), ANMAC still does.

✅ Modified Skills Assessment

You’ll fall under this category if:

  • Your qualification or registration is not from a comparable country, or

  • You do not hold a Bachelor of Nursing (e.g. you have a Diploma or Master’s degree).

To apply for the Modified Skills Assessment, you must first:

  • Hold registration with AHPRA registration or the New Zealand Nursing Council (NZNC)


🧭 What Are the 6 AHPRA Pathways?

Before you apply for AHPRA registration, you must identify your correct pathway. There are six:

  1. Stream A – For nurses with a Bachelor of Nursing from a comparable country (e.g. UK, Ireland, Canada, US, Hong Kong)

  2. Stream B – For nurses who must complete the NCLEX + OSCE (Outcomes-Based Assessment)

  3. Stream C – For Diploma-qualified nurses who must complete a bridging program

  4. Pathway 1 – For nurses registered and qualified in a comparable country since 2017, with 1,800+ hours of post-registration clinical practice

  5. Pathway 2 – For nurses registered and qualified in a comparable country since 2017, with 1,800+ hours of practice

  6. New Zealand (Trans-Tasman Mutual Recognition Scheme) – For nurses who obtain registration with New Zealand and then use this registration to obtain AHPRA.


📢 Final Thoughts

To work and migrate successfully as a nurse in Australia, you need to understand how AHPRA registration and ANMAC Skills Assessment work together.

🔹 AHPRA is your key to employment as a nurse.

🔹 ANMAC is your key to migrating as a nurse.

Don’t guess your pathway or rely on hearsay. Australia’s registration and migration rules are complex, changing, and unforgiving if you make any mistakes.


✅ What You Should Do Next

🎓 Not yet registered with AHPRA?

👉 Enrol in our Nurse Registration Course at www.nurseregistration.com to get step-by-step guidance on your correct pathway.

📞 Need legal advice on your registration or migration strategy?

👉 Book a consultation with our expert legal team. We’re a trusted Australian law firm helping nurses just like you to successfully migrate.

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Rhea's passion to establish SOLVi Migration came from 20 years of working in the Australian Government, including senior roles at the Australian Immigration Department, the Immigration Minister's office and as a Director in the Department of Health. She also gained an abundance of government liaison and Australian government policy experience in other agencies.

SOLVi Migration has been founded with a vision to collaborate with Australian healthcare businesses and skilled workers who want to migrate to Australia.

Rhea Fawole

Rhea's passion to establish SOLVi Migration came from 20 years of working in the Australian Government, including senior roles at the Australian Immigration Department, the Immigration Minister's office and as a Director in the Department of Health. She also gained an abundance of government liaison and Australian government policy experience in other agencies. SOLVi Migration has been founded with a vision to collaborate with Australian healthcare businesses and skilled workers who want to migrate to Australia.

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