Being a doctor or medical healthcare professional, you look through variation and diversity of job opportunities. You must not only cover the USA, Asia, Oceania, Canada, or the UK as a work option instead choose Australian life for superlative job positions. The Australian community shows a wide diversity among cultural immigrants in almost all the territories. No matter, whether you are aiming to work full-time or part-time be open to relocating and hitting jobs with a bright future. You must go to the bottom to determine how you can be part of the Australian Medical health care setting.
Lucrative options are knocking at your door to settle and practice your degree as a doctor in Australia. Many doctors find the USA the most fascinating place to settle and grow in their career and it is rightly so, as it offers one of the fabulous medical graduate training programs along with handsome ruminations. But the USA due to its tough visa policies and USMLE exam criteria to secure a residency is not a choice for many young medical graduates. For this and many other reasons, Australia can be the best relocating place with competitive salaries and easy to go work environment for international foreign medical graduates.
Australian Medical Exam, AMC for IMGs:
In Pakistan and many other under-developed countries like Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Africa, etc., medical graduates need an AMC license to practice and work in Australia.
AMC medical license exam entails two parts:
AMC part 1:
This test is written CAT MCQ type assessment to evaluate your knowledge and understanding of all the fields of medicine like internal medicine, pediatrics, surgery, psychiatry, gynecology, general practice, etc.
CAT test is based on 150 MCQs in a continuous session of almost 3.5 hours. A great plus of this test is, soon after you graduate, you can attempt AMC part I while working a house job. After clearing part I, you can immediately proceed and try part II to work as a licensed medical professional. Another way is that successful part I exam you can workplace-based assessments for one year to get into the Australian healthcare sector. This one year of workplace-based assessment will convert into a complete license.
AMC part 2:
This is the practical assessment of the doctor and is OSCE based. You are assessed on your clinical, and hands-on counseling expertise. Not only this your work ethics and code of conduct are also monitored in this test.
IMGs who want to migrate to Australia must have to clear this standard pathway to enter and stay in Australia permanently.
Fee charges for AMC exam:
All the FMGs candidates register themselves at EPIC, which is the electronic database that allows the verification of credentials of international graduates. Let me share the fee payments you have to make at the time of application in EPIC and AMC:
EPIC credential Verification charges are the US $130 to register an account while $100 for basic medical verifications. The EPIC portfolio charges are AUD 500. The AMC Part I and II exam test fees are AUD$ 2750 and AUD 3530, respectively. However, from JAN 2023, the AMC part I fee will be AUD 2920, and for part II it will be AUD 4130 respectively. Candidates applying for workplace-based assessment will pay AUD 650, while from JAN 2023, it will be raised to AUD 1000.
English language requirements for Australia:
Candidates with successful scores in both AMC exams will now fulfill the requirement of the English language test i-e OET/ILETS for a license or registration.
Venues for the exam:
All the medical graduates have to schedule their tests through a website:
https://wsr.pearsonvue.com/testtaker/signin/SignInPage/AUSTRALIANMEDIC
You can schedule or reschedule your test from this website. Unfortunately, Pakistani medical students will apply for a visa and travel to Australia to sit for the AMC exam.
AMC test Preparations 2022:
Your knowledge of medicine, particularly from the final year of medicine will help you to clear the exam. MCQs handbooks are available:
AMC Handbook of Clinical Assessment PDF Download
Some of the useful books or resources to clear the AMC exam are:
- Anthology of multiple-choice questions
- John Murtagh’s General Practice
- Good medical practice guidelines for Preventive Activities in General Practice.
You can clear your AMC exam with dedication and hard work. If you have already made up your mind to immigrate to Australia start your preparation as early as you can. Always plan your lesson and learn while in clinical rotations. Arrange or choose appropriate resources, and try to exercise where you emulate the concrete settings of the AMC Part 1 CAT MCQ Exam. Focus on your weak points like time management, understanding, and delivering.
Alley for Australian License:
The Australian government offers three pathways to specializing and accomplishing yourself as a medicine specialist, which are:
- Competent Authority Pathway: Those candidates who are foreign graduates but are not specialists can have easy access to public registration. However, specialists and general practitioners can also apply through this pathway.
- Specialist Pathway: FMGs can opt for this category if they are trained specialists in the area of their expertise and are comparable to the Australian specialist level. They can withhold a position as a specialist in Australia directly by applying to a specialist medical college.
- Standard Pathway: IMGs who are non-trained individuals or cannot apply for category A can choose this pathway. The pathway already explained in this article AMC examination or Workplace-based assessment can help you settle in Australian healthcare setups.
Another way medical graduates can enter the state of Australia is through short-term or advanced training programs. They can acquire medical specialist training from Australian institutes for 24 months or less. This process will not make you eligible for a medical license or registration for this you have to apply for a specialist pathway after the period of training.
Summary:
You can immigrate to Australia by passing the AMC examination. Foreign medical graduates find this move appealing because the Visa policies of the Australian government are easy and quick. They provide early and permanent residency to most of the candidates scoring high points that is why Australia is the preferred location for IMGs because of its high pay scales and normal to moderate workloads. You can apply through three categories of visas being a doctor, read the article to know more of the details.
