The Department of Home Affairs (DHA) seeks to attract skilled workers to live and work in Australia. The DHA use skills assessing authorities (such as VETASSESS, Trades Recognition Australia or Engineers Australia) to check applicants’ skills and to determine if they meet the standards to work in an occupation in Australia.
When starting your migration journey to Australia, it is important to first check if a skills assessment is required for your visa application. Ensure that you have carefully read all of the requirements on the DHA website and (if applicable) understand which skills authority you need to submit an application to.
A positive skills assessment may be required for your visa, such as:
- General Skilled Migration (GSM) visas
- Employer Sponsored visas and the
- Temporary Graduate (subclass 485) visa.
The skilled occupation lists can provide guidance on which skills assessment authority is applicable to your occupation. Knowing the correct assessing authority will avoid wasting time (and money) on any unnecessary applications.
Once you are familiar with the correct skills assessment authority, read their guidelines carefully. Skills assessment authorities can be rigid in their requirements and the type of evidence that they accept.
Gathering evidence is critical in supporting your claims in the skills assessment application. Working with previous employers to get a work reference letter can be tough, so contacting them early (and making sure they provide enough detail about your skilled work) is important. Also be sure to check all evidence that is submitted in support of your application. A common mistake is to include dates and/or information that conflicts with another type of evidence. For example, the start date provided in a CV does not align with a work reference letter and/or the payments shown in a bank statement will not align with an invoice. Consistency is key to maximise your chances for a positive skills assessment.
Ensure that you provide evidence of your work experience and qualifications at the time of lodgement. This will avoid delays in assessing your application.
Should the skills assessment authority provide a positive outcome, you may then be able to use this outcome to support your visa application.
The above is a summary and should not be treated as a definitive statement of the law. You should seek personalised immigration advice before acting. If you want an assessment of your visa options or want some further information on how we can assist you in submitting a migration skills assessment, please do not hesitate to schedule a consultation.