Until 1999, she continued working as a "jobbing actress", making appearances in "" and "Sale of the Century", and "Tales of the South Seas". Eager to move away from soap opera acting, Joseph moved to the United States to study acting with the Atlantic Theater Company in New York City. She then moved to Los Angeles, where she spent 18 months living off her savings trying to get auditions. In those 18 months, her only jobs were a single commercial and a job interviewing LA-based film actors for Australian television. In 2001, her lawyer informed her that she would have to travel to Sydney, Australia to be interviewed for her green card. On the day she was due to fly back to Australia, her agent informed her of an audition for the British television series "Cold Feet", whose producer was looking for an Australian actress to become a new main cast member. Two weeks later she had moved to Manchester, England and was doing script read-throughs with the rest of the cast. Her character, Jo Ellison, appeared in all episodes of the fourth and fifth series. Two days after filming the final episode in 2002, Joseph left Britain and returned to Australia.