Australian Skills Assessment for Skilled Migration: How It Works

An Australian skills assessment for skilled migration is a formal evaluation, carried out by an independent authority appointed for your occupation, that confirms your qualifications and work experience meet Australian standards. You need a positive result before you can submit an Expression of Interest through SkillSelect, and the assessment must still be valid on the day the Department of Home Affairs invites you to apply for a visa.¹ The government does not run the assessments itself. It appoints outside bodies to do that work, and each body sets its own fees, documents, and timelines.

Which Visas Require an Assessment

The requirement runs across the main points-tested skilled pathways. The Skilled Independent visa (Subclass 189) needs a suitable assessment at the time of invitation, together with at least 65 points.¹ The Skilled Nominated visa (Subclass 190) and the Skilled Work Regional visa (Subclass 491) impose the same requirement. Employer-sponsored routes such as the Subclass 482 Temporary Skill Shortage visa may also require one, depending on the occupation and stream. Whatever visa you are aiming at, your occupation must appear on its relevant Skilled Occupation List.²

Finding the Right Assessing Authority

Every occupation eligible for skilled migration carries a six-digit code under the Australian and New Zealand Standard Classification of Occupations (ANZSCO).³ That code decides which organization can assess you. The Minister designates these bodies through legislative instruments under regulation 2.26B of the Migration Regulations 1994, and usually only one authority is approved per occupation.⁴

The Department of Home Affairs publishes a combined list of eligible skilled occupations showing which authority handles each ANZSCO code, and it will accept an assessment only from the authority named for your occupation.² Choosing the wrong body means starting again and paying a second set of fees. The most commonly used authorities include:

Australian Computer Society (ACS): IT, data science, and cybersecurity occupations.⁵
Engineers Australia: engineering professionals, assessed either through an accredited-qualification pathway or a Competency Demonstration Report (CDR) for non-accredited qualifications.⁶
VETASSESS: handles the largest number of occupations across professional, trade, and general categories.
Trades Recognition Australia (TRA): specific trade occupations, including various electrical and mechanical technicians.⁷
CPA Australia: accounting professionals.
Australian Medical Council (AMC): medical practitioners.

Each body sets its own standards and application format. Engineers Australia asks applicants with non-accredited qualifications to prepare a CDR made up of career episodes and a summary statement against its professional standards.⁶ The ACS evaluates ICT work experience against the Skills Framework for the Information Age.⁸ Download the application guide from your authority’s website before you prepare anything else.

What You Have to Submit

The specifics vary, but every assessment turns on three categories of evidence: qualifications, employment history, and identity. Gaps or inconsistencies across them are where most applications go wrong.

Qualifications

You need official degree certificates and full academic transcripts showing every subject you completed.⁹ These are compared against the Australian Qualifications Framework. Some authorities, including CPA Australia, also want a detailed syllabus for qualifications they have not accredited, with subject descriptions matching the codes on your transcript. If you got exemptions or credit transfers during your degree, include the transcripts from those earlier studies too.

Employment

Reference letters carry the weight of employment verification. Each letter must be on company letterhead, signed by an authorised person, and must state your job title, exact start and end dates, and the duties you actually performed. Those duties need to match the tasks listed in the ANZSCO entry for your nominated occupation.¹⁰ Generic wording copied from a job advertisement or offer letter will not work. The ACS specifically warns against uploading employment contracts or appointment letters, because those describe the role as advertised rather than the work you did.

Some authorities also want third-party financial evidence backing up your employment claims. Tax records, pension contributions, or bank statements showing salary deposits are all acceptable. Whether you need this depends on the authority and on how strong your reference letters are. If a reference letter comes from a colleague rather than a direct supervisor, or if there is any gap between your stated employment and other records, expect a request for more proof.

Identity

At a minimum you need a colour scan of your passport biopage. Most authorities want secondary ID as well. VETASSESS asks for at least one primary document (passport or birth certificate) and two additional forms such as a national ID, driver’s licence, or marriage certificate.¹¹

Translation and Certification Rules

Any document not in English needs an accredited English translation. In Australia, that means a translator credentialed by the National Accreditation Authority for Translators and Interpreters (NAATI). In the United States, it means a translator certified by the American Translators Association. In other countries, the translator must be one approved by the Australian embassy or consulate.¹² Using an unaccredited translator can get your documents rejected.

Certified copies of originals have their own rules from the Department of Home Affairs. If you apply from within Australia, the certifier must be an Australian citizen in an approved occupation, unrelated to you. If you apply from overseas, the certifier must be a citizen of the country you are in, again in an approved occupation and not a relative. The certifier writes or stamps that the copy is “a certified true copy of the original as sighted by me,” and adds their signature, full name, occupation, phone number, and the date.¹³ On multi-page documents, the certifier notes the total page count on the first page and initials every subsequent page.

English Language at the Assessment Stage

You will need English test results for the visa itself. Some assessing authorities also want them as part of the skills assessment. The Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership, which assesses teachers, builds an English proficiency requirement into its process. The Australian Institute of Medical Scientists updated its requirements in March 2026 to align with the Department of Home Affairs’ “Proficient English” standard. Others, including the ACS and VETASSESS, do not require English test results at the assessment stage. Check your authority’s guide before you book a test.

What It Costs

Assessment fees vary widely and are generally non-refundable once processing starts. Budget around your specific authority and pathway rather than a headline number.

ACS: AUD $625 for the Temporary Graduate (485) pathway, AUD $1,136 for Post Australian Study, and AUD $1,498 for General Skills applications.¹⁴
Engineers Australia: AUD $490 to $910 (excl. GST) for accredited-qualification pathways, and AUD $910 to $1,595 (excl. GST) for CDR-based assessments, depending on whether you add an employment or PhD assessment.¹⁵
VETASSESS professional occupations: AUD $1,096 (excl. GST) for a full assessment covering qualifications and employment.¹⁶
VETASSESS trade occupations: AUD $1,120 for the initial documentary assessment. Add a technical interview (AUD $900–$2,000) and practical assessment (AUD $2,200) and the total can exceed $5,000.¹⁷
TRA: AUD $490 for the Job Ready Employment stage, and AUD $2,845 per attempt for the Job Ready Workplace Assessment.¹⁸
AMC: AUD $642 to establish a portfolio, then AUD $2,920 for the MCQ and AUD $3,000–$3,400 for the clinical examination.¹⁹

Payment is usually by credit card or international bank transfer through the authority’s online portal. If your pathway has multiple stages, each stage carries its own fee. Plan for the full pathway.

Processing Times and Priority Options

Standard processing runs differently at each authority. ACS applications that need no further documentation typically take four to six weeks.⁸ VETASSESS processes outcome reviews for professional occupations in around seven weeks, and Chinese qualifications verification alone can take eight to ten weeks.²⁰ Trade assessments involving practical or workplace components can take considerably longer. Check the published times before you apply so you can plan around invitation rounds.

VETASSESS offers paid priority processing that aims to finish the assessment within 10 business days for an extra AUD $825 (excl. GST). It is available only for new full assessments and suitable renewal applications, not for reviews or appeals. All documents must be submitted upfront with nothing added later. If your application does not qualify for priority processing, the fee is refunded minus a $171 administration charge.²¹ A separate, unpaid urgent processing option exists for applicants who already hold a visa invitation with a tight deadline; you email evidence of the invitation to request it.

While assessors are working through your file, respond quickly to any request for further documents. Slow responses are a common cause of blown timelines, and some authorities will close a case when supplementary material does not arrive within the stated deadline.

Reading Your Outcome and the Date Deemed Skilled

The authority issues a formal outcome letter, either “suitable” or “not suitable” (exact wording varies). A suitable outcome means your qualifications and experience meet the standards for your nominated occupation. An unsuitable outcome will explain what fell short: not enough experience, a qualification below the required AQF level, or duties that do not line up closely enough with the ANZSCO description.

The single most misread part of the outcome is the “date deemed skilled.” That is the date the authority decides you first met the assessment criteria, and it controls how many points you can claim for work experience. Only employment after that date counts as skilled employment for points.²² The experience you needed just to become qualified in the first place is deducted from your points-eligible total.

How the date is worked out depends on the authority. VETASSESS requires at least one year of highly relevant employment at the required skill level within the last five years, plus extra years for certain occupation groups: five additional years for Group B occupations, and three additional years for Groups C, D, and F.²² CPA Australia only counts employment after you completed qualifications equivalent to at least an Australian bachelor’s degree, and the work must have been paid, continuous for at least 20 hours a week, and accumulated in blocks of at least three months per role.²³

This is where applicants overstate their points. If you have eight years of post-qualification work but three years were used to meet the assessment criteria, only five years count as skilled employment in your EOI. Overclaiming here can lead to refusal when the Department checks the numbers.

How Long the Assessment Stays Valid

If the outcome letter shows no expiry date, the assessment is valid for three years from the date it was issued. If the authority states a shorter validity, that shorter period applies. If the stated period is longer than three years, the Department of Home Affairs caps it at three years anyway.² The assessment has to be valid on the day you are invited to apply, so build in the wait between lodging your EOI and getting an invitation.

If the assessment expires before an invitation arrives, you go through the process again and pay again. If you already hold a positive assessment and only want to add recent work experience for extra points, you may not need to reapply to the authority. Where the additional months simply extend employment already assessed as closely related to your occupation, you can update the EOI with the new dates and self-claim those months at the visa application stage, provided you can back them with payslips and bank statements. Update the EOI before the invitation is issued, or the extra points will not count.

If You Get a Negative Outcome

A negative result is not the end. Most authorities offer a two-step dispute process: an internal review first, then a formal appeal.

Internal Review

VETASSESS asks for review applications within 90 days of the original outcome. A different team of assessors handles the review, and you can submit new evidence, including additional qualifications or employment documents, with your review request.²⁴ Review fees at VETASSESS range from AUD $340 for a qualification-only review to AUD $913 for both qualifications and employment (excl. GST). Lodge outside the 90-day window and you pay the full assessment fee instead.¹⁶ The ACS charges AUD $516 for a Level 1 appeal.¹⁴

Formal Appeal

If the review upholds the refusal, VETASSESS accepts a formal appeal within 90 days of the review decision at AUD $1,082 (excl. GST). An independent industry expert may be consulted, and the appeal usually takes around 12 weeks. The appeal outcome is final.²⁴ The ACS offers a Level 2 appeal at AUD $620.¹⁴

For both reviews and appeals, the fee may be refunded if the outcome flips to “suitable” and no new evidence was considered. In practice, that means if new documents tipped the decision, you will not get the fee back even when you win. Before spending money on a review, read the reasons for refusal carefully. If the problem is that your reference letters did not describe duties at the required skill level, resubmitting the same letters with a complaint will change nothing. A review pays off when you can bring genuinely stronger evidence, or show the assessor misread what was already in front of them.

1
Department of Home Affairs. Skilled Independent Visa (Subclass 189) Points-Tested Stream
2
Department of Home Affairs. Skills Assessment
3
Australian Computer Society. Occupations and ANZSCO Codes
4
Department of Education and Workplace Relations. Guiding Principles and Standards for Skilled Migration Assessing Authorities Guide
5
Australian Computer Society. ACS Migration Skills Assessment
6
Engineers Australia. Migration Skills Assessment
7
Trades Recognition Australia. Skills Assessment
8
Australian Computer Society. Migration Skills Assessment (MSA) Information for Applicants
9
CPA Australia. Documents Required for the Australian Skills Assessment Application
10
Australian Computer Society. ACS Migration Skills Assessment – Employment References
11
VETASSESS. Proof of Identity Requirements
12
Australian Embassy and Consulates in the United States. English Translation of Foreign Documents
13
Department of Home Affairs. Certified Copy
14
Australian Computer Society. InfoHub – Fees and Payment
15
Engineers Australia. Assessment Fees and Additional Services
16
VETASSESS. Skills Assessment Fees for Professional Occupations
17
VETASSESS. Assessment Fee for Trade Occupations
18
Trades Recognition Australia. TRA Fees
19
Australian Medical Council. Fees and Charges
20
VETASSESS. Current Processing Times
21
VETASSESS. Priority Processing and Urgent Applications
22
VETASSESS. Nominate an Occupation
23
CPA Australia. Skilled Employment Assessment
24
VETASSESS. Reassessments, Reviews, Appeals, Reissues and Feedback