Hello everyone,
My question relates to my son who is 22 years of age and a current serving Police Officer for Greater Manchester Police for the past 3 years. He has shown a very keen interest on leaving the UK to pursue this career down under, either Australia or New Zealand. He hasnt been to visit either country as yet but his vision 1 day is to do the job he loves in a new environment and a new life.
Can anyone shed any light on how he goes about this with the pitfalls and what is needed for him to make this move.
I am a retired Fire Officer and tried to do the same 20 years ago but was told i had to be a resident of that said country for 5 years before i could apply as then, you could not directly move and 'convert' into the Oz fire service. As i and my son havent got any other skills i could not offer a viable application to emmigrate?
Any advice on this would be gratefully appreciated as i would not like him to be 20 years down the line and still here doing the same thing i did.

Thanks
Craig

Unlikely in Australia unless police officer is on the list of occupations in demand. You have to be a permanent resident to be able to apply to join a state police force and a citizen to join the AFP. In depressed times, recession proof jobs like the police are in high demand and, like UK, they like you to be able to tick all the diversity boxes. NZ, no idea. Has he thought about joining the British Army as an RMP if he wants a different and varied life?

Can't advise in relation to New Zealand, a few years ago the South Australian Police and the Western Australia Police were recruiting UK and Irish Police Officers directly from those countries but those days are over and in the case of your son he would now need to be a permanent resident in Australia which would be difficult given that he would not qualify under the Skilled Migration Program, unless of course he does have the required skills before he joined the police.

In so far as those who were recruited many settled well into their new life in Australia but there were a few you could not adjust and returned from whence they came to rejoin the force they left; remember in regards to policing, no matter where in the world you are dealing with the same sh1t but with a different accent.

In regards to the advice given by a previous post to consider joining the RMP, my advice would be to give that careful consideration given that you are joining the Army as a soldier no matter what corps and quite a lot of RMP duties does not actually involve police work..

Thanks for the advice given. There is no way he would join the Army as he's lost friends who joined the military and his Brother was in the Marines so he has a good reason not to go there. Like you said though he has no other basic skills or trade to fall back on so i guess he'll have to look at other ways of becoming a resident if his heart is set on this move.
Thanks to those that offered the advice, much appreciated.

I have a friend who was a police officer in the UK and managed to get employed as a police officer in Perth and is now a citizen, he moved around 6 years ago. However he did have number of years experience as a police officer and a previous military career.

I don't believe Australia does it now where they hire police officers from overseas, I may be wrong. You probably need to look at other options if you want to move, especially as he is only 22 he probably doesn't have that much experience as a police officer.

For WA police, yes, must be PR or citizen. Honestly, the fastest way to do this would be to get a working holiday visa, and hope to fall in love with a local... Or start searching on dating apps in Manchester for Kiwis/ Aussies.

Has he considered retraining to be a nurse/ emergency medical? That is always in demand, much more so than a police officer