You need an ACS assessment to claim points for education and work experience in the Australian PR system.
You do not need English test results for filing ACS.
PTE and IELTS can be done in parallel with ACS evaluation.
ACS assessment fee is AUD $500.
ACS assessment processing time is 4 weeks. Officially ACS says that it takes about 10-12 weeks to get the ACS assessment report though.
This article will discuss:
Documents Required
#1 Birth Certificate or Passport
Only the Applicant details page is required from the passport. No need to submit all passport pages.
Example:
In the case of an Indian Passport, submit only the first and last page showing your photo and address.
#2. IDs (Two) other than Passport
Two separate government-issued IDs are required apart from the passport. One of these IDs should have a photograph. These two IDs can be either from your country of birth or the country of current residence.
Example:
- In India, you can use an Aadhar card and driving license.
- If you are an Indian citizen living in the USA, you can provide a US driving license and SSN card.
#3 Education Degree or Award Certificate
You need to submit a degree for your education above Senior secondary i.e. above 12th standard.
In the Australian culture, the degree is called tertiary education.
- Title of Degree or Award – Example: Masters of Computer Applications.
- Name of University or College – Example: Delhi University
- The date the Degree was completed should be mentioned.
Note that the education will not be counted as relevant if there is no degree.
If the date printed on your degree does not match your education completion, you can choose to either write the last examination date or the date printed on the degree.
#4 Mark Sheets or Mark sheet Transcript
Education mark sheets should have Unit or Subject Names in addition to grades or marks Achieved.
There is no need to get sealed transcripts for the degree or mark sheets.
#5 Work Experience Letters
ACS Work Experience letter format requires you to have all your roles and responsibilities mentioned clearly.
Use Sample skill letter for Australia PR to provide information about your day-to-day job responsibilities to ACS for your Australia ANZSCO job code.
- The start date and end date for the job have to be clearly mentioned.
- If you just mention the month like JUNE 2018 to MAR 2019, ACS will assume it to be the LAST day of that month for calculating your total work experience.
The official employer Letterhead is mandatory.
If you cannot get an employer letter, you can get your roles and responsibilities letter from colleagues or co-workers.
#6 Resume
Uploading a resume to ACS assessment is optional even though official ACS guidelines do ask for a CV.
Do you know How ACS calculates your work experience years?
ACS Process
Fees
| Application Type | Fee (AUD) |
|---|---|
| Temporary Graduate – 485 Skills Assessment | $500 |
| Post Australian Study Skills Assessment | $530 |
| Skills (general application) | $530 |
| Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) | $575 |
| Review Application | $395 |
| Appeal Application | $395 |
FAQ
A notary is not required for ACS assessment.
ACS changed the notary requirement in Sep 2019. The only exception is a co-worker reference letter for your work experience. This letter needs a notary.
Salary payment proofs are required for ACS assessment.
ACS system does NOT allow deleting the files in case you wrongly uploaded them even though they have a ‘Delete‘ button available.
As per the official ACS response, you can ignore the wrong files and just upload the correct files.
Some people suggest creating a new ACS online account and then re-start the process.
ACS does not allow creating a new account with a new email as they match your passport number with existing applications in their system.
English test results are not required for ACS assessment.
Evidence of Paid Employment
You can submit any two documents as evidence of paid employment:
#1 Official Government Tax Records
Documents that may include payment summaries, group certificates, or notices of assessment (citing company and applicant name) –
Example:
- Form 16 (India),
- Income tax returns – ITR (India), W2 (USA)
- Provident fund deduction,
- 401k (USA),
- Social Security Deductions (USA)
- Group Health Insurance Card where the premium was paid by an employer
- Superannuation Payments
#2 Payslips
You should submit one payslip from the start of each year of employment and one from the end of that year.
The salary statement or the pay stub should have the employer and employee names clearly mentioned.
If the employer’s name is not mentioned or not clearly visible, ACS will give a negative result.
#3 Bank Statements
Bank statements showing salary payments from an employer with employee and employer name.
If the employer’s name is not showing up in the Bank statement, ACS may not accept it. Sometimes, they do accept if the bank can provide a separate letter saying that the employer’s name could not be printed on the reports.
The bank statement is required for each salary pay. To reduce the size of the file, you can only get the statement from the bank which shows the salary credit.
PDF File Scan, Size for ACS
ACS allows uploading up to 8 PDF files with a maximum of 3 MB in size.
Use free ADOBE Scan mobile apps to easily scan your documents. This app also reduces the total PDF file size for easy upload to ACS.
Only color copies are accepted. Black and white scans will be rejected.
A separate PDF file should be created for each qualification type and for each Employment reference.
Example:
- You will have 1 PDF for your passport.
- Then, the second one for your Master’s/Bachelor’s degree + Mark sheets (all years)
- Then, the third one for your Employment 1 reference letter along with payment evidence.
- Then, the fourth one for your Employment 2 reference letter and so on.
Max 8 documents can be evaluated for 1 application fee.
This essentially means 8 PDF files excluding the passport PDF.
PDF Filename should clearly state the content of the file.
Example,
- PDF 1 can be named ‘Passport.pdf‘.
- PDF 2 with Masters’s degree and mark sheet can be named ‘Education 1 – Master of Computer Application.pdf’
- PDF 3 with Employment 1 can be named ‘Employment 1 – ABC technologies Ltd’.
Awaiting Documents Email
If ACS needs any more documents from you, they will send you an email and move the application status to ‘Awaiting Documents’.
If you have not received an email from them and still the status shows ‘Awaiting documents’, try these options to upload the documents to ACS.
Revalidation
The ACS re-validation fee is AUD $300.
You can apply for revalidation but I would not recommend it until you are sure of ACS’s mistake as they just re-do the same process that they did earlier.
You can communicate with ACS over email or call them to understand how they evaluated your education and work experience before opting for re-validation.
Current Employment End Date
The employment End date has to be mentioned for all employment.
ACS will consider the date printed on your current and active employment as the end date for counting the work experience.
Do not worry, you can keep the end date BLANK for current and active employment while filling Australia EOI to increase your work experience points automatically.
Once you are past the education and employment entry page, you will receive an email to create your PASSWORD. Follow that link. It will ask you to enter your email and send you a new link to reset your password.
Once you create a new password, you are logged in to ACS for completing your application.
In-Progress or with Assessor
Once you submit your application, it is normal for it to stay at the “In Progress” step for about 10-15 days.
Once the preliminary verification of your documents is done, the next status would show up as “with Assessor“.
The assessor is the person who will judge your educational and work experience and give the results.
Sample Report for 261312
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ACS may send the documents to the employer for verification if they feel something has been tampered with. This will delay your ACS report.
