How to be an Australian Registered Nurse

Hi everyone! It's been such a long time since I've posted anything on my blog. If you look through my post from 2 years back, I wrote about my pathway to being an Aussie RN. This write-up is similar only with add-ons from my personal experience.

In 2014, I decided to fly here to Australia and like most of you who are reading this now, I was completely clueless. Fast forward to 2017, I am now an Aussie RN working in beautiful tropical Cairns (where the Great Barrier Reef is at) in Northern Queensland. I'm on a Permanent Resident visa too. Here is my Journey and the How-To's.

First... To be an Aussie RN, you have to do either a Bridging course or a conversion course. A bridging course is a quick 3 month course to train you on Australian nursing standards. This will cost you anywhere between 11,000 AUD to 16,000 AUD. This is the common pathway for those who have at least a year's(? experience). Now if you don't have any experience at all, you can do the Conversion course which will take you about a year. It's almost the same as the bridging course but you will need to do more homework and unpaid work experience (duties). I'm not sure how much it costs but from asking friends, they say fees go somewhere between 20,000AUD to 28,000 AUD. If you're stressing out about the Conversion Course's tuition fees, don't fret because since you'll be staying longer, you'll likely get a student visa that allows you to work 20 hours a week. You can work as a Assistant In Nursing or AIN in a nursing agency and early $20?/ hour or any work so long as you don't go over your hours (immigration might flag you down if you do). Either/Or, the end result is you become an qualified RN.

Now for the paper bits... you will need 1) to be a Philippine Registered nurse/ NLE board passer (you will need to request proof of this from PRC later when filing) , 2) pass the IELTS/ proof of english skills, 3) proof of employment (for those doing the bridging course) and 4) ready all the police checks in the Philippines (NBI) and police checks for any country you have worked at in the past (Saudi, from what I've heard, takes a while to process police clearances so organise this early), birth certificates, marriage certs etc.

Once you get all the documents sorted, you check AHPRA's website for foreign nurses' , they will have a checklist for you to do a tick and flick. The gists of it is you apply for an "eligibility letter" from AHPRA (Australia's nursing PRC equivalent). AHPRA will only handout the eligibility letter to those who qualify for it (read above and AHPRA checklist). Think of this letter as like a clearance slip. The whole process will take you 6 months as AHPRA will have to check and verify your documents. Once you do have this letter, you can now start looking for a university of college that offers your course (Eg Bridging/conversion program). The university will ask for you eligibility letter to ascertain that you are fit for the program as the bridging and conversion courses are only offered to those who have done their Bachelors in Nursing (RN BSN). Once you've chosen a university and have paid the deposit, they will give you your enrolment/ acceptance to uni letter. You will need this to show to the Australian Immigration for Visa Application. I'm not sure about show money requirements and if you do need them (I think you would though, probably 500k to 1 mil pesos?) just to show that you do have means to support yourself while you're studying here.

When you've enrolled for the bridging course, they will likely issue you a visitor visa (I can't remember what kind of visa, i will get back to you guys on that). The visitor visa will only cover the length of time your course would take you and you won't have work rights (no part time work). If you've applied for the Conversion Course, you will likely get a student visa that will cover you for the length of your studies and it will come with 20 hours per week work rights. You will undergo a medical checkup first before they approve your visa.

Once you have you visa, have flown to Australia and have done your course, here is the next few steps... Your goal is to get a better visa that allows you full work rights. The top aim is to get a Permanent Resident Visa or a second choice is a work visa. if you've done a bridging visa, you have 2 options. Your clock starts ticking the minute you enter Australia. When you've finished your bridging course, you can either fly back home to the Philippines to apply your permanent resident visa (PLEASE check if you qualify for a PR visa early on. You can check at the Australian immigration website. It's usually a visa 189 or a visa 190) or you can extend your visa by taking up another business/ management course (immigration will issue you a new student visa that covers the length of your new course). Use this extension to file your PR visa on Australian shores; you can still work part time while doing your second course/ study.

To apply for a Permanent Residency Visa, you will need your 1) Australian RN registration/ License (You will have this after finishing the bridging/ conversion course)  and 2) ANMAC certification (you will send copies of all the documents you have submitted to AHPRA for the eligibility letter). The registration usually takes 2-4weeks after graduation. You will then use this along with your other documents to apply for ANMAC certification. ANMAC takes roughly 3 months to press (on shore/ if you apply it in Australian soil). Once you have your ANMAC letter, you can then apply for PR visa (Refer to Australian Immigration website to see what visa you qualify for). The visa process takes 1-3 months if processed on shore. The PR visa will cost you around 4,500 AUD (?. Please refer to Australian Immigration website for this).

Now if you don't have the time or money to do the above, you can try seeking employers who are willing to sponsor you. Not all employers are qualified to sponsor overseas nurses. Working visa is often a visa 457. This will take roughly 2-6 weeks  to process. This gives you full work rights but will limit you to only working for the sponsoring employer (no sideline jobs/ extras). This will cost you around 1,500 AUD. The working visa is a good way to buy you time (rather than taking up a course and spending $500 every month on tuition) while working on your PR documents and processing.

I know it all sounds overwhelming and expensive but working in Australia has been very rewarding for me. I find that Australia values their workforce and would avoid overworking employees. The pay very well too! Overall, the expense would be 12,000 AUD for tuition, 1,000 for tickets, 200/week on rent/food/transportation and around 2,000 for a work visa or 5000 for a permanent resident visa. I spent roughly 20,000 AUD to get to where I am now but don't fret, you will earn it all in 1-2 years as nurses earn an average of 60,000/year or 45,000 annually when tax is deducted. If you're very frugal with how you spend your money, you can rent a room while you're working (200/week with food and bus ticketsX52 weeks in a year=10,400) . If you do the math, your take home pay in a year would be 45,000-10,400=34,600 AUD per year or 1.2M pesos/ year.

*This is a blog to share my personal experience. Its my way of helping fellow filipino nurses find their way around Australian Visas and Australian nursing pathways. This is only a rough sketch to give you guys an idea. I have not proof-read this as its 330am.. my brain is slowly logging off. I hope this will help someone out there some how. I will likely not go online for another year or so so please, if someone (a fellow Aussie RN?) has something to add , write down on the comment section below for our fellow kabayans to read. Mabuhay!

How to be an Australian registered nurse-- the FAST way (personal experience)

How it all started...
Unlike most people, I didn't take nursing to go abroad. It was suppose to be my pre-medicine course. As you've guessed, I didn't pursue the latter due to conflict of interest. I wanted to travel and medicine wouldn't let me until I was old and grey. (LOL)


So after 4 years of getting my nurse license, I opted to go aboard to work instead. I've considered US, Canada, UK and Aus. I called up my friends living overseas and asked them how they're fairing. Those in the US were pretty stressed and the UK ones said it's difficult to save up there since the cost of living is almost equal to your pay cheque. That leaves me with Canada and Australia (New Zealand is pretty far from home and isolated so I skipped out on that one). I chose Australia instead as it's nearer to home and plane tickets are cheap. PLUS... Australia ranked as on of the best places to settle down/ migrate in the recent 2012 and 2013 surveys.


Which leads me here.... Processing my papers and stuff. I started thinking about of working abroad around June 2013 and got serious early August 2013. The only way to work in Australia (and New Zealand) is to take their bridging course. The bridging course (A.K.A ARNTP or IRON programs) is a 2.5-4.5 month course that orients you to Australian nurse policies and laws. From the word itself, it Bridges the gap between practices in your country and theirs.




The whole process looks like this....


You (Philippine RN)---> Australia's Bridging program--->You (registered/qualified Aus RN)

and this takes only a few months instead of several years :)

What you'll need:

1. IELTS (no score below 7 out of 9) and must not be expired.
2. Min. 2 years nurse work experience-- recent (hospital experience preferred for this blog)
3. Money (prepare approx. 1 million pesos). Don't worry, ave. wage for RN there is 200k/mo
4. Passport (make sure it's not expired)
5. All necessary paper works (NBI, NSO, PRC etc)

The Process begins:

• IELTS:

First order of business-- IELTS or the International English Language Testing System. For Australia, you're required to take the Academic IELTS and score no lower than a 7 on all exams (perfect is 9). I took the exam late September 2013 and managed to pass on all score (Yey me!). Remember, the IELTS has an validity period of 2 years. Make sure yours is not expired or at least have a 6 month allowance for processing time. If you get your IELTS, process your papers right away.
*Read my article about My IELTS experience. Tips and insights included :)

• Do it solo or by Agency?

Once I got past the IELTS, I had 2 options... get an agency or do it myself. One thing you should know about me is that I'm too scared to do stuff on my own. If I process it by myself, there's a good chance I'll be going to Australia on my own since I have to find my university on my own.
Lucky for me, I bumped into a friend who's planning to study in Australia too AND she knows an agency that knows a fast track course... FWES or Friendly World Education Services ( Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/robert.morris.589583?fref=ts)  has brought many nurses like me abroad (I know a couple of these people). They're not a recruitment agency, they're an agency that helps you get in one of the top university in Australia-- UniSA or University of South Australia.


You're probably asking me... WHY BOTHER with an agency? here's the deal... If you do the whole process manually/ solo, you will need to go to APHRA (PRC equivalent in Aus). The whole process takes about 4-6 months then you'll start to look for a university, this takes about 2 months.. The manual process takes around 6- 8 months sometimes more if you don't know what you're doing.


Personally, I would recommend FWES because they scan and check your documents for you before you process them and they also prod you to fix your papers regularly so you won't laze around. The BEST reason to trust them is that they let you in to UniSA (University of South Australia) super fast due to them being recognised agents. UniSA, being a top university, allows you to take their bridging course even if you don't have your APHRA papers yet. Of course, you still need the APHRA certificate but you won't have to wait for it in the Philippines. This saves you 6-8 months already. You can start your course WHILE your APHRA is being processed. UniSA will only take in students they know will pass the APHRA requirements. In short, UniSA will pre-approve you. If they know you'll pass APHRA requirements, they'll let you start.

FWES charges around Php 25,000 for evaluation and document assistance as well as VISA application. You'll only need to pay p5,000 first then the rest (php 20,000) is payable when you get your visa. They also have an optional package. For an additional p25,000 , they can help you find your student lodging and get you a part time work in an aged care facility while you're studying (you can probably earn 200 AUD/week). Not bad; It can help you pay your rent. Again, this is optional. I'm thinking of availing it now :)

• Paper works for UniSA:

Since I've signed up for <The agency> (and studying in UniSA), I have to submit supporting documents to UniSA. These are documents you should submit to APHRA (as mentioned, they pre-screen you if you'll pass APHRA).

1. Certificate of Employment (CoE)
• Should have hospital letter head
• indicate year started and if full-time or part time
• how many hours per week ave (40hrs/week for full time)
• what department
• > you can request this from the HR department. They usually know what to do :)
2. College Diploma
3. CV (resume only very detailed)
• Personal Information: name, gender, birth date, marital status, nationality, religion
• Qualifications Obtained: elementary- college, passed PRC, passed IELTS
• qualifying examinations: IELTS, NLE etc
• clinical/ procedural skills: certificates eg BLS etc. not really needed
• work history: must coincide with CoE
• Duties and responsibilities: Job description (should come with your CoE)
• seminars/ trainings attended:
• registration history (PRC)
• reference: 2-4 is good. include position/institution/city/ contact no.
4. Passport: front page copy
5. RN Rating: request from PRC
6. RN certificate: Request from PRC

**I sent this to FWES for reviewing. Once my documents cleared, they submitted it to UniSA. UniSA's reply to me took about 1 month and 1 week. They sent me a Offer of Admission.

• Enrolling for the class:

The whole fee is around 15,950 AUD I think plus mandatory student insurance of around 350 AUD. I paid approx. 16,300 AUD for it. You can pay via telegraphic transfer or credit card. We opted to pay via TT instead. My friend paid through Banco De Oro. BDO doesn't transfer via AUD currency so they had to covert Php to USD. I don't recommend you try BDO though because the value fluctuates daily. She ended up paying extra since the conversion fell short of the tuition fee. I recommend you try Bank of the Philippine Islands. They convert your Php to AUD so the university gets the exact amount due. Do note that banks charge additional p600-1500 (I forgot how much exactly) for service fee and legal documentation. The whole process takes about an hour. Don't forget to bring your Letter of Offer as the payment details are printed on it.


Once you have the deposit slip and other sheets of paper, scan and send the copy to UniSA (address is attached to their Letter of Offer). They'll reply in 3-4 days with your Confirmation of Enrollment.

• VISA

If you check their website, www.immi.gov.au , they have a number of visa for every applicant. It can get overwhelming and confusing. FWES recommended that I apply for the Streamlined (fastest visa) student non award 575. Unlike other visas that take 2-3 months processing, this one takes only 2 weeks to process. You just need any of the following...

1. NSO live birth
2. NBI/ police clearance
3. Certificate of employment
4. passport
5. ID with photo
6. Diploma
7. *Most Important.... Confirmation of Enrollment.

>>> NO SHOW MONEY needed :)
I applied online. It's faster that way. all you need is to register to their account and type in your Confirmation of Enrollement code. I had a slight problem with this because the site didn't recognize my code. Turns out, the site won't work on Mac. I opened it on Windows and it worked (Yipee!). Submitting the requirements takes an hour. The site's really easy to navigate.


Student Visa 575 costs around p23,100. Don't forget to ATTACH supporting documents on the last page of the site and ARRANGE your medical checkup.

• Medical Checkup

The medical's pretty easy to arrange. There are several clinics certified by Australia immigration. They have one in Salcedo Makati, Cebu and Davao. If Cebu and Davao clinics are booked, you can fly to Manila. The only people there are the staff. Just call them in advance.


For the medical checkup, you'll need the following:

1. 4pcs passport size photos
2. 2pcs carbon copies of your passport (front page)
3. p5,650 to cover the medical test (chest x-ray, blood extraction, urine test and visual acuity).

It's a good idea to bring extra cash. my friend and I were asked to pay extra for a crea test. They said it's SOP if they found anything in the urine.


**Results of the tests are directly forwarded to the embassy. This means, you can't get a copy of the results no matter how much you badger the staff (yes, I saw someone do this while I had my test.)

• UPDATED! 

I got my visa super fast! just over a week! So I'm here in Australia now. I came here March 22 which is autumn season. It's cold and I love it! Everything's so neat and clean... and the people are really nice and friendly (no bad encounters/ racial discrimination at all!). We got set up in Modbury which is around 20 mins away from the city. This might sound far but it's really not since the bus stop is right in front of the building and it drops you off almost at the front of UniSA. There's no traffic which is such a relief.

• UniSA

UniSA is a beautiful school. I have nothing bad to say about it. I've studied in one of the best universities in the Philippines but nothing even compares. And there are a number of Asians too so you'll feel just at home (hehe :) )

It's been really busy lately. We've started school on April 1. School's challenging but very rewarding and informative. At first, i wasn't expecting to actually work hard at it but UniSA expects a lot from their students. Just come here already! it's really nice :)

I'll try to update this blog when I have the time. it's so difficult to write and do the chores and study at the same time. :)

How to tell an Authentic LV Neverfull Ebene from a replica or copy

***This article is solely dedicated to help LV enthusiasts and newbies to identify authentic LV neverfull ebene from a replica so knock yourselves out ;)

A few decades ago, replica merchandise was so badly made that it was a joke to own one. Times have greatly changed though. Now, even seasoned veterans take double, triple and even multiple looks to determine the bag's authenticity. China really did its homework copying authentic wares.

Whether you're buying a brand new authentic LV, a used one or a copy, this might be able to help you choose the right one for you and your budget. So here goes! :)

1)  Photo of LV neverfull (side view). Can you tell which is authentic? 

The authentic is on the left side. The authentic LV always pays close attention to patter details. They avoid cutting and/or ruining the pattern hence the perfect square pattern at the sides. 

Now... that wasn't so hard was it? :)

2) Photo of the zipper and logo. Can you tell which is authentic?

The authentic one is the upper photo. Notice the sides of the zipper is dark brown in color while the fake one is red. Also the lettering on the inner pocket is imprinted finely with a metallic paint. Do note that it doens't always have to say made in France. Some authentic bags are made in the US. 

3) **Just a quick note. The serial number at the back of the inner pocket is not a guarantee of authenticity. Most replicas have serial numbers now. I won't provide a picture since it's not really relevant.

4) Photo of the leather and gold hardware that holds the drawstring in place. Can you tell which is authentic of the three?

The top photo is the authentic. The middle one is a really good copy while the bottom is a common/ not  a close copy.

The key giveaway is the indentation around the triangle leather. Most replicas tend to skip out on this minor detail.  Also notice the shape of the leather. The authentic Neverfull has a smooth rounded tip while copies are either too sharp or too rounded.

5) Photo of the drawstring stitches. Can you tell which is authentic?

The top photo is the authentic LV. The other two at the bottom are copies.

The genuine LV neverfull has its drawstring stitched in place (to anchor itself to the gold metal hardware) instead of locked in place with a gold rivet (?)- refer to middle photo. The bottom most photo is a very good replica.

6) Shade, Material and hardware.....

Honestly, I can't provide you with photos for this. The shade just varies a lot especially with various color settings on the computer screen. I do notice that fake bags are made with almost the same material as the original though. The PVC material used are fireproof (doesn't discolor even with direct contact with fire) and the gold doesn't tarnish or blacken if you light it up with a lighter. Again... amazing for a replica bag!

Here are just a few things I personally notice in both authentic and replica LV Neverfull ebene bags. Honestly, I found the whole ordeal of telling which from which very daunting and exhausting. There just aren't enough articles and photos online to help thrifty Louis Vuitton shoppers find the best photo for comparison. 

-----------CONCLUSION:------------

Here's my take on the whole LV thing....

While I've personally never owned a replica of anything, I have no qualms with people purchasing them. If you spot a very good LV replica that's a fraction of the original price, why not right? (okay, let's be honest with ourselves--- We love a good bargain). 

The Neverfull retails about  Php35,000 abroad while Philippine LV stores retails it for Php 44,000+ (due to tax). A very good copy like the one mentioned above is sold online for around Php 4,000-Php6,000. The bad copy I've posted for comparison a while back is from Greenhills, San Juan. Stalls sell them for p1,350 (they originally gave it at p4,500. TIP: ALWAYS haggle when in Greenhills because in the Philippines, EVERYTHING is negotiable ;) )

Do comment, like or share if you have ideas, photos and stories! I'd love to hear your stories too! :D