How to Get ACS (Australian Computer Society) Skill Assessment for migration purposes (Non residents)

Update (2010/11/01)
1. MODL is no more available for the applicants after Feb 2010.
2. As a result there will be no extra points at VISA application.
3. Visit http://www.immi.gov.au/skilled/general-skilled-migration/skilled-occupations/occupations-in-demand.htm for more information

Update (2010/7/25)

1. ASCO code is no more available. It is now ANZSCO since July 2010.
2. Software professionals discussed below are now categorized at ANZSCO code 2613

Update (2011/02/16)
To check how many years of experience you need, go to http://www.immi.gov.au/asri/a-z.htm and select the appropriate category


If you are a computer professional planning to settle in Australia, the first thing you have to do is to get your skills assessed from ACS. During this post I have explained the important facts for skills assessment and it is much focused for a Sri Lankan Software engineering professional with good academic qualifications.

First of all, if you need to migrate to Australia, make sure to plan everything at least one and half years ahead. Don’t expect to submit the documents today and migrate tomorrow. It is a time consuming process and YOU HAVE TO PLAN.

What you need?

1. You need sound educational background (Four year Bachelors degree or MSc holder)
2. Four Five years of work experience
3. Service Letters covering four years of your work experience
4. passport or birth certificate translation
5. Resume

Where to start?

As you may already know, the best place to start is from the ACS web site. I.e. http://www.acs.org.au. If you are not sure whether you will find all the information there, just visit some “migration agents” and pretend that you have the real need and they are your only hope! (you know how to do it). But believe me; you will be only wasting your time and money. You will be able to listen so many things, but nothing important.

Determine your “Group”

OK..., now you are back... At the ACS web site, go to the “Non Residents->Skills Assessment” section. Here you will find all the information you need. My suggestion is to first go through the “Guidelines” and find out whether you are in a suitable “Group” for the visa purposes. Download both “Previous Guidelines” and “Current Guidelines” pdf files. From these “Guideline” pdf file you will be able to determine your group. All the applications received by ACS will be grouped depending on the applicants qualifications.

e.g. If you passed out from University of Moratuwa, Engineering Faculty, Computer Department, then you are definitely in Group A. Same applies for IT Faculty graduates of University of Moratuwa, University of Peradeniya, University of Ruhuna, Colombo University computer (special) graduates and SLIIT graduates.

What is RPL?

This is another group which is for “potentially suitable” applicants. I.e. professionals who have at least six years of experience but with limited or no qualifications.
Throughout this post, I will discuss about a “Group A” applicant, as this is the group which I have experienced about.

ASCO Code (Now ANZSCO)

Update (2011/02/16)
Please check http://acs.org.au/index.cfm?action=show&conID=skillassessment to find out your ANZSCO code.

The next step is to find out your ASCO Code. This code is very important when you are applying for the Visa. For ACS, you must nominate your ACS code, unless you are a recent graduate. Now if you have a look at the “Current Guidelines” pdf file, you will find a set of ASCO codes, but if you are a programmer, you will not included in to any of the category other than 2231-79
I.e. the professionals of designation code “software engineer”, “senior software engineer”, “tech lead” and “team lead” will fall in to this category. As you may have noted 2231-79 is a general classification. You have to mention your specialisation with in brackets. I.e. 2231-79 (C#), when filling the ACS application.

e.g. If you are a Dot Net developer working with C# on either Windows or Web Applications, then your ASCO code will be 2231-79 (C#). If you are Java developer then your code will be 2231-79 (Java)

Migration Occupation in Demand List (MODL)

In addition to assessing your skills, ACS will also assess your suitability for MODL. Note that this suitability is also measured through your Service Letter. So the service letter should be really strong. If you got this MODL identification, then you will get extra 15 marks in VISA application process. You don’t need to specifically ask for this. They will do it as you are applying under 2231-79 (Specialization) category.


Your documents

1. Passport or birth certificate

If you have a passport get a photo copy of Page 2 (the page which has your personal particulars with your photo) and Page 3 (passport has page number, look at the right hand bottom corner)

If you don’t have a passport, get a translation of your birth certificate. This has to be done by a professional “sworn translator”. You can easily find a one near a “Court”. There are plenty at “Maradana” near the high court. You should be very careful in this, check whether all the identification numbers in your original birth certificate gets in to the translated copy. I recommend you to be there until the “sworn translator” finishes his work and help him on check spelling; most importantly make sure your name is correctly typed. Cross check the number of entries in the original and the translation are same. I.e. if there are 15 entries in the original, the translation should also consist of 15 entries.

2. Academic Qualifications

You should have the original “Degree Certificate” and the “Academic Transcript” (which contains results of entire academic period).

3. Vender Qualifications

These are for Group B applicants. But even if you are in Group A, if you have completed any certifications (MCP/MCSD/MCAD/JCP...), I suggest you to get these documents also ready.

4. Employer Reference

This is what is known as “Service Letter”. You should have service letters covering five years altogether. This should be a very detailed service letter. It should include all the projects you were doing during the period you stay.
E.g.
Project X
Project X was done for ABC Limited to address a wider customer base on internet. Mr A was responsible for completing this and that...This is currently deployed www.abcdefghi.com Mr A worked on ASP.Net 2.0, SQL Server 2005, Javascript, HTML, AJAX technologies during this project.

Don’t worry about the length of the service letter. A 3-4 pages service letter will looks handy, this actually depends on the period you worked in the company. Some of my friends had about 6-8 page lengthy service letters.

Most important thing in the service letter is that, it should mention that you were a “full time permanent employee of ABC Limited ”. It should also contain the date you joined, date you left the company and your designation etc in a company letter head.
You should also get your Promotion Letters ready. These things clearly shows your career development and the person assessing will not have doubts on your claiming qualifications then. In fact these letters will be required when filling the application form.

5. Resume

You should prepare a good professional Resume. Make sure it is not contradicting with your Service Letters. :)

6. Certified Copies

Next step is to get certified copies of all the above documents (except Resume). Get two photo copies of each of the above documents and get them certified from a Lawyer. Even though you will need only one copy, the other will be useful when you are applying for the VISA. The photo copies should be very clear and most importantly the entire header and the footer of the original document must be clearly visible in the photo copy. The person who certify will usually put two seals on each document, i.e. a “True Copy” seal and the Lawyer’s seal. Ask him to specifically use English seal.

Filling the application

Now you need to download the application form from the ACS web site. There are two versions, pdf file and the MS word file. Best way is to download the Word file and fill it and then get a print out. Almost all the entries in the application are self explanatory. If you read this post so far, you will not find any hassle in filling that.

Fill the ASCO code, Personal Details (Surname, Given Name etc), probably nothing in the Agent section as you are doing this by your own, email, put a tick if you don’t need to contacted via Email (Don’t tick on this), payment amount will be whatever the amount that is required for “Skill Assessment” (credit card will be the easiest), then your education qualification (keep in mind that this section is for “tertiary education”, i.e. your degree/Msc and any certification you have obtained, Not O/L & A/L) and the next section is your career history. Here you will need all your promotion letters to prove your career. Now get a print out of this application.

Sending the Application Form

Now everything is ready. Double check the Application form and the Certified Copies. Never send the Original documents to ACS. You will not get them back. At the end of the assessment you will only receive one letter which mentions whether they accept you or not. Nothing else back.

Best way is to send the application through a courier service like DHL. Their office is at “Union Place”. You can find it easily. If you send the form in the normal post, it will take near 10 days for ACS to receive and normally it takes another 3-4 days to start the processing. If you send it through a courier service, you application will be delivered within 2 (max 3) days. But it will cost you little bit. If you are not in a hurry, use the normal air mail.

After sending the application

When they receive the application, the first thing they will be doing is taking the money. After that they will start processing. You will receive an email from ACS saying that they got the application and they will send you a URL with an Application No and password. Through this link you can view the status of your application. But this high tech status monitoring system have only four statuses. Initially it will “to be allocated” then “In progress” then “Assessment Complete” and finally “case finalysed”. So don’t waste your time by checking the application status daily. They will take entire or at least near three months for processing.

That is all folks! Good Luck

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