189 Visa - IELTS Pass Issues & Other Issues

[Deepskisam]

Good day all,

 

I am looking at applying for a 189 visa. I have managed to get a skills assessment completed by the ACS as an ICT Business Analyst, I have a relevant MSc to the subject and have been employed in the role for the last 23 years by the British Army. I have sat the IELTS three times now and I am scoring 9 in all areas accept the reading which I cannot get above 7.5 after 3 attempts. At present I am 5 point below the threshold of 60.

 

My wife is a part qualified CIMA management accountant and bookkeeper who has her Australian HSC including English and Maths.

 

​My wife is an ex permanent resident but this has lapsed and cannot be renewed. All of her family including mother/father/brother/sister and cousins are in NSW and Queensland and are now Australian citizens. We have been informed that we cannot get family sponsorship as I have brothers who still live in the UK although she has no other relatives in the UK.

 

My questions are:

 

1. Do I just crack on and keep taking the IELTS until I get a higher score?

2. Get my wife to try and get a skills assessment done and get her to do an IELTS and add her to the EOI?

3. Try to find some other route of entry? We would look at state sponsorship but NSW and Queensland do not have ICT Business Analyst on their list.

 

​Any suggestions and advice is greatly received

 

Regards

 

Sammi

[nic1171]

I used English Ryan You Tube for help with writing and managed to get an 8 this time albeit my listening went down to a 7.5 so gotta resit too! Good luck

[Deepskisam]

Nic,

 

Any top tips on scoring above 8 on the reading side. I am doing fine on the rest I seem to only get 7.5 on reading every-time. Last exam was 9 across the board but 7.5 on reading.

 

Any tips is a help. I do wonder if I am reading into the question too much on the reading.

[Maggie2012]

Nic,

 

Any top tips on scoring above 8 on the reading side. I am doing fine on the rest I seem to only get 7.5 on reading every-time. Last exam was 9 across the board but 7.5 on reading.

 

Any tips is a help. I do wonder if I am reading into the question too much on the reading.

 

I assume your 55 points are IELTS included. If not your IELTS score is worth 10 points. If you were to go the Subclass 190 (state sponsored) you could earn those 5 extra 5 points. And Subclass 190 gets a priority processing time as well (6 months vs. the 12 months on 189). Have you considered this?

 

Also, if your wife gets re-evaluated it is 5 points only, but she has to meet criteria. The assessment for her would be probably $600 or so and take up to 6 months (ours did). But you could just go and retry the IELTS test until you get the 8 (for those 20 ) points if nothing else.

 

As for the test itself there are a lot of reading sample test on the net or you could just invest in their test book and practice away ;-)

[Deepskisam]

Maggie, you are correct I am stuck on 55 with a 10. Stupidly I left my application until my 40th and lost a whole load of points. Can anyone recommend a site that has lots of free reading tests. I have found a few but they only have one or two on there.

 

Also while I am at it my current thought was a 189 as then I could fly out an activate the visa and then move in a couple of years time. Can the same thing be done with a state sponsored visa or must you fly out move out there permanently within the first year?

​

[nic1171]

Hi I think english Ryan on Youtube helps also with reading. I used the Cambridge books. I think we tend to look too deep into the questions and I usually struggly with the true, false. not given. Dont know how tbh Ive scored 9 each time. Are you sitting Academic or general? My first was academic as needed it for skills assessment but second was general as I only need for points now too. the reading for general is a lot easier to follow.