AHPRA renewal reminder
Pick your profession and state, get your Board renewal date, a 90/30/14/3 day reminder schedule, and a calendar file you can subscribe to on your phone.
How the AHPRA renewal cycle works
AHPRA manages 15 National Boards under the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law. Your Board sets the renewal date, collects the annual fee, and signs off on your declaration: continuing professional development (CPD) hours, recency of practice, professional indemnity insurance (PII) cover, criminal history, and any impairment or health notifications. The registration period is one year; a locum who works across multiple states still has a single national registration.
Renewal happens online via the AHPRA practitioner portal. Most renewals take under 10 minutes if your CPD is logged, your indemnity certificate is current, and your recency of practice for the year meets your Board minimum (the required hours vary by Board; choose non-practising registration otherwise). Declarations are made on truth: AHPRA audits a proportion of CPD declarations each year, and a failed audit can result in conditions on your registration.
The biggest avoidable failure mode we see is locums renewing on the last day and discovering an indemnity certificate has lapsed, a CPD gap, or a criminal history matter that needs a separate declaration. The 90 day reminder in this tool is designed to catch these; the 30 day reminder is for administrative prep (credit card, CPD export); 14 days is the hard deadline for resolving anything ambiguous; 3 days is the final prompt before the late fee triggers.
State-specific credentials sit alongside your AHPRA registration, not inside it. A pharmacist in Queensland may need a Blue Card for aged-care work; a psychologist in NSW may need a Working with Children Check for school-based work; a paramedic in the NT needs an Ochre Card for community-based work. These expire on their own cycles (2 years in NT, 3 years in QLD/WA/TAS/ACT, 5 years in NSW/VIC/SA) and are issued by different bodies to AHPRA. Sessional tracks them in one credential dashboard; the state cross-check on this page is your cue to check the card in your wallet.
Indemnity, first-aid, CPR, Medicare provider numbers, and vaccination status sit outside AHPRA too. Most locum agencies require all of them on file before placing you on a shift. If you are assembling a credential pack for a new agency, download the .ics file here, then sign up for the free Sessional tier to bring the rest of your credential wallet into one place.
Related for AU locums
- AHPRA renewal: the full guideWhat to prepare, what AHPRA checks, and what happens if you miss the late period.
- State credentials: WWCC, WWVP, Blue Card, Ochre CardThe non-AHPRA checks that a locum needs per state, with renewal cycles and issuers.
- Locum tax calculatorTake-home pay estimate for self-employed AU healthcare professionals.
- Locum GPs in AustraliaWhat Sessional covers for GPs, from VR status to provider numbers and agency super.
- Locum nurses in AustraliaHow Sessional tracks AHPRA, state credentials, and agency rates across hospital and community shifts.
- Sessional blogRegular updates on AHPRA rules, ATO changes, and agency economics for AU locums.
Common questions
When do I have to renew my AHPRA registration?
Medical practitioners (GPs and specialists) renew by 30 September each year. Nurses and midwives renew by 31 May. All other AHPRA boards (pharmacy, psychology, physiotherapy, OT, dental, paramedicine) renew by 30 November. AHPRA sends renewal notices roughly 60 days before the due date via email to your registered address.
What happens if I miss the renewal date?
You get a one-month late period, during which you can still renew but you pay a late fee on top of the annual fee. If you miss the late period, your registration lapses, you cannot practise, and you have to apply for re-registration, which is slower and costs more. The employer or agency must check your status on the public AHPRA register; a lapsed registration is a clinical-governance incident.
Is the 90/30/14/3 schedule official?
No. AHPRA only sends one reminder, roughly 60 days out, and a courtesy nudge if you have not renewed close to the date. The 90/30/14/3 cadence is what we have found works for busy locums: 90 days is enough time to clear outstanding CPD, 30 days catches pay-day cash flow planning, 14 days is the hard prep window, and 3 days is the final alarm before the late fee triggers.
What is the .ics file and how do I use it?
The .ics file is a standard iCalendar subscription containing four reminder events, one for each cadence tick. Download the file and open it on your phone or laptop; iOS, Android, Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook all understand the format. Events are scheduled 9:00 AM Sydney time on the relevant day. If your renewal date changes, come back and regenerate the file.
Do I need to renew my WWCC or WWVP at the same time?
Not at the same time, no: each state scheme has its own expiry. NSW, VIC, and SA Working with Children Checks run on a 5-year cycle; QLD Blue Card and WA WWC Card are 3 years; TAS and ACT WWVP are 3 years; NT Ochre Card is 2 years. Sessional tracks all of these on one dashboard once you sign up; for this free tool, treat the state note as a reminder to check the expiry on your current card.
Can Sessional automate this?
Yes. Sessional's credential tracker watches your AHPRA, WWCC/WWVP, indemnity (Avant, MIPS, MDA National, Bupa), first-aid, and CPR expiry dates and emails you on the 90/30/14/3 cadence automatically. It also flags credential issues before you accept a shift that needs them. The tool on this page is the public taster; the automated version ships with the Free tier.