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How To Prepare For Skills Assessment – Part 1

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Last updated on June 21st, 2019

Once the initial research about the country, immigration agent and the visa points system was done, I was ready to get a jump start on the real thing. Please beware that it’s a long process, which can take over a year if everything is perfect and there are no surprises. You have to invest a lot of time, patience, money and energy in the process. So before jumping into it, make sure that you are absolutely sold to the idea of immigration.

Skills Assessment or English Language Test?

This is sort of a chicken or the egg first, kind of problem. Before starting the visa process, many people face this dilemma and get confused as to which one should be done first. I voted in favour of skills assessment because:

  • It takes a lot of time to gather the mammoth list of documents. It took me nearly 3 months to get roles and responsibility letters from just three companies where I worked. I can’t imagine how long it will take for a person who changed a lot more companies than me. It may take more time due to the change in circumstances as well. For example, the company you worked for got acquired or merged with other company or the division where you worked no longer exists or your manager left the company or company went out of business.
  • You can submit documents for assessment and while waiting for the outcome, prepare and appear for English test. This way by the time your assessment is done, your English test score is ready too and you have saved a lot of waiting time. I did this and saved almost two months.
  • It makes sense to first evaluate your skills rather than English proficiency. If your qualifications and experience don’t result in enough points, English proficiency alone would rarely be of any help.
  • English proficiency test can be re-taken and depends on an individual’s efforts. This is not the case with skills assessment
  • Documents that you collect and organize for skills assessment are also helpful for visa application later on.
  • If you fall short of points by a small margin, you can use the English test to make up for it.

What Is Skills Assessment?

Skills assessment, in simple terms, means the evaluation of your qualification and work experience by an authorized assessing authority. Each occupation listed on SOL has a different assessing authority, a list of which can be found here. In my case, since I used Software Engineer (261313) as my nominated occupation, the assessing authority was Australian Computer Society (ACS).



What are the documents required?

Gathering all the required documents for ACS evaluation was a highly daunting task for me. Below is the list of documents which I collected. You can find an up-to-date list on ACS website.

Certified true copy (read notarized) of

  • Passport identification page or Birth Certificate
  • Marriage certificate, if applicable
  • Updated CV (doesn’t need to be notarized)
  • All the academic qualifications having below details
    • Name of the qualification
    • Name of the Institution
    • Month and year of course completion
    • Names of the course subjects and grades awarded
    • Exemption or Advance standing letter (If you studied in Australia)
    • Abstract of Research if you completed qualification through research
    • PDF containing login details in case of professional qualifications such as Microsoft, Oracle, Cisco certifications.
  • Roles and responsibility letters or statutory declarations from all the previous companies where you worked. It must be written on a company letterhead and signed by an authorized person. It should contain details like:
    • Start and end date of employment
    • Details of duties performed
    • Full time or part-time
    • Country of employment
    • In case of the statutory declaration,
      • Must contain the words “Sworn before” or “Signed before” or “witnessed before”
      • Signed by the authorized witness with date and place
      • Signed by the colleague at par or senior to you
      • Should be printed on Rs. 10/20 stamp paper and business or visiting card of a person signing it should be attached along with it
      • You need to also provide,
        • Offer letter/appointment letter or
        • Experience letter/service certificate or
        • Pay slips from all previous organizations – one for each quarter or at the very least, first and last payslip for each company or
        • Form 16 and/or income tax returns for all the years of employment

Some important points to remember here are:

  • All the documents must be photocopied and notarized
  • Along with sign, notary stamp must include details like name, designation and most importantly, registration number. Below is one such sample.
    notary-stamp-india
    As shown above, usually there are two stamps – one is the round Notary stamp listing name, registration number, district and state of the notary. The second one is True Copy stamp listing name of the notary along with the date.
  • You should stitch multiple pages into single PDF for each qualification and employer. You can use online tools such as PDFMerge to do this for free.
  • If your academic scorecard contains shortcodes for the subject, you need to provide transcript listing subject names too. For example, if your scorecard contains subject name such as CS-51, you must provide a transcript describing what CS-51 is.
  • You should not use password-protected PDF files
  • For a non-English document, you need to submit English translation from accredited authority

Gathering all these documents except three specific ones was relatively easy. But I nearly pulled my hairs out chasing after these three documents. Which are these three documents and how did I manage to secure them? Continue reading the next instalment in this series.

Moving To Australia Series

  1. Moving To Australia – The Idea
  2. 10 Reasons Why I Chose Australia
  3. Which Work Visa Is Right For You?
  4. Should I Go With Migration Agent?
  5. Introduction To Skilled Visa Points System
  6. How To Prepare For Skills Assessment – Part 1
  7. How To Prepare For Skills Assessment – Part 2
  8. How To Clear IELTS In First Attempt – Part 1
  9. How To Clear IELTS In First Attempt – Part 2
  10. How To Clear IELTS In First Attempt – Part 3
  11. EOI – Express Your Desire To Migrate
  12. Getting Visa Invitation
  13. Lodging Visa Application And Making Visa Payment
  14. Getting Evidence of Functional English
  15. Undergoing Health Examination – The Whole Story
  16. Getting Indian PCC And The Road Ahead

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( 36 Comments )

  1. Hi,

    How do I manage if the company i worked for is not willing to provide a reference letter ?

    I got to know I can submit a statutory declaration signed by my colleague, what i am not able to figure out is after ACS assessment, can the same be provided while applying for visa ??

    By no chance i can get employment reference on a company letterhead. I cant drop my plan just because of this reason.

    Reply

    • You understanding is correct. You can get a statutory declaration which you can get assessed from ACS. You can submit the same later at the visa application stage.

      Reply

  2. Hi Harsh,

    Your blog was so helpful to me but i did a silly mistake during ACS application submission:(.

    I have filed ACS two days back and just noticed in a thread that date should be there in notary documents which my notary officer missed out and even i noticed that after submitting application,how to overcome this situation?Will this impact my acs assessment ?Am so confused and scared on this.

    Please advise me.

    Thanks,
    Alekhya

    Reply

    • Hi Alekhya,

      First of all, thanks for visiting my blog and appreciating it. It means a lot to me! 🙂

      As for your ACS query, the documents are required to have a date when they are certified, according to the ACS guidelines. However, I don’t believe ACS will reject the documents for such a trivial reason. However, If the worst comes true, you can file a review application with them along with properly notarized documents. See the review guidelines here: ACS Review & Appeal

      Reply

  3. HI Harsh,

    I’m not able to prepare ACS project form. I had worked in Support domain, but while selecting sills for ACS they had suggested me to go for Business Analytics profile. But now I need to submit the project report with Business Analytics. I’m getting confused ,how do I proceed with this. Please guide me.

    Best Regards,
    Bharath S S

    Reply

    • Hi Bharath,

      Sorry mate! Unfortunately, I have no experience in writing ACS project report. Though I believe writing one should not be as difficult as it looks. Basically you can use the template provided by ACS and fill it describing your experience and domain knowledge. All the best!

      Reply

  4. Hi Harsh ,
    Your blog has lot of information and is helping me in lot of aspects in preparation .
    I want to get my skill assessment done from ACS. I am planning to apply for Australian PR [Visa Type 190] . I have overall of 8.4 years of experience in Software Testing

    I am facing an unique problem and need suggestion from you.

    1.I was working as a contract employee in company AAA , However my Parent company was BBB . In that case should i be getting a Reference letter or Statutory declaration from AAA or BBB?
    2. In my current company XYZ ,i have been a Permanent employee for past 6.5 years . However prior to that i worked as a contract for the same XYZ company for 8 months before getting converted to full-time.In this case should i get a Statutory declaration from my senior colleague for XYZ company with experience of 6.5 +0.8 years or for the 0.8 years i need to get from the parent company ?
    3.Will the Statutory Declaration work for the current company since i do not want my manager be informed about my plans and get a recommendation letter?

    Reply

    • I face the same problem here. Worked for ABC with an offer letter stating that it was a contract to work for XYZ. Later got directly employed at XYZ. So can that be shown as a single employment at XYZ without mentioning ABC? ABC would not even have the information about the skills required for the job.

      Reply

      • Hi Binu,

        From ACS’s point of view, if you have worked with the company for more than 20 hours and you give a detailed list of duties you performed during your tenure there, it should not matter where you get the letter from. Even a statutory declaration should work.

        Reply

    • Hi Sadashiva,
      As far as I know, if you worked for more than 20 hours a week and your employer (either client or parent company) is ready to give the full list of duties you performed during that time, it doesn’t matter if you were a contract or permanent employee. I, myself, had worked in one company as a contractor and then made full-time. Only thing ACS cares is that your letter should mention the fact that you were a full-time employee or not. In my case, the company issued a letter with two set of duties – one for my contract work and one for my full-time work.

      You can definitely submit a statutory declaration for any of the companies you worked for including the current company, as long as it clearly mentions the duties and signed by a colleague.

      Reply

  5. ∞
    Hi there,

    I really appreciate to get my head clear on one specific point.

    I just had my SKILL ASSESSMENT done by ACS and for my working experience it says:

    “The following employment after November 2016 is considered to equate to work at an appropriately skilled level”

    The question is when submitting EOI will BIDP count all the work experience towards the points or only the one after Nov. 2016?

    Thanking you in advance.

    Reply

    • Hi Ankit,

      Welcome to Aussian!

      Very valid question. Unfortunately, DIBP only considers the relevant experience for points calculation. So even though you have experience prior to Nov 2016, that won’t count towards points.

      Sorry mate.

      Reply

  6. Hi Harsh,
    I have worked with 4 companies and all of them might not provide me the eperience certificate in the company letter head. In this case understand i can provide the declaration of a senior colleague, can you please tell me on the notary part. Can i get the affidavit attested by a notary in India and submit it just for ACS review. Or should the senior colleague visit along with me to the australian embassy

    Reply

    • Hi Subin,

      Either is fine. Create a separate stat declaration for each company where you can’t produce roles and responsibilities letter from companies themselves. Make sure that statutory declaration shows the duties that you performed in that role and they should match closely to the skilled occupation you chose for PR. You can have a look at the sample statutory declaration I have provided in the downloads section.
      All the best!

      Reply

  7. I’m able to get letters (with the company letterhead, etc.) from the companies I’ve worked for. Are payslips always required, or only when submitting a statutory declaration? If I understand the ACS guidelines correctly I don’t need to give payslips in my case?

    Reply

  8. Hi,
    I am so glad I found this super informative blog which is really easy to understand.

    Actually, need to do my skills assessment so I need further help from you guys. I am working in TCS from past 4 years and got promoted twice.

    Can someone help me with the following doubts:

    1. How much amount of stamp paper is required for a statutory declaration?
    2. Do I have to mention all the designations or just the current one?
    3. Should I mention different activities for different designation in my employment reference letter?
    4. I had 1-month deputation in Kuala Lumpur, do I need to mention that in the reference letter?

    P.S.: My activities throughout my employment are the same.

    Please, someone, help me with this. Also if someone can attach their statutory declaration, it would be of great help.

    Reply

    • Hi Sneha,

      There is no specific amount required for stamp paper, you can use whatever you feel is okay. I have provided a template statutory declaration here – Statutory Declaration PDF. You can modify it to suit your needs if you like.

      As for multiple designations, it is upto you. If you want to show multiple designations though, you must show different duties for each. Otherwise, you can just show your latest designation only.
      Let me know if you have any other queries.
      Thanks so much for visiting!

      Reply

  9. Hi Harsh – Can you apply for EOI first with an IELTS score of 7 and then improve after few months to 8 and reapply EOI ?

    Reply

    • Hi Sneha,

      Yes, I believe so. You can update IELTS score as many time as you want after EOI but before the invite. You don’t need to reapply EOI, you can just update existing EOI with the new score.
      Cheers.

      Reply

  10. Hello Harsh – You have been the “Go to” person for all my queries related to Aus PR so far 🙂

    Is it compulsory to have 2 witness signatures in the Statuary Declaration ?
    Is it mandatory to have hours worked per week in it ? Will stating “full time basis” serve the purpose ?

    Reply

    • Hi Sneha,

      I have never used a Statutory declaration in my PR process. However, as per ACS guidelines, the statutory declaration must be signed by the referee (e.g. your colleague) in front of the authorised witness (e.g. notary).

      Secondly, ACS considers 20 hours or more per week as full-time work. So you must mention hours worked per week in the statutory declaration.
      Hope that helps.

      Reply

  11. Hi Harsh,

    Thank you so much for this informative blog. It is really a got to platform for all queries.
    I just wanted to ask, I am working in the same company from the start of my career. However, I have changed 2 projects during my duration. Will one reference letter/Statutory_Declaration suffice the need? Or should I need to have 2 different ones from each manager?

    Thank You

    Reply

    • Thanks Yogini for all the praise 🙂

      Now coming to your question, it doesn’t matter how many projects you worked on or even the number of promotions you had, if there is no difference in the duties that you performed, you don’t need to provide separate reference letter/statutory declaration. Another reason when you might need to give two letters is if you were working on a contract basis earlier and now working as a full-time employee or vice versa.

      As an example, if you worked as a .Net Developer and then moved to become Java developer, you don’t need to provide two letters. On the other hand, if you worked as a .Net developer and then moved on to become a project manager, you will need to provide two letters because your duties changed.

      Plus, even when you had two different sets of duties, you can combine them in one letter with two sets of duties mentioned separately. I did this in my case too. Check out How To Prepare For Skills Assessment – Part 2 to get more information about this.

      Hope this clarifies your doubt.

      Cheers,
      Harsh

      Reply

  12. The scan copies of the documents should be in color or black n white is fine?
    Also for third party declaration stamp paper is a must? Can i declaration it on plain paper?

    Reply

    • Hi Raj,

      I submitted color scan copies however ACS doesn’t mention anything about the colour of scanned documents. So either should be fine.

      As for the statutory declaration, again ACS doesn’t mention anything about stamp paper but it does mention that if you are outside Australia, you have to follow legal standard of that country. So I believe it’s better to use stamp paper for statutory declaration. However, the value of stamp paper is immaterial. So a INR 100 stamp paper is equivalent in value to a INR 5 stamp paper.

      Hope this helps.

      Reply

  13. Hi Harsh,

    Very informative Blog and it mentions the process of Migrating in Details. Appreciate your effort in putting this together.

    I have recently started getting my documentation ready for ACS. The issue I am facing is none of the notaries I went to had sworn and signed in front of me Stamp for Affidavits/Declarations. Is there any text that you can add in the Stamp paper or it has necessarily to be stamp.

    Thanks in Advance
    Gunjan Sachdeva

    Reply

    • Hi Gunjan,

      Thanks for your admiration!

      As far as I know, ACS guidelines mention that the document must state that it was Sworn Before, Signed Before or Witnessed Before the authorised witness. It means that you need to have one of those phrases in the document, probably just before the witness signature. You don’t necessarily need a stamp with those words.

      Hope that helps.

      Reply

  14. Hi Harsh,

    Here I am again with couple of queries. I submitted my documents for Evaluation and got the revert
    • Certified copy of the complete academic transcript for your Diploma and Diploma in Avance degrees.

    Now the Transcript that they are asking for is not with me and I would not be able to get it as well as the Institution from which I did Diploma has merged into TCS. Also, That diploma does not have Marksheet its grade based Diploma and the grading system is mentioned in the Certificates. What should my next steps be. I have submitted transcripts and Marksheets for My Bachelors degree course though.

    Also, in the initial Application I have not added My Microsoft certifications (MCTS). Would it help if I add that.

    Thanks in Advance
    Gunjan Sachdeva

    Reply

    • Hi Gunjan,

      Did you submit the scan of the page where the grading system is mentioned? If not, you may need to submit that. On the other hand, does getting that diploma assessed make any difference to your points count? If not, then maybe it’s better to not get it assessed as you can’t get the transcript for it anyway.

      As for MCTS, ACS doesn’t mention it as acceptable or non-acceptable. So I guess, it won’t make any difference to your evaluation. It’s up to you if you want to submit them or not.

      Reply

      • Hi Harsh,

        yes I have submitted the Attested and Notarized scan where the grading system is mentioned and explained. I am not sure if getting the Diploma will help in points as I have submitted my Bachelors degree and transcript and marksheet for the same.

        Regards
        Gunjan Sachdeva

        Reply

        • Hi Gunjan,

          As far as I know, Bachelors degree takes precedence over any diploma so having diploma assessed won’t get you any additional points.

          Reply

  15. Hi Harsh,

    First of all let me thank you for this very informative blog. It really help us to take initiative and move ahead for the AUS process.

    I have one doubt regarding Roles & Responsibility letter and Experience letter.
    From my previous organisations, I received experience letters including Roles and Responsibilities within the same letter. I have checked the sample template for Roles and Responsibility and I have found that it is almost same as my exp letters.

    So the question is it fine if I sent that experience letter for assessment or do I need to have two separate letters one for experience and another for specifying roles and responsibilities only?

    Reply

    • Hi Dharmik,

      Thanks for the praise.

      As for your query, if your experience letter fulfils the criteria for roles and responsibility letter given in ACS guidelines (specifically the rules given in Employment references section), you don’t need to provide a separate letter.
      Your existing experience letter should work fine.

      Cheers.

      Reply