For doctors, who are looking to apply for the 189,190 or 491 visas there are specific guidelines in assessing their work experience and the allocation of points awarded.
Evidence of full registration in Australia is a favourable skills assessment, the basic requirement in being able to apply. The department of Immigration (DOHA) will accept one of the following certificates issued by the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency as evidence of full registration:
- full/unconditional/general medical registration
- conditional specialist registration. This registration allows the person to practise only in their particular speciality, with no further training or supervision requirements
Most of you may know about the ANZSCO codes and if you are claiming work experience it must be in the occupation you nominate or a closely related occupation. Normally closely related is accepted an occupation that has the same first 4 digits of ANZSCO.
Work as a medical practitioner that is undertaken by doctors as an Intern or Registrar may be counted as skilled employment for the purpose of points-tested Skilled Migration applications.
Australian work experience can also be accepted as skilled employment where the applicant is a doctor who was employed as a medical practitioner whilst the holder of conditional medical registration.
The basis for accepting this employment as skilled is that doctors undertake an extremely high level of tertiary training before commencing an internship.
However the allocation of points based upon this narrow acceptance of ‘closely related occupations’ would disadvantage medical specialists. As such for Doctors, the policy is more lenient. It states;
Under policy for the purpose of points test, a specialist’s previous work experience undertaken as a general practitioner should be recognised as skilled work experience.
If work experience completed as a general practitioner (Unit group 2531), this can be accepted under Minor Group 253. It would not be disadvantaging the specialist medical practitioners (in the five other Unit groups) in the points test.
For the purposes of claiming points the period of employment it would not just begin when you gained registration in Australia, it would be counted from the time you were first registered overseas.
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