OCANZ Exam 2027: Confirmed COE Written Dates, Fees and Schedule

If you are an overseas-qualified optometrist planning your Competency in Optometry Examination (COE) for 2027, the position has moved since this guide first went up: OCANZ has now published its 2027 written examination dates — both series, with their application deadlines. The 2027 clinical dates are still pending, listed by OCANZ as "to be advised shortly".

This guide sets out the confirmed 2027 written dates, the last 2026 clinical session (applications for which are open now), what every stage costs, and how the COE is structured.

The COE pathway in one minute

The COE is the standard route for internationally qualified optometrists to register in Australia, and it runs as fixed scheduled sittings (not on demand). There are three stages, passed in order:

1. Written Examination — two papers (a Multiple-Choice Question paper and a Short Answer Question paper), sat as a remote online proctored exam you can complete from your home country.
2. Cultural Safety Training — completed online, in your own time, after you pass the written exam.
3. Clinical Examination — an in-person, OSCE-style assessment (a Skills Assessment and a Patient Examination) held at the Australian College of Optometry (ACO) in Melbourne.

You must pass each stage to progress, and the clinical exam must be passed within three years of passing the written exam.

What the COE actually costs

These are the fees OCANZ published on its Overseas Optometrists page, checked 27 August 2026:

Stage	Fee (AUD)
Eligibility Assessment	$868 (non-refundable)
Written Examination — both papers	$3,534
Written Examination — one paper	$1,858
Cultural Safety Training	$291 (non-refundable)
Clinical Examination — Skills Exam	$2,863
Clinical Examination — Patient Exam	$4,722

Sitting every stage once comes to $12,278. Most published cost breakdowns — including an earlier version of this guide — leave out the $868 Eligibility Assessment, which is the first thing you pay and is required before you can sit anything. Fees are payable per attempt, with no refund for failure, so a single clinical resit is another $7,585.

OCANZ reviews its fees periodically. These amounts were correct on the date above; confirm them on the OCANZ site before you pay.

Confirmed 2027 written dates

OCANZ has published both 2027 written series. The written examination is a two-day remote online proctored exam — Clinical Science (MCQ) on day one and Diagnosis and Management (SAQ) on day two — which you can sit from your home country.

2027 series	Examination	Applications close
First	Mon 1 – Tue 2 March 2027	Thu 4 February 2027
Second	Mon 2 – Tue 3 August 2027	Fri 2 July 2027

One oddity worth a phone call: OCANZ's page lists applications for the second series as available 1 July 2027 and closing 2 July 2027 — a one-day window as printed. The closing date fits the usual pattern of about a month before the exam, so treat 2 July as the deadline, but confirm the opening date with the exam manager rather than assuming you have until then to start.

Clinical examination — 2027 pending, and one 2026 session left

The clinical examination is a five-day assessment comprising Clinical Skill Assessments and Patient Examinations, held at the Australian College of Optometry in Melbourne. Five days is the part people underestimate: budget the travel, accommodation and leave accordingly, not for a single exam day.

2027 clinical dates have not been released — OCANZ lists them as "to be advised shortly".

There is one 2026 session still to come, and applications are open now:

2026 – Session 2	Sessions
Applications open	Week of 9 November 2026
	Week of 16 November 2026
	Week of 23 November 2026

You must have passed the written examination within the last three years to sit the clinical.

Results and resits

• Written results: notified by email within 6–8 weeks. You can re-sit the written exam as many times as you need.
• Clinical results: notified by email within 5 weeks. The clinical exam is always held in Melbourne, and must be passed within three years of passing the written.

English and registration

After you pass the full COE, general registration is obtained through the Optometry Board of Australia via Ahpra, and English language skills are assessed against the Ahpra/Board English language skills registration standard — separate from the OCANZ exam. Confirm the currently accepted tests and scores on Ahpra's own page, and start early, as it's a common lead-time item.

What to do now

• Budget the full $12,278, including the $868 Eligibility Assessment that most cost guides omit.
• Get exam-ready for the written papers, which you can sit remotely — no travel needed for stage one.
• Plan your Melbourne trip around five days, not one — and hold off on non-refundable travel until OCANZ confirms the 2027 clinical dates.
• Sort your English evidence early for Optometry Board registration.
• Watch the OCANZ Overseas Optometrists page for the 2027 clinical dates. Note that OCANZ restructured its site during 2026: the old standalone "Examination Dates and Venues" page no longer exists, and dates, fees and stage details now sit in the accordions on that single page.

What's changed — and what it means for you in 2027

Neither OCANZ nor the Optometry Board has announced any change to the COE taking effect in 2027, so plan for the exam exactly as currently published. Several documents were revised through 2025–26 though, and they are in force now:

• Appendix B was expanded in May–June 2026, adding six institutions to the direct-admission list — five in India (Alagappa University, Indira Gandhi National Open University, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad University of Technology, Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences, and West Bengal University of Technology) and one in Pakistan (University of Faisalabad, Doctor of Optometry, 2017 onwards). Holding a listed qualification routes you to a Form 2 application rather than Form 3. OCANZ still cautions that you "may still have to undertake further study and preparation to meet the competency standards tested by the examinations."
• Examination Guide v1.9 adds a prohibited item for the remote-proctored written exam: any item of clothing that obscures you from the proctor's view during identity verification. It also broadens the conduct standard to require candidates behave "in a professional and culturally safe manner," and widens the therapeutics pathway — those competencies may now be met via the OCANZ ACOT examination or an accredited Australian ocular therapeutics course. (Therapeutics remain outside the COE itself.)
• Appendix E was revised in March 2026 and the green-pen rule softened: a green pen is now provided "at the discretion of the examiner, depending on the complexity of the patient," rather than always.
• The skills-station documents were revised on 5 November 2025 — practise against the current appendices, not older copies.

One more piece of good news on fees: there was no increase on 1 July 2026. The 2026/27 schedule is identical to 2025/26, line for line.

Before you rely on any of this

The fees and dates above were read directly from the OCANZ website on 27 August 2026. The 2027 written dates are confirmed; the 2027 clinical dates are not — OCANZ lists them as "to be advised shortly", so anyone advertising confirmed 2027 clinical dates is estimating. Note also that OCANZ restructured its site during 2026: the former standalone "Examination Dates and Venues" page no longer exists, and everything now lives on the Overseas Optometrists page. Dates, fees and requirements are set by OCANZ and Ahpra and can change. Confirm the current details on ocanz.org before making plans you can't easily undo.

For more detail, see our companion guides: the complete OCANZ examination guide, the OCANZ clinical (OSCE) skills-station guide, therapeutic prescribing for the OCANZ exam, and living and working in Australia as an optometrist.

Where we fit in

The dates are OCANZ's to release — your readiness is the part you control, and the written papers can be sat from home. Our OCANZ COE Written Exam preparation is built around the MCQ and SAQ papers, with Australian-context content and exam-style questions, so you can register for a 2027 series already prepared.

Explore OCANZ COE exam preparation

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This article summarises publicly available OCANZ and Ahpra information as at 27 August 2026 and is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Optometry Council of Australia and New Zealand or Ahpra. Examination dates, fees and requirements are set by those bodies and are subject to change. Always confirm current details on the official OCANZ and Ahpra websites before making decisions.