Optometry Council of Australia and New Zealand (OCANZ)

If you intend to apply for migration to Australia under one of the General Skilled Migration categories, you must have a nominated occupation which is on the Skilled Occupations List at the time you apply. In order to make a valid application, you must have obtained a skills assessment from the relevant assessing authority for your nominated occupation.

Australian Immigration Visa Assessment For Optometrists

OCANZ is the assessing authority for the following occupation:

Optometrists.

Only persons registered with an Australian Optometrists' Registration Board or the Board in New Zealand are permitted to practise optometry in Australia or New Zealand.

Graduates of accredited Australian and New Zealand schools of optometry are qualified for registration in all the States and Territories of Australia and in New Zealand without further assessment.

Persons holding a qualification in optometry obtained from an institution outside Australia and New Zealand are required to pass the Competency in Optometry Examination before making application for registration. The reason for this requirement is that the Registration Boards do not have the resources to accredit schools of optometry other than those in Australia and New Zealand.

The Competency in Optometry Examination is conducted under the auspices of the Optometry Council, a body established by the Australian and New Zealand Boards of Registration.

Candidates who successfully complete the Competency in Optometry Examination will be issued with a certificate. The certificate is accepted by all Registration Boards in Australia and New Zealand as evidence that an entry-level standard of competence in optometry has been met but does not automatically confer a right to be registered.

The final decision to register a person rests with the registration board in the jurisdiction in which the candidate wishes to practise optometry. A registration board may have additional prerequisites for registration such as evidence that the candidate has registration as an optometrist in another country and is of good character.

Australian Immigration Visa Assessment For Optometrists

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