Work skills assessment - qualified accountant

[Gillycraig]

Hi 

just at the start of this journey and looking for some help! I’m a qualified CA with a body that has a reciprocal agreement with the Australian equivalent but what I’m not clear on (and the department involved hasn’t been overly helpful) is whether I need a work skills assessment in addition to noting my qualifications? I’m a bit confused! 

I’ve got 60 points between age degree and language skills but I’ve read I need at least 70 to be on the accountant nominated occupation. 

Any help or experience would be appreciated!! 

 

 

 

 

 

[Ferrets]

Hi there,

You need a migration assessment from a recognised body so that is a hoop that needs to be jumped - I am not sure what your reciprocal is but mine was CPA and that was straight forward. 

However, at the moment Accountants need 80 points for a 189 given the last EOI invitation round, so would suggest you get going quick to get in the queue!

[lothar]

Hi,

I don't think work experience assessment is mandatory but it definitely helps. We have applied under accountant for my wife so have just gone through the process.

When you submit your Qualifications to be assessed to either IPA/CPA or ICAA, there is usually an option to add Work Experience Assessment to it. It only takes a few days to do and only adds about AUD100 to the price but if it passes that you are pretty much guaranteed that you will pass when the DIBP look at it. These bodies require the same documents that need to be sent to DIBP so I found it was better getting it up front and paying 100 to have it assessed than risking sending it to DIBP and they decline the points after I have paid AUD7000 Visa Application fee.

You will need 75 points on your EOI to stand a good chance to be invited so its worth having the work experience assessed to see how many points you can claim for.

I think accountancy is by far the hardest route to get in, its best to do as much as possible for it.

Hope that helps.

[VERYSTORMY]

You need a skills assessment and you need to boost points as submitting with 60 is pointless 

[JH_2017]

On 12/01/2018 at 14:56, lothar said:

Hi,

I don't think work experience assessment is mandatory but it definitely helps. We have applied under accountant for my wife so have just gone through the process.

When you submit your Qualifications to be assessed to either IPA/CPA or ICAA, there is usually an option to add Work Experience Assessment to it. It only takes a few days to do and only adds about AUD100 to the price but if it passes that you are pretty much guaranteed that you will pass when the DIBP look at it. These bodies require the same documents that need to be sent to DIBP so I found it was better getting it up front and paying 100 to have it assessed than risking sending it to DIBP and they decline the points after I have paid AUD7000 Visa Application fee.

You will need 75 points on your EOI to stand a good chance to be invited so its worth having the work experience assessed to see how many points you can claim for.

I think accountancy is by far the hardest route to get in, its best to do as much as possible for it.

Hope that helps.

Hi lothar,

I am an accountant, going through the process myself. Worried about all the constant changes and points being a moving target!

When you say 'accountancy is the hardest route to get in' - are you referring to specific things that you encountered?

Grrateful for any tips!

Thanks

[lothar]

20 hours ago, JH_2017 said:

Hi lothar,

I am an accountant, going through the process myself. Worried about all the constant changes and points being a moving target!

When you say 'accountancy is the hardest route to get in' - are you referring to specific things that you encountered?

Grrateful for any tips!

Thanks

 

No there is nothing specific in the skill assessment etc or any technicalities that makes it "harder" than other occupations but because it is a pro rata occupation and there is a very high application rate on this route you simply need a lot more points than other roles and things like the skills assessment take more time than other routes.

For most other roles 65-70 points is enough but for accounting 75 is probably minimum if you want an invite in a reasonable time (or before you lose points for age etc) and the Accounting assessments are 5+ weeks (my wife's took 9 weeks) where my friend as a spacial scientist got his assessment back in under a week.

Because you need 75+ points, we needed the full 20 points for English, 15 for qualifications and then points between age + experience to get there.

We were lucky that my wife is 32 and has 10 years experience so we got 80 points in total.

Not sure if that makes sense  

 

Let me know if you have any questions, this stuff is all fresh in my mind at the moment so will be happy to help.

Edited January 14, 2018 by lothar

[JH_2017]

33 minutes ago, lothar said:

 

No there is nothing specific in the skill assessment etc or any technicalities that makes it "harder" than other occupations but because it is a pro rata occupation and there is a very high application rate on this route you simply need a lot more points than other roles and things like the skills assessment take more time than other routes.

For most other roles 65-70 points is enough but for accounting 75 is probably minimum if you want an invite in a reasonable time (or before you lose points for age etc) and the Accounting assessments are 5+ weeks (my wife's took 9 weeks) where my friend as a spacial scientist got his assessment back in under a week.

Because you need 75+ points, we needed the full 20 points for English, 15 for qualifications and then points between age + experience to get there.

We were lucky that my wife is 32 and has 10 years experience so we got 80 points in total.

Not sure if that makes sense  

 

Let me know if you have any questions, this stuff is all fresh in my mind at the moment so will be happy to help.

Thanks, ok understand what you mean now.

And yes, it's not been easy so far!

I might have some questions along the way..thank for the offer of help.

Are you already over there?

[lothar]

1 hour ago, JH_2017 said:

Thanks, ok understand what you mean now.

And yes, it's not been easy so far!

I might have some questions along the way..thank for the offer of help.

Are you already over there?

Nope not yet

We submitted our "decision ready" VISA applicatioon on 6 December... So hoping on grant now, probably a month or so to wait still as it seems most applications get first contact from CO after around 2 months.

 

[Stayorgo]

Joining this thread as a fellow accountant. Submitted our Eoi a few weeks ago at 75 points. 

Qualified with an organisation with a reciprocal thing going on but still had to do English test and gather loads of evidence in order to get skills and work experience done. 

[Gillycraig]

I assume there is no way round doing a skills assessment without letting your employer know? 

How detailed is the skills assessment? What if you don’t have payslips going that far back? 

 

Sorey just at the very start of this process!also any info on the partner skills assessment as I think that could push us up to 80 points but it looks like CA australia need an English test even for that!! 

 

 

[Gillycraig]

On 12/01/2018 at 14:15, Ferrets said:

Hi there,

You need a migration assessment from a recognised body so that is a hoop that needs to be jumped - I am not sure what your reciprocal is but mine was CPA and that was straight forward. 

However, at the moment Accountants need 80 points for a 189 given the last EOI invitation round, so would suggest you get going quick to get in the queue!

Hi thanks for this where do you get the info on the 80 points requirement? Is there a website that gives you the up to date info? 

[lothar]

1 hour ago, Gillycraig said:

I assume there is no way round doing a skills assessment without letting your employer know? 

How detailed is the skills assessment? What if you don’t have payslips going that far back? 

* To have your work experience assessed you need your experience signed off by your manager of that role or a more senior person. So if you are looking to claim points for the experience in your current role, then you would need to get your manager to sign it off or a more senior person like CEO if you dont want to speak to your manager. So you could bypass your manager but someone in the company would know as they will be signing it off. 

* My wifes skills assessment was around 2-3 pages per role, she was in each role between 2 and 4 years.

Go to the CPA or ICAA websites, they are very detailed with what you need to provide, they even point you to a Aus Gov website which explains what they consider duties of an accountant. (IPA is the third body that can assess and they might have the same info but I never used their website)

* The websites above list documents they will accept if you do not have payslips, things they accept are the job contract, proof of employment letter from HR, P60's, Proof of employment from HMRC (this takes about a month to come), Bank Statements. There might be more but check on the Accounting body you intend to assess through's website.

---------------------

1 hour ago, Gillycraig said:

Hi thanks for this where do you get the info on the 80 points requirement? Is there a website that gives you the up to date info?

You can try here for unofficial estimates: http://www.iscah.com/news-page/ 

Or go here: https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/trav/work/skil 

You can then go down to "Invitation Rounds" and you will see what the "Date of Effect" is. When you submit your EOI that date is your date of effect, you need the departments date of effect to reach your date of effect before you get an invite.

From current estimates, if you submitted EOI of 75 points January 2018 you might get invited before the year roll over end of June 2018. Anyone on 75 points submitted Dec 2017 or earlier should be ok to get invite prior to June 2018.

With 80 points you should get an invite in 1 or 2 rounds. 

There are two rounds a month and you can see the next round on that website above.

The draws are at 0h00 Sydney on a Wednesday. So 1pm Tuesday afternoon in UK. The rounds are two weeks apart.

Edited January 15, 2018 by lothar

[Gillycraig]

15 hours ago, Stayorgo said:

Joining this thread as a fellow accountant. Submitted our Eoi a few weeks ago at 75 points. 

Qualified with an organisation with a reciprocal thing going on but still had to do English test and gather loads of evidence in order to get skills and work experience done. 

Hi where you had the qualification on the reciprocal arrangement did you get 10 or 15 points? Trying to work out what is what and not overly clear on the website. I have a degree but much more faff getting docs together than from ICAS. 

[lothar]

9 minutes ago, Gillycraig said:

Hi where you had the qualification on the reciprocal arrangement did you get 10 or 15 points? Trying to work out what is what and not overly clear on the website. I have a degree but much more faff getting docs together than from ICAS. 

Reciprocal aggreemenrs such as ACCA, CIMA, ICA are 15 points, as the equal an Aus degree. I would assume ICAS is also part of that group.

One thing to bear in mind though, is the work experience you can claim points for only starts counting from the day they think your education becomes equivalent of Aus degree. For ACCA, CIMA etc. this is after getting the Charter.

So for example, if you did an accounting degree and that degree by itself is equivalent to an Aus degree your work experience can begin counting from the end of that degree. For something like ACCA, CIMA and I assume ICAS you would need to do articles or work for a few years to get the charter. Those years DO NOT count towards your Work Experience you can claim points for. 

Therefore if you did an accounting degree at Uni, it would be better to have that assessed if it meats all the minimum requirements (the 9 core areas) as specified on the ICCA and CPA website.

[JH_2017]

34 minutes ago, lothar said:

Reciprocal aggreemenrs such as ACCA, CIMA, ICA are 15 points, as the equal an Aus degree. I would assume ICAS is also part of that group.

One thing to bear in mind though, is the work experience you can claim points for only starts counting from the day they think your education becomes equivalent of Aus degree. For ACCA, CIMA etc. this is after getting the Charter.

So for example, if you did an accounting degree and that degree by itself is equivalent to an Aus degree your work experience can begin counting from the end of that degree. For something like ACCA, CIMA and I assume ICAS you would need to do articles or work for a few years to get the charter. Those years DO NOT count towards your Work Experience you can claim points for. 

Therefore if you did an accounting degree at Uni, it would be better to have that assessed if it meats all the minimum requirements (the 9 core areas) as specified on the ICCA and CPA website.

When my skills assesment was done (CIMA) I only got 10 points rather than the 15 my agent thought I could get, as it does depend on the amount of years in work after your qualification.

[Stayorgo]

54 minutes ago, Gillycraig said:

Hi where you had the qualification on the reciprocal arrangement did you get 10 or 15 points? Trying to work out what is what and not overly clear on the website. I have a degree but much more faff getting docs together than from ICAS. 

Got 15 points for skilled employment (had ten years experience post qualification) and 15 for qualification. Needed a letter of good character from icaew and copies of exam results as well as membership certificate. They recognise the qualification as being equivalent to an Australian bachelor degree for the purpose of the qualification points. 

[lothar]

17 minutes ago, JH_2017 said:

When my skills assesment was done (CIMA) I only got 10 points rather than the 15 my agent thought I could get, as it does depend on the amount of years in work after your qualification.

I am sure a full member of CIMA will give you 15 points, but as you mentioned,  to be a full member you have  to have 3 years work experience after finishing Top CIMA exams.

Or did you only get 10 points even as a full member? 

Which is what  was trying to say in my previous post, if your degree already qualifies as Aus equivalent for accounting then you can use those three years experience towards claiming points for Work Experience.

 

[JH_2017]

18 minutes ago, lothar said:

I am sure a full member of CIMA will give you 15 points, but as you mentioned,  to be a full member you have  to have 3 years work experience after finishing Top CIMA exams.

Or did you only get 10 points even as a full member? 

Which is what  was trying to say in my previous post, if your degree already qualifies as Aus equivalent for accounting then you can use those three years experience towards claiming points for Work Experience.

 

Yes, I got the 15 points for my qualification as Aus equivelant.

But for my work experience, I only got 10 points - as you say that only counts from after the TOPCIMA which in my case is 7 yrs.

My agent originally thought I would be able to get the years I was working and studying CIMA counted as well, but they skills assesment did not agree to that....

Anyway, now need to get extra points from a state sponsorship which was not part of the original plan, but have no choice really!

Thank you for sharing your experience so far!

 

[Gillycraig]

1 hour ago, lothar said:

Reciprocal aggreemenrs such as ACCA, CIMA, ICA are 15 points, as the equal an Aus degree. I would assume ICAS is also part of that group.

One thing to bear in mind though, is the work experience you can claim points for only starts counting from the day they think your education becomes equivalent of Aus degree. For ACCA, CIMA etc. this is after getting the Charter.

So for example, if you did an accounting degree and that degree by itself is equivalent to an Aus degree your work experience can begin counting from the end of that degree. For something like ACCA, CIMA and I assume ICAS you would need to do articles or work for a few years to get the charter. Those years DO NOT count towards your Work Experience you can claim points for. 

Therefore if you did an accounting degree at Uni, it would be better to have that assessed if it meats all the minimum requirements (the 9 core areas) as specified on the ICCA and CPA website.

Thanks I’ve got enough post qualification experience post CA qualification but have asked the assessing body for a bit of guidance anyway. Thanks for your help 

[Gillycraig]

6 hours ago, lothar said:

* To have your work experience assessed you need your experience signed off by your manager of that role or a more senior person. So if you are looking to claim points for the experience in your current role, then you would need to get your manager to sign it off or a more senior person like CEO if you dont want to speak to your manager. So you could bypass your manager but someone in the company would know as they will be signing it off. 

* My wifes skills assessment was around 2-3 pages per role, she was in each role between 2 and 4 years.

Go to the CPA or ICAA websites, they are very detailed with what you need to provide, they even point you to a Aus Gov website which explains what they consider duties of an accountant. (IPA is the third body that can assess and they might have the same info but I never used their website)

* The websites above list documents they will accept if you do not have payslips, things they accept are the job contract, proof of employment letter from HR, P60's, Proof of employment from HMRC (this takes about a month to come), Bank Statements. There might be more but check on the Accounting body you intend to assess through's website.

---------------------

You can try here for unofficial estimates: http://www.iscah.com/news-page/ 

Or go here: https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/trav/work/skil 

You can then go down to "Invitation Rounds" and you will see what the "Date of Effect" is. When you submit your EOI that date is your date of effect, you need the departments date of effect to reach your date of effect before you get an invite.

From current estimates, if you submitted EOI of 75 points January 2018 you might get invited before the year roll over end of June 2018. Anyone on 75 points submitted Dec 2017 or earlier should be ok to get invite prior to June 2018.

With 80 points you should get an invite in 1 or 2 rounds. 

There are two rounds a month and you can see the next round on that website above.

The draws are at 0h00 Sydney on a Wednesday. So 1pm Tuesday afternoon in UK. The rounds are two weeks apart.

Thanks for this 

[Ferrets]

On 15/01/2018 at 18:07, Gillycraig said:

Hi thanks for this where do you get the info on the 80 points requirement? Is there a website that gives you the up to date info? 

It was based on the invitation round of 20th December 

https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/WorkinginAustralia/Pages/20-december-invitation-round-2017.aspx

Good luck

Ferrets

[Stayorgo]

No accountants were invited in 3 jan round. 

[Evel1184]

Hi all
Just wanted to join the thread and say this is one of the most accountant friendly threads I have seen on a forum so well done for getting amongst the accountancy relevant chat!

I did my skills assessment over the U.K. Summer and it was a painful experience given the admin/paperwork load I had to get through and that is before talking about the English tests that you have to sit. Be assure that You will get there in the end with the skills assessment and it will be worth it when you get to the end of the process but remember that it is a long old process and at some points you just have to keep the faith that it will all work out.

I submitted my application on 8 December and now am waiting for a response. It’s been 6 weeks now but I know it could be a lot longer.

If I can help with any questions then please feel free to ask and I’ll answer as best I can.

Cheers

Andy

[Gillycraig]

Hi does anyone know if for the employment assessment if years in external audit count for example I worked with PWC for 6 years and then as a finance manager for 6 years so happy with the last 6 years aligned to the accountant code but do they recognise work as an auditor as relevant experience in a closely related field? Just trying to maximise points!! 

Thanks 

[tomwilliam]

On 15/01/2018 at 09:44, lothar said:

* To have your work experience assessed you need your experience signed off by your manager of that role or a more senior person. So if you are looking to claim points for the experience in your current role, then you would need to get your manager to sign it off or a more senior person like CEO if you dont want to speak to your manager. So you could bypass your manager but someone in the company would know as they will be signing it off. 

* My wifes skills assessment was around 2-3 pages per role, she was in each role between 2 and 4 years.

Go to the CPA or ICAA websites, they are very detailed with what you need to provide, they even point you to a Aus Gov website which explains what they consider duties of an accountant. (IPA is the third body that can assess and they might have the same info but I never used their website)

* The websites above list documents they will accept if you do not have payslips, things they accept are the job contract, proof of employment letter from HR, P60's, Proof of employment from HMRC (this takes about a month to come), Bank Statements. There might be more but check on the Accounting body you intend to assess through's website.

---------------------

You can try here for unofficial estimates: http://www.iscah.com/news-page/ 

Or go here: https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/trav/work/skil 

You can then go down to "Invitation Rounds" and you will see what the "Date of Effect" is. When you submit your EOI that date is your date of effect, you need the departments date of effect to reach your date of effect before you get an invite.

From current estimates, if you submitted EOI of 75 points January 2018 you might get invited before the year roll over end of June 2018. Anyone on 75 points submitted Dec 2017 or earlier should be ok to get invite prior to June 2018.

With 80 points you should get an invite in 1 or 2 rounds. 

There are two rounds a month and you can see the next round on that website above.

The draws are at 0h00 Sydney on a Wednesday. So 1pm Tuesday afternoon in UK. The rounds are two weeks apart.

Hi Lothar - quick question regarding the work experience assessment! Did your wife have to go back to her old employers to get her experienced signed off? Do you think they would accept an statutory declaration regarding experience?