RavenBlue

Hey guys I got an invite today! 221111 75 points DOE 9th June 2017 Best of luck everybody else!!

Hi @JH_2017, certain overseas courses are seen to be pretty much equivalent to Australian accountancy degrees. I think (don't quote me on it as I can't seem to find a link!) that all UK chartered courses (ACA, ACCA, CIMA, etc) will be deemed to have covered all the required topics. I am ACA, and all I had to provide was my qualification certificate plus exam transcripts and I had no further questions. You might still want to double check though, I'm not sure exactly of the differences in topics between ACA and CIMA. @laevans - you're going through as Management Accountant aren't you? Is your husband CIMA? Maybe you could shed some light

OK thanks @ali - I'll ask my doctor, and see what he can do!

Hi, we are in the process of applying for a 189 visa. I was super keen and got our medicals done before being invited to apply (I know many would advise against this, but to me its not the end of the world if they expire and we have to redo them). They came back all clear, but since having them done I have been diagnosed with an overactive thyroid. (Not sure whether is something they would have tested for in the medicals?) I assume its quite a recent onset and doesn't affect me massively. I've been put on some very low dose medication and I will be seeing a specialist next week to find out more. Should I make this known in my visa application? I'm hoping it won't affect my application as its nothing major. What can I do to assure DIBP that its ok - I've seen something about getting a letter from the doctor? Anybody else been in this situation? Would appreciate any advice or reassuring words! Thanks

I would also add that its not a given that you will get state sponsorship even if that state has your occupation on their list. States still pick only the best applicants and only at a rate which meets their needs in that occupation. I reiterate my earlier statement that I applied for NSW state sponsorship as an accountant with 75+5 points (so a total of 80 points with state sponsorhip) back in early june and have not heard a thing. Now I'm sure 80 points is amongst the highest that people will be applying with - so NSW appear to just not be sponsoring accountants at the moment. It might be a different case for engineers, but I would not get your hopes up as an accountant.

Correct the English test is split into reading, writing, listening and speaking. You must do well across the board, not just on average. CPA requires you to get 7.0 in each section of IELTS, or 65 in each section of Pearson to gain a successful skills assessment. If you also want to gain the maximum 20 points for superior english further down the route in your actual visa application, this is upped to 8.0 / 79 in each section. The accounting body does not give you points, it merely verifies what you are claiming. If you are going to be claiming to be a chartered accountant with 5 years post-qual experience in your EOI, the accounting body will look at your qualification certificate, exam results, contract of employment, verified roles and responsibilities, etc and validate that you have the skills that you claim to have. You then take this and use it to prove to DIBP that you can claim 'x' points for qualifications and 'x' points for work experience etc. You have to get a successful skills assessment before you can lodge an EOI. I would suggest contacting CPA if you are unsure about anything, and also thoroughly investigating the visa section on the main DIBP website. This will tell you everything you need to know about claiming points, submitting an EOI, etc.

Hi @JH_2017, have you found out how many points you would get? As mentioned, it is a very long wait for anyone with 70 points or less at the moment. For the skills assessing body, you can look accountant up on DIBPs occupation list, and next to it you'll find all the institutes. I did mine (both skills and work experience assessment) through CPA and it took about 20 working days. Have you taken an english test yet? The CPA (and therefore I presume the other accountancy bodies) require you to have obtained a certain pass level in an English exam - normally either IELTS or Pearson (unfortunately being English or having English GCSEs / A Levels won't be enough). What test you can take and what score you must obtain will be noted on the accountancy body's website. Just to give you an idea of timings - I took my English test in the last week of April, applied for my skills assessment at the start of May, lodged an EOI (75 points for 189 and 80 points for 190) in early June and I'm still yet to receive an invite! It has taken longer at this time of year because accountants filled up their 189 quota for the 2016/2017 year back in April, and so weren't eligible to be invited again until the new year kicked off on 1st July. Things are moving again now, but slowly. There will be a massive backlog to get through. In short, calculate your points first to make sure you're even eligible - and then be prepared for a lengthy process! Best of luck

Hi @Uroosa, did you mean 70+5 for state sponsorship? For the 189 visa, according to the DIBP website the 70 point accountants have been invited up to 24th October 2016 DOE. As mentioned above though they cleared all 80 pointers to date and 75 pointers to (hopefully) 25th May. So dependent on how many more 75 and 80 pointers apply in the future, and how many accountants they invite in each future round, then they may start picking up 70 pointers again in a couple of rounds. Fingers crossed for you. Nobody can know when states will invite for the 190 though.

For any accountants out there, it looks (from various places in the internet, but nothing official from DIBP) as though todays invitation round cleared all 75 pointers up to 25 May. So potentially 70 pointers might be in with a shout in a couple of rounds time? @laevans - hopefully we're in in 2 weeks time though! Fingers crossed

Hi @suziemac59 I think as far as DIBP is concerned, IELTS is IELTS. Whichever one you take you have to get 8's in all sections: https://www.border.gov.au/Lega/Lega/Form/Immi-FAQs/how-can-i-prove-i-have-superior-english Have you considered PTE academic if you wish to re-sit and gain the extra points? I didn't do IELTS so can't comment on the differences, but I found PTE very straight forward to revise for and managed to get the required scores for superior english on my first attempt. There is a sticky thread on this forum I believe where people discuss the differences. Best of luck

Hi @Ferrets I was just wondering what you ended up putting as your visa type when you tried getting your medicals done pre-invite? Do you know if it matters whether you put 189 or 190, if you've submitted an EOI for both? We are in a similar position, I have submitted an EOI for both 189 and 190 (both on the same EOI) and we have already had our medicals done in anticipation, but only when looking at our medical letters just now did I realise I must have put 190 down. Does anybody know whether this will be a problem if we end up getting invited on the 189? Will these medicals still be valid? Thanks

Hi @Chasing a dream congrats on such a quick invite! The DIBP website currently states that from lodgement 75% of 189 visas are granted within 4 months, and 90% within 7 months. It all depends on how much supplementary information you provide upfront with your application (medicals, police checks, form 80, etc) as waiting until the case officer asks for them can just slow things up a little. Best of luck with everything!

I believe your EOI date is now June. Anything which changes the points you're claiming will reset the date to that point. Does look as though 75 & 80 pointers have moved to April, like you say. Could be a couple more rounds before June but fingers crossed! I also read on another forum that NSW has invited a few ICT occupations today so maybe they're picking up their invites again...

@laevans the invitations for this round haven't gone out yet! Apparently midnight tonight Aus time so circa 15:00 today in the UK. Might take 20-30 minutes after that to get the email. Good luck!

The first two are 12th and 26th July.

Hi @VicViP is this 00:00 Canberra time - so 15:00 the day before in UK time?

Hi @Stayorgo Wow to possibly get 85 points is amazing! But with 80 points you would still almost certainly get invited in the first round, so like has been said if you're not sure you're ready then consider holding off a little. But my only warning would be that you can't guarantee that accountant will still be on the skilled occupations list in 6 months time. Many of us who have already submitted EOIs spent the last few weeks biting our fingernails, with rumours abounding that it would be removed, until at the very last, on 30th June, it was confirmed that accountants would stay on the list for now. And I've seen many people who agree, if your eligible now - apply now! It still may be a few months before its granted (I think 189 stats are 75% granted in 4 months?), and then you should have a few months after that before you have to validate it (dependent on when you have police checks and medicals done). So you will still have some time to figure things out. We're in pretty much the same boat as @laevans in that we applied with 75 points last month, so hoping for an invite in the first couple of rounds. If we do we're off to Sydney! I went travelling there several years ago and loved it! Took my other half back on a holiday a couple of years after that and he loved it too. I have a couple of friends there and so we decided we'd give it a go. If it doesn't work out at least we tried it. Best of luck whatever you decide

Thanks @matt796

Hi, I'm looking at getting our police checks and on the acro website it mentions having an approved person to endorse the application. Does the endorser have to sign any of the documents, like the passport photos, or anything before we upload? Or do we just have to provide details of somebody who could validate our details if contacted? Thanks

Hey @laevans yeah I saw they had announced the dates - a bit frustrating as I was hoping the first round would be on July 5th! From what I've read about previous years I don't think NSW will pick up their sponsoring until end of July or early August either, so does look like a few weeks of wait yet. I did also see that the number of invites they expect to give out in the first round is down to 1000 (they issued 2202 in the first round last year), so again it could stretch things out a bit. These things are sent to test us! Like you say, hopefully there aren't too many 80+ pointers so our turn could come soon

Hi @theaccountant no I've heard nothing still. Don't think I will until at least next month. WA and Victoria have released their new lists for 17/18 and accountant isn't on either of those. Not sure how the rest will go. Best of luck and fingers crossed!

Hi @rammygirl, so what happens if I applied for a visitor visa now, but end up getting granted PR before we land in Aus? Would the PR visa be the one activated when we land and the visitor visa just forgotten about? Or would I have to somehow cancel the visitor visa before we go? Thanks

Hi @path2aus, I was told that if you apply offshore but end up onshore on another visa first, then all you have to do is advise DIBP of your change of circumstance and your PR visa would then be granted without an entry date? Then the PR visa would automatically supersede whatever other temporary visa you were on previously? Is what you're saying that you couldn't get the grant onshore? Or that you could get the grant, then you'd just have to leave and re-enter Australia to activate it?

I would hope that if nothing else has been said by now, then the list for July would remain the same as from the April reshuffle - but if there's anything that the reshuffle and the abolishment of 457s taught me, its that anything could happen at any time! I heard that the total number of visas would stay the same, but not sure I heard that the allocation to accountants within that would stay the same? I guess it would make sense though. Fingers crossed for us both!

Hi @woody2709 I used e2 language too, although never paid for the full version. I also scoured YouTube for the various sections of the test and tried LOADS of practice tests! Do you have a sense for which part of the writing might be tripping you up? Maybe just concentrate on that as you seem to have the rest of it nailed! Good luck for another attempt, I'm sure you can do it.