More and more of us plan to take career breaks or work abroad for a short while to bolster our CVs. Popular destination countries include Australia, the United States and the United Arab Emirates – moves like this always require a lot of thought, but make sure you include time in your planning to complete the formalities, particularly over busy periods when key people are on holiday and offices close.
Just before Christmas last year, a junior doctor contacted us in respect of his application to the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) and transfer to Melbourne for a one year contract. Time was running out for the submission of his application and he needed notarial help to complete this.
Straightforward, you might think – but the documents needed to complete this application included notarised copies of his passport, photo driving licence, GMC registration, degree certificates and transcripts. Together, we identified these quickly and discussed the timetable – factoring in possible delays over Christmas and managing his expectations. He could enjoy Christmas, having planned everything and knowing all was in hand.
Behind the list of documents lay a lot of notarial work including verifying the authenticity of his GMC registration and degree certificates. The first was easy – a simple call to the GMC followed by exchange of email; the second was much harder – as the university’s transcripts/records department could not be contacted over the Christmas break to confirm that the degree certificate had been issued by them as notaries are required to certify. All we could do was to get his written permission to the university to release this information to us (as required under the Data Protection Act 1998) and file it urgently with them as a priority for the New Year. This was all built into the timetable.
In the meantime we were in touch with AHPRA and checking their requirements as to the notarising of the copy documents to make sure that all could be dealt with in one go (avoiding potential repeat visits which can be frustrating and costly). AHPRA’s very specific requirements as to how copy documents have to be notarised mean that enormous care is needed to avoid the copy being rejected.
With all the work that could be done before Christmas prepared and lodged, and timetables and costs checked, all of us downed tools and celebrated in style. Imagine our pleasure, a couple of months later, to hear that dreams had turned into reality – the position had been confirmed, flights booked pioglitazone 30 mg. Goodbye England – and irregular working shifts week in/week out. Hello Melbourne – health and vitality, sunshine and sea.
