Canadian Nurse possibly looking into Australia!

Hello!
I was just wondering if anyone can help me out a bit. I am a registered nurse looking into working somewhere in Australia. I know it is a long process to complete all the paperwork and a lot of money to get sponsered on a long term buisness visa, but I was just wondering if it is honestly worth it!

First, i have no idea where i want to go. I know i don't want a huge city, but it has to be large enough as I am in a specialty in nursing. It doesn't have to be a place either with insane nightlife, but somewhere fun would be key!

How much rent would I be looking at per month with utilities included? I would prefer not having a roomie due to the FUN/awful shift work that we RN's have to do, but i dont know if I will be able to afford it.

If anyone can help me out, especially those in the medical profession that would be amazing. THANKS!!!

Hi,
okay I don't have answers to all your questions but I'm sure there are others that can help you out as well...

You're lucky you're in nursing... it's apparently MUCH easier to get a position here in nursing than in most other positions, I think that's true most places in the world actually as nurses are in demand EVERYWHERE! You'll likely be able to get sponsored on a 2 year 457 visa first of all, and then if your employer likes you they would sponsor you for PR after the 2 years (or sometimes before that). If you do end up going with the 457 visa, it will cost you WAY less money than if you go for PR right away and then you'd have 2 years here to decide if you want to make it permanent. (although in the end you might have to end up paying the PR expenses anyway if you do decide to stay, but your employer might be willing to cover a lot of them if you had worked there for 2 years and they wanted to keep you)

I work in a hospital in Melbourne (I'm not a nurse, I'm in research but I work with many nurses). I wouldn't recommend Melbourne if you're not into a big city but maybe somewhere like Perth? Not sure about rent in Perth (although it must be less than Melbs), but at least in my hospital, there are TONS of ads on the bulletin boards with nurses looking for housemates so if you do end up having to have a roommate one won't be hard to find. You could have a look at domain.com.au to get an idea of rental property prices for living on your own, and check out easyroommate.com.au or flatmatefinders.com.au or gumtree.com.au to compare the prices advertised for housemates.

I'm sure other people will have more advice as well... or you can check out PomsinOz.com which is a more active forum (I know you're not a Pom but that's not a big deal, they have good advice there).

Good luck!

Hiya
Just thought id give you a couple of places that might fit the description of the kind of place youre looking for.

Surfers Paradise (aka the Gold Coast) is just south of Brisbane in Queensland. its got beaches, amusement parks, etc.

Newcastle in New South Wales isn't far from Sydney, has lots of old architecture and a striking harbour. nice city on the south, industry and mining on the north. great beaches nearby and famous wine making region.

finally Wollongong (aka the Gong) is South of Sydney (and a little closer than Newcastle). quite similar to Newy generally. maybe a little smaller.

basically they all have great beaches and national parks and stuff nearby and are lovely places. indeed all places are great as long as you look at them in a positive light.