UK → Australia · Any grade

Work in Australia as a UK-trained doctor: the Competent Authority Pathway

Not a consultant. Not trying to be one — yet. You just want to be working in an Australian hospital next year. This is the route most UK doctors actually take: no exams, no college, general registration on the strength of your UK training. Here's how it works — and the one step that nearly derailed the person who built this site.

Beta · Last reviewed July 2026

The short version

The UK is a "competent authority" — Australia trusts GMC-registered training. That means a UK-trained doctor with full GMC registration can get Australian provisional registration without sitting any exam, work a supervised year at their grade and pay, and convert to general registration. The job comes first, the paperwork follows it, and the whole thing runs on one unforgiving bottleneck: primary source verification through ECFMG — start it the day you decide, not when someone tells you to.

Who this is for

F3s and SHOs wanting a year (or a life) in Australian hospitals. Registrars mid-decision about where to train — this route lets you work first and choose later. Even pre-CCT doctors in a specialty like rehab medicine using it as the front door before college training. It is not specialist recognition: consultants moving as consultants want the specialty pathway guides instead.

Step by step

  1. Get the job first

    Australian hospitals recruit UK juniors directly — RMO and registrar campaigns typically open mid-year for the following clinical year (which starts in February). The job drives everything downstream: registration is tied to a position, and the employer usually sponsors the visa. Applications are ordinary job applications — CV, interview over video — not a national ranking.

  2. Start ECFMG verification the same week — seriously

    Ahpra requires primary source verification of your medical degree via an ECFMG EPIC portfolio, and it is the slowest, least controllable step in the whole process. It can take weeks to months, nothing else can finish without it, and no one in the chain — employer, agency, Ahpra — will chase it for you. This is the step that catches more people than any other. Start it before you're told to.

  3. Apply to Ahpra for provisional registration

    Full GMC registration, verified qualifications, certificate of good standing, English evidence (UK training generally satisfies it), criminal history checks, and your job details. Ahpra processing has real queues — apply as early as your employer's timeline allows, and budget several months.

  4. Visa — employer-sponsored, usually the 482

    Your hospital nominates you; you pay the applicant charge (~$3,210, plus dependants). The visa can't finalise until other pieces line up, which is why a late ECFMG start compresses everything into a terrifying final fortnight. Cost it properly with the move calculator.

  5. Land, work your supervised year

    Twelve months of supervised practice at your actual grade and full Australian pay — supervision is reporting, not someone shadowing you. Complete it and provisional converts to general registration: yours independently of any employer.

  6. Then choose

    Stay and enter an Australian training program. Go home with savings and perspective. Or — as many do — realise the year was the audition for the life. All three doors stay open; that optionality is this pathway's whole appeal.

How it actually went — the timeline behind this site

Mar 2025

Dan (UK rehab registrar) applies for an Adelaide job.

Late Mar–Apr

Offer lands — the same weeks UK Round 1 training offers came out. Australia wins.

Mid 2025

Told to hold off the Ahpra and visa applications until later in the year. Reasonable advice — except nobody said "but start ECFMG now."

Late 2025

The missed ECFMG step surfaces. Everything that was comfortably sequential becomes frantically parallel.

Departure

Visa granted the day before the flight to Australia, via Hong Kong.

2026

Working as a rehab registrar in Adelaide. Built this page so you skip the frantic part.

Costs and timeline

ItemIndicative figure
ECFMG EPIC verification~$450–900 AUD equivalent
Ahpra application (provisional)~$800–1,100 AUD — verify current schedule
Visa (482), medicals, police checks, flightsSee the move calculator
Job application → starting work~6–10 months if verification starts early

Fees change every year — verify against Ahpra and ECFMG before budgeting. Many hospitals reimburse some costs; always ask.

Watch-outs

Before you commit

  • The ECFMG trap. Every other step has someone nudging you. This one doesn't, everything depends on it, and it's the single most common cause of the last-minute panic. Day one, not month six.
  • General registration ≠ specialist recognition. You'll work at your grade, not as a consultant, and your UK training time doesn't automatically convert into Australian training time. That's a feature at this stage — you're buying optionality, not a shortcut.
  • The training number question. Leaving mid-programme in the UK has re-entry consequences, and UK applications rose sharply in recent rounds. If you're mid-training, that trade-off deserves its own page — finish or fly?
  • Timing the clinical year. Australia's year starts in February; recruitment runs mid-year before. Miss the window and you're waiting, not blocked.

What would you actually earn? Australian registrar pay — with penalty rates and salary packaging — routinely surprises UK doctors. Run your numbers.

Get the Competent Authority checklist

Every step above as an ordered, dated to-do list — built so the ECFMG step can't ambush you. Emailed as a PDF. Plus:

Free. We never sell or share your details. Built by doctors — no recruiter or agency money.

Sources & verification — checked against the following on 4 July 2026: Plus the lived timeline above. This is general information, not immigration, legal or career advice — verify against the primary sources, and take proper migration advice for the visa.