Candidate stories
What it is actually like.
Told by the people who did it, with the difficult parts left in. We do not pay for these, we do not edit out the complaints, and we ask a year after arrival rather than in the first fortnight when everybody is still relieved.
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Grace Mwangi
ICU nurse · Kenyatta National Hospital → St James’s Hospital, Dublin
“I had been told by two other agencies that I would be in Ireland by Christmas. Northline told me July, and I landed on the eleventh of July.”
Nairobi → Dublin9 months · 2024 Joseph Villanueva
Radiographer · Chong Hua Hospital, Cebu → Chinook Regional, Alberta
“The CAMRT exam was the hardest thing I have done since university. Nobody pretended otherwise, which is the only reason I passed it.”
Cebu → Alberta16 months · 2023Priya Nair
General practitioner · Kochi → Fiona Stanley Hospital, Perth
“Two of my classmates paid an agent four lakh rupees each for the same route. I paid for a police check and a passport photograph.”
Kochi → Perth11 months · 2025
Joseph’s and Priya’s full accounts are being written now. We would rather publish them slowly and accurately than quickly.
What we ask them
The same six questions, every time.
What did we get wrong?
This one comes first, deliberately. If the answer is “nothing”, we ask it again in different words.
What surprised you in month one?
Almost always money, weather or the shift pattern. Almost never the clinical work.
What would you tell yourself a year ago?
The most useful answers on this page come out of this question.
What did it cost you?
We ask for the actual figure, including the things we did not pay for, because candidates trust a number more than a promise.
Who helped, and who did not?
Names, including ours. Ngozi has been named in both columns.
Would you do it again?
Four people out of the ninety-one we have asked have said no. We publish that too.