Moving to Australia from Ireland: a guide for OTs, speech and language therapists and physios

Written by Callum Trevorrow. Last checked 28 October 2026 against official sources.

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Irish citizens can apply for a Working Holiday visa (subclass 417) at 18 to 35, and health, disability and aged care work is currently exempt from the usual six-month limit with one employer, so a working holiday doesn’t need a sponsor. You’ll still need Ahpra registration (OTs and physios) or an SPA assessment (SLTs) before you start work. The thing that catches Irish clinicians out is health cover: Ireland’s reciprocal agreement covers public hospital care and some PBS medicines only, with no GP rebates and no Medicare card. Plan your Revenue position in the year you leave and your PRSI record as well; both are easier to sort before you go.

Your route by profession

This page covers the move. Your professional route depends on what you do:

• OTs: straight to Ahpra registration via the Comparable Regulator Pathway. A CORU-approved OT qualification completed from 2015 is treated as substantially equivalent, so you apply for general registration with no portfolio: A$250 to apply plus A$138 for registration (A$130 in NSW). Ask the Board whether its one-on-one orientation and cultural safety training apply to you. Qualified before 2015? You go through an A$688 portfolio assessment, and a “relevant” outcome means six months of supervised practice on limited registration. Irish OT guide. Check your OT route
• Speech and language therapists: SPA mutual recognition as a full IASLT member, not Ahpra. Speech Pathology Australia assesses you through its MRA (A$825, up to seven weeks). You need an IASLT letter of good standing, issued after one full calendar year as a full member and renewal into a second year with no break, plus 1,000 hours of practice in the past five years. SPA strongly discourages travelling to work before your assessment is complete. Irish SLT guide. Check your SLT route
• Physios: Express FLYR, then Ahpra. If you’ve held unrestricted registration in the past five years, the Australian Physiotherapy Council’s Express FLYR route is an eligibility check and a 6-hour cultural safety course: A$1,742 (A$1,500 plus A$242), about three weeks. Then you apply to the Physiotherapy Board through Ahpra: A$452 plus A$220 for registration (A$200 in NSW), from 1 October 2026. Physiotherapy hub. Check your physio route

Should you keep your CORU registration?

CORU registration is renewed every year (currently €100), and not paying can lead to removal from the Register. CORU doesn’t say whether you must keep it while you work abroad, so I won’t tell you either way, but think it through:

• OTs: the OT Board’s pathway rests on your CORU-approved qualification, and its page doesn’t say you need current CORU registration.
• SLTs: IASLT full membership requires CORU registration, and your MRA letter needs unbroken membership. If you haven’t got your letter yet, a lapse could cost you time.
• Coming home later: ask CORU what restoring registration involves before you let it go.

The working holiday visa

General information only. A registered migration agent should confirm your options, and the official rules are on Home Affairs.

• Age: 18 to 35. Older guides still say 30; the limit went up because Ireland agreed to the increase. From 1 July 2026 your age is assessed when you lodge, so lodge by 11:59 pm AEST the day before your 36th birthday.
• The six-month rule: working holiday makers usually can’t work more than six months for one employer. Work in health, aged care and disability services is exempt, “until the Government makes further decisions”. If your role is in a private clinic, confirm it falls within those sectors.
• You’d be in good company: in the second half of 2024, Home Affairs granted 5,993 first working holiday visas and 6,129 second ones to Irish citizens.

If you’d rather come sponsored: the Skills in Demand (482) visa needs at least one year of relevant experience and a salary of at least A$79,423 (from 1 July 2026). Irish passport holders are exempt from the 482 English test. A migration agent can tell you whether a working holiday first, then sponsorship, suits you better.

Tax: leaving Revenue’s net, and joining the ATO’s

General information only. Talk to a tax adviser who handles both countries.

On the Irish side:

• Residence: Revenue treats you as resident for a tax year if you’re in Ireland for 183 days or more in that year, or 280 days or more across that year and the previous one combined. If you’re in Ireland for 30 days or fewer in a tax year, you’re not resident for that year. Any part of a day counts as a day.
• Split-year treatment: if you’re resident in the year you leave and not resident the next, your Irish employment income up to departure is taxed normally (generally with the full year’s credits), and employment income you earn abroad after you leave is ignored for Irish tax. It applies to employment income only.
• Before you go: update your contact details in myAccount, and make sure your employer ceases your employment with Revenue (or do it yourself in myAccount). Non-residents still pay Irish tax on Irish-source income, such as rent from a house you keep.

On the Australian side: the ATO’s longstanding view is that working holiday makers are foreign residents for tax, which changes how you’re taxed. That can change if your circumstances change, for example if you apply for a permanent visa. Read the ATO’s working holiday residency page before you budget.

PRSI, pensions and super

• The social security agreement: Australia and Ireland have one (the current agreement since 1 January 2006). Your Irish PRSI periods can count as Australian residence for Age Pension eligibility, and Australian working-life residence can count as Irish insurance periods. Combining periods helps you qualify; it doesn’t raise the amount. Many people end up with a pension from each country.
• The Irish side: to use Australian periods towards an Irish contributory pension, you need at least 52 Irish contributions paid or credited, and the Irish pension is then pro-rated.
• The Australian side: pensions paid under an agreement are proportional to your working-life residence in Australia, with the full rate at 35 years (so 20 years earns 20/35ths). Income and assets tests still apply.
• Super: your employer pays superannuation on top of your salary, at 12% of ordinary time earnings. If you’re a temporary resident and later leave, you can claim it back (less tax) as a Departing Australia Superannuation Payment, but only after you’ve left and your visa has ended.

This is general information. If you’re more than a few years into your career, check your PRSI record before you leave.

Health cover, driving and pets

Health cover: to use Ireland’s reciprocal agreement you must have been living in Ireland before you arrived, and you show your Irish passport. It covers medically necessary care as a public patient in a public hospital, and some PBS medicines, from arrival until your visa expires. It doesn’t cover GP visits or other out-of-hospital care, so budget for private health insurance.

Ambulance: Medicare doesn’t cover ambulance services in any case, and Queensland Ambulance Service says there are no reciprocal arrangements for ambulance services with overseas visitors. Its page doesn’t say how temporary residents living in Queensland are treated, so ask QAS directly and check your policy includes ambulance.

Driving: Ireland is a Queensland “recognised country”, so an Irish car or motorcycle licence (held now or in the last five years, not a learner licence) transfers with no road rules or driving test. On a temporary visa you can drive on your valid Irish licence, and the Queensland Government page sets no time limit. If you later get a permanent (resident) visa, you need a Queensland licence after three months of living in Queensland.

Pets: Ireland is a Group 3 country. Cats and dogs need an import permit, a rabies vaccination and a rabies antibody blood test, and can’t fly until at least 180 days after the blood sample reaches the lab. They then spend 30 days at the Mickleham quarantine facility in Victoria (10 days if an official government vet verified their identity before the blood test), at A$53 a day, so start with the Department of Agriculture’s step-by-step guides.

Pay: HSE vs Queensland Health

Converted at the RBA rate of €0.6286 to A$1 on 27 October 2026:

• OTs: the table above is the HSE OT scale (staff grade and senior), so compare it directly.
• SLTs: Queensland Health employs speech pathologists at HP3 and senior speech pathologists at HP4, the same ranges as above. I haven’t been able to confirm the HSE SLT scale from the HSE’s own document yet, so check your grade line there before you compare.
• Physios: across Australia, the median for full-time physios is A$1,710 a week before tax (Jobs and Skills Australia, May 2023 data). Queensland Health uses the same HP stream for physios, so check the HSE scales and Queensland Health’s wage rates page for your grade.

Gross pay isn’t the whole picture: tax, super, health insurance and rent all differ. The OT salary comparison has a worked take-home example.

The honest downsides

• Distance. Home is a long-haul trip, and that shapes everything else.
• Health cover costs money that the reciprocal agreement doesn’t cover.
• Pay depends on grade and setting. Private practice sets its own rates.
• A working holiday is temporary. Staying long term means meeting another visa’s criteria, which Home Affairs decides.

Where I come in

I run a multi-site paediatric allied health practice in South East Queensland, and several of our clinicians came to us from overseas. I’ve walked overseas clinicians through working holiday and Skills in Demand visas alongside registered migration agents. Whatever the setting, ask any employer what your supervision will look like in your first months, and get a specific answer.

Your next step

• OTs: check the year your CORU-approved degree was completed. 2015 or later and you’re on the simpler route; earlier means a portfolio.
• SLTs: check when your IASLT full membership started and that it’s unbroken, because that sets the earliest date you can get your MRA letter.
• Physios: check you’ve held unrestricted registration in the past five years, which Express FLYR needs.
• Everyone: check your age against the 36th-birthday cut-off if you want a working holiday visa.

The pathway check asks those questions and tells you whether you’re ready to book a call with me or have something to sort first. We stay in touch after you start.