UK police officers moving to Australia
forces, visas, pay and your pension

Since WA Police launched Australia's first overseas police recruitment campaign in October 2022, Australian forces have actively recruited serving UK officers. Today three forces run defined pathways with a sponsored visa: WA Police, South Australia Police (SAPOL) and the Queensland Police Service.

Each force puts you through a shortened transition course instead of the full academy, then a short probation. Your UK service counts towards your pay point, though rank doesn't transfer automatically. The other five forces either need you to be a permanent resident already or only accept Australian and New Zealand officers.

This table shows each force's position for a serving UK officer who isn't an Australian citizen or permanent resident, from each force's recruitment pages as read on 9 October 2026.

The practical choice for most UK officers is between WA, SA and Queensland. They differ in age limits, how much service they recognise, course length and lifestyle: Perth, Adelaide and Brisbane are very different cities, and all three forces post officers to regional and remote areas.

WA launched its international campaign in October 2022 with a target of 750 officers over five years. The first squad of 30 (27 from overseas) graduated in September 2023, according to a government media statement summary we haven't read in full; WA doesn't publish a running total.

The WA Police Force Industrial Agreement 2024 (cl 10.8) gives the Commissioner absolute discretion over academy exemption, probation and starting rank and salary for experienced officers, so your offer letter is what counts. You'll be paid during the 13-week course at Joondalup, in Perth's northern suburbs.

Five years' UK service puts you on WA Constable 5th year: $102,263 a year from 1 July 2026.

Read our full guide to joining WA Police and the WA police salary guide for allowances, including flat per-shift payments and regional incentives.

South Australia Police recruits experienced officers from the UK and a handful of other services through its Transition Program. 207 officers have now graduated through the SAPOL Transition Program in two years, averaging 8+ years' frontline experience, with 43 serving regionally. STP Course 11 includes Met Police officers posted to Coober Pedy.

The age limit is the big difference from WA: under 45 at visa application in SA, against under 55 at nomination in WA. SA's longer service requirement (3+ continuous years in the last 5) also rules out some officers who'd qualify for WA. In return, SAPOL reimburses visa, medical and clearance costs for you and your family.

During training and probation you're paid as a Probationary Constable ($83,398). SAPOL then recognises your prior service for Constable increments, which run from $86,125 to $102,491. See how to join SAPOL and the SA police salary guide.

Queensland's labour agreement gives the QPS approval for 500 new international recruits a year for five years, from 2023. You need at least 3 years' full-time policing, including 24 months in an operational role, and you must be under 55 when you apply for the ENS 186 visa; the QPS says in practice that means under 54 when you submit your recruitment application. A UK passport counts as proof of English.

Queensland publishes less detail than WA or SA about how UK service maps to pay points. Ask for your pay point, course dates and visa timing in writing before you resign. Our QPS joining guide covers the rest of the process.

Victoria Police recognises prior service for operational police from the UK (but not Special Constables). You must already be an Australian citizen or permanent resident; there's no sponsorship. You'd sit the entrance exam (exemptions possible), background, medical, psych and panel stages, then a skills-gap analysis. Victoria doesn't publish the course length or starting increment.

NSW's Professional Mobility Program, Tasmania's Accelerated Training Program and the NT's Accelerated Recruitment Program are all limited to Australian and New Zealand service, and the NT says it doesn't sponsor visas. The AFP requires Australian citizenship; its Skilled Police Program, which also required 3 years of operational policing in Australia, is closed with no date for the next campaign.

The forces that recruit UK officers don't ask you to find your own visa: they nominate you under a labour agreement with the Australian Government. WA and SAPOL both use the Employer Nomination Scheme (subclass 186) visa, Labour Agreement stream, and Queensland's international page refers to the same ENS 186 visa.

The 186 is a permanent visa. Home Affairs says it lets you live and work in Australia permanently, include your partner and dependent children, and enrol in Medicare. Its usual age rule is under 45 when you apply, unless the labour agreement provides otherwise, which is why WA and Queensland can accept officers up to 54.

Who pays? WA reimburses the primary applicant's visa, currently valued at A$6,140, plus A$300 when you start, but not partner and family visas; its FAQ lists A$3,070 for each additional applicant aged 18+ and A$1,535 for each child under 18. SAPOL reimburses visa, physical assessment and pre-medical costs for you and dependent family members. Queensland reimburses the primary applicant's visa fee only.

WA says visa processing takes about 2 to 6 months. Queensland requires you to hold permanent residency before you start at the academy. Don't resign until the visa is granted.

WA publishes the clearest conversion: your completed years of service map to a Constable pay year (part-years are dropped), capped at the 5th year until you pass the First Class Constable requirements. Note you need 3 years' service by visa nomination, so in practice most UK applicants start on Constable 4th year or above.

On $102,263, a WA Constable 5th year takes home about $3,039 a fortnight after 2026-27 Australian tax and the Medicare levy, by our calculation, before shift allowances. A SAPOL transition recruit on $83,398 takes home about $2,546 a fortnight. Employer super is paid on top; the pay comparison calculator shows each force's employer rate.

How does that compare with what you earn now? In England and Wales, the constable scale from 1 September 2025 runs from £31,164 at pay point 1 to £50,256 at the top, according to the Police Remuneration Review Body's 2026 report. The Government then awarded 3.5% from 1 September 2026; the new scale hadn't been published when we checked.

As an illustration only: at the Reserve Bank of Australia's rate on 9 October 2026 (A$1 = £0.5270), the 2025 top-of-scale constable salary of £50,256 converts to about A$95,362, and pay point 1 to about A$59,135. Exchange rates move every day, and a straight conversion ignores tax, pension contributions, housing and living costs, so use it as a rough sense of scale, not a pay comparison.

Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own police pay scales. For your exact UK figures, see Police Pay UK.

Leaving a UK force doesn't mean losing the pension you've built. Under the Police Pension Scheme 2015, the Home Office members' guide says you become a deferred member if you leave with at least two years' qualifying service. Your deferred pension is normally paid from your State Pension Age, uprated by CPI in the meantime, and you can ask to take it early with an actuarial reduction.

If you also have benefits in the 1987 or 2006 schemes, different rules apply to those, including different payment ages. We haven't covered them here; check with your pension administrator.

Transfers out are restricted. Police pensions are unfunded public service schemes. Since 6 April 2015, the Pension Schemes Act 2015 (s 68) only allows members of unfunded public service defined benefit schemes to transfer where the receiving benefits are not 'flexible benefits', which rules out transfers into defined contribution pots.

Any overseas transfer must go to a Qualifying Recognised Overseas Pension Scheme (QROPS), or it's taxed at 40% or more; transfers to a QROPS can also face a 25% overseas transfer charge unless an exemption applies, such as living in the same country as the scheme.

In practice, that means most officers moving to Australia leave their police pension in the UK as a deferred pension and build Australian super alongside it. Our sister site Police Pay UK covers the UK schemes, deferred pensions and the McCloud remedy in detail.

Your Australian salary is taxed under Australian rates, with the Medicare levy of 2% of taxable income on top, which the ATO collects alongside income tax. Employer super is paid on top of your salary, not deducted from it, and in some forces it's well above the 12% superannuation guarantee. Our take-home figures on this page include tax and the Medicare levy.

Private health insurance is optional, but there's a penalty for joining late. Under Lifetime Health Cover, a new migrant has until the later of the 1 July after their 31st birthday or the first anniversary of their full Medicare registration to take out hospital cover. After that, you pay a 2% loading for every year you're aged over 30, up to 70%, removed after 10 years of continuous cover. Reciprocal Medicare doesn't count as registration.

Once you hold a permanent visa you can enrol in Medicare, Australia's public health system. Services Australia also lets people who've applied for a permanent visa enrol in some circumstances, for example if they hold a visa that allows them to work. Before that, the UK–Australia reciprocal health care agreement covers medically necessary care outside hospital, public hospital care and some subsidised medicines, but only if you lived in the UK before arriving, and the cover ends when your visa expires.

Your partner and dependent children can be included in the 186 visa, so they arrive as permanent residents with the right to work and study. Public schooling, enrolment rules and any fees are set by each state's education department, so check with the department in WA, SA or Queensland once you know where you'll be posted. Regional postings are common in all three forces, which matters for schools, childcare and your partner's job.

1. 1

   Check the hard rules

   Week 1

   Age (under 55 at nomination for WA; under 54 at application for Queensland; under 45 at visa application for SA), service length, break in service, driving licence and any health conditions. Rule out what you can't meet first.

2. 2

   Get UK pension figures

   Weeks 1–4

   Ask your pension administrator for a benefit statement and what a deferred pension would look like. Use Police Pay UK for the UK side.

3. 3

   Choose a force and apply

   Months 1–3

   Apply online. Expect psych and aptitude tests, a panel interview by video or phone, and reference checks. SAPOL's process runs remotely.

4. 4

   Medical, fitness and checks

   Months 2–4

   Medical, psych and fitness assessments (SA runs a Functional Capacity Assessment in the UK), plus police certificates for every country you've lived in.

5. 5

   Visa nomination and grant

   Months 3–9

   The force nominates you and you lodge the visa, with your family included. WA says processing takes about 2 to 6 months.

6. 6

   Resign, ship and fly

   After the visa

   Give notice only once you hold a visa grant and a written offer with your pay point and course date.

7. 7

   Transition course and probation

   Year 1

   13 weeks (WA), 15 weeks (SA) or 18 to 20 weeks (QLD), then probation of 6 months (WA) or 6, 9 or 12 months (SA).

By our estimate, expect around 12 to 18 months from first application to the end of probation, and longer if you need to sell a house or time a school move. The interview is behavioural in every force, so prepare STAR examples from your UK service.

Ready to dig deeper? Read our WA Police, SAPOL and QPS profiles, and the guide for NZ officers if your partner serves in New Zealand.