ANMAC and AHPRA: the two bodies behind a nursing move to Australia

If you are a nurse or midwife trained outside Australia, two different bodies sit between you and a job here. They are easy to mix up, and they do different jobs. ANMAC checks your skills for a skilled visa. AHPRA registers you to actually work as a nurse. You need both, and one does not stand in for the other.

That is the one thing to know. ANMAC is for the visa. AHPRA is for the licence.

ANMAC is the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Accreditation Council. It is the body Home Affairs names to assess nursing and midwifery skills for skilled migration. A positive ANMAC result is what a visa case needs. It does not let you practise.

AHPRA is the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency. It handles registration to practise, on behalf of the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia. Registration is the part that lets you work on a ward. ANMAC says so plainly on its own site: a positive skills outcome does not register you to work, and registration is a separate process through AHPRA.

What they assess

ANMAC assesses nursing, midwifery, and some direct-care occupations for skilled migration. Each one maps to an ANZSCO code, and the code you pick has to match your real work history.

A few of the codes ANMAC assesses:

• Midwife (254111)
• Registered Nurse (Aged Care) (254412)
• Registered Nurse (Mental Health) (254422)
• Nurse Practitioner (254411)
• Registered Nurses nec (254499)

Most of these sit in the Midwifery and Nursing Professionals group (254), with the registered-nurse roles under the Registered Nurses unit group (2544). ANMAC keeps its own list of the codes it covers on its ANZSCO codes page, which is the page to check before you settle on a code.

A note worth keeping straight: a code being on a list, like the skilled occupation lists Home Affairs runs, is not the same thing as that occupation being in shortage. The lists open a pathway. Shortage is a separate, point-in-time read. We cover that split in our occupation pages.

What the assessment looks like

At an orienting level, ANMAC runs a documents-based check. You show that you meet set criteria: your identity, your education, your work experience, your registration history, and English. ANMAC’s own page says it does not make you sit a test; it reviews what you submit and reaches an outcome.

It also offers more than one type of assessment, sorted by your situation, including whether you are already on the path to AHPRA registration. Which one fits you, and what each one needs, is on ANMAC’s assessment process page.

We are not going to print fees, document checklists, or processing times here. Those change, and the only version worth trusting is the live one on ANMAC’s site. Read it there before you rely on it.

How overseas qualifications fit

This is where most readers of this site are standing: trained abroad, wondering whether the qualification counts.

For ANMAC, your overseas qualification is judged against Australian standards through the criteria-based check above. You bring documents that show what you studied and what you have done since.

For AHPRA, internationally qualified nurses and midwives start with a self-check that assesses the qualification, and registration runs through a defined international-practitioner pathway. The starting point is AHPRA’s information for international practitioners page.

One thing to clear up, because it trips people up: WES is a North American credential service. It is not the body that recognises a nursing qualification for Australia. For nursing and midwifery, the two that matter are ANMAC, for the visa skills check, and AHPRA, for registration. Use their pages, not a general credential service.

Which authority is yours?

The authority follows your occupation code, not the other way around. You do not pick ANMAC; your ANZSCO code does, because nursing and midwifery codes are tied to ANMAC for the skills assessment and to AHPRA for registration.

So the move is simple. Find your code and open its page. The occupation page names the assessing authority for that code, so you can see at a glance whether you are in ANMAC and AHPRA territory or somewhere else. If you are not sure which code your work history fits, our CV matcher shows the closest matches.

Information only. For advice on your own case, a registered migration agent is the right call.