How to get Australia skills assessment done for Australia PR Visa

Australia Skills Assessment- a pre-requisite to Making Application for PR for Australia

Australia, 29^th December: Australia Skills assessment is an essential pre-requisite for applying for Australia PR visa. Did you check whether your skills and qualifications recognized in Australia? Find out.

What are skills assessment requirement for Australia?—

In order to apply for a Points Tested Skilled Migration Visa, you need to nominate an occupation that is on the relevant skilled occupation lists at the time of invitation. You need to provide proof that your skills have been assessed to be suitable for your nominated occupation by the concerned assessing authority.

Australia skills assessment-

You need to provide a full permanent Australia skills assessment which needs to be used for Points Tested Skilled Migration. The criteria by which an assessing authority takes different categories of skills assessments is determined by the assessing authority as per the relevant professional standards.

Qualification recognition for Skills Assessment

Recognition of foreign credentials or foreign qualifications is an issue for migrants. Many highly educated migrants don’t get their foreign credentials recognized. If you want to avoid the problem of not getting work in your related field even after getting your Australia visa, then getting your qualification recognized is vital.

It’s mandatory to get your skills assessed in Australia for making an application for PR for Australia.

Validity of Australia Skills Assessment

• Validity of a skills assessment is only until the expiry date mentioned on the assessment or when a period of three years (from the date of issue) has passed, whichever is earlier.
• A provisional or a subclass 485 skills assessment is issued by some assessing authorities for recent graduates of Australia educational institutes making application for a subclass 485 visa.
• Main difference is that a subclass 485 skills assessment does not need job or employment in applicant’s occupation at the skilled level.
• One needs to know that a suitable provisional skills assessment meant to be issued for Australia Subclass 485 is not suitable skills assessment for Australia Points Tested Skilled Migration visa.

Tertiary qualification recognition in Australia

• One can use a credential evaluation service for getting one’s tertiary academic qualifications recognized officially by Australia employers.
• For studying in Australia or getting further training, recognition of foreign credentials is mandatory.
• Credential evaluation is comparison of your education level to that of Australia system.
• For credential evaluation, the Federal Government body, AEI NOOSR(Australian Education International National Office of Overseas Skills Recognition) is the official authority.
• It’s a fee-based service for Australia permanent residents or New Zealand residents. It takes nearly three months (maximum time). AEI NOOSR records are not given recognition for migration purposes or for entry to Australia tertiary institutes.

Evaluation is done on tertiary education (high school or post-secondary) records only. These are not done on professional licenses/school records, work records or incomplete study. Remember, school records are assessed by your state or tertiary education department.

Requirement of Qualification assessment before making PR for Australia

• Licensed professions
• Unlicensed professions

For licensed professions

contact regulatory body in your Australia territory or state before getting your qualification evaluated if your occupation is licensed. It can be law, teaching, medicine/engineering.

For unlicensed professions—You don’t need to get your qualification evaluated unless you want to get re-licensed or retrained for working in your chosen field of expertise. In case a firm is not willing to recruit you as they don’t understand how your education qualification compares to those in Australia, then a report explaining differences can help them get convinced.

Who has the authority to assess your skills?—The SOL (Skilled occupation list) and CSOL (Consolidated sponsored occupation list) offers a detailed list of relevant assessing authority for each occupation on these lists.

For getting skills assessment, it’s one’s own responsibility to contact the concerned assessing authority for nominated occupation. Assessment process, time-frames and charges are as per the each assessing authority.

Related Read– Process to Immigrate to Australia

How to get skills assessed?—Assessing bodies shall require that you possess post-secondary(like university/trade, qualifications) for getting a positive assessment of your skills. Each assessing authority will guide about the qualification requirements for the occupations being assessed.

Role of assessing authorities in finding you job in Australia—Assessing authorities are considered responsible for undertaking skills assessment for migration only and not for job agencies. They are not liable to guide you on the success of your visa application.

Submission of more than one skills assessment—While lodging your Points Tested Skilled Migration application, you can get one nominated occupation only. You have to apply to any number of skills assessing authorities before submitting your Expression of Interest until and unless you get suitable skills assessment. You cannot change your nominated occupation after you get invitation to apply for a Points Tested skilled Migration visa in SkillSelect.

Proof to attach to your application—After getting an invitation to apply and lodge your valid application, you need to provide a scanned certified copy of a suitable skills assessment by the concerned assessing authority for your nominated skilled occupation.

Skills recognition—resources for skilled immigrants—Department of Immigration and Border Protection’s official website is a great resource for getting help in skills recognition. It provides guidance in getting skills assessed for different occupations. It offers details of overseas qualification units in each territory and state of Australia.

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Harleen Kaur

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