General professional occupations: ‘As of 14 February 2019, we will be considering the exact date, including day, month and year for the Date Deemed Skilled’; work outside last 10 years may be considered
Full date
VETASSESS has announced that, for the assessment of general professional occupations, it will use not onlymonth and year to calculate employment dates, but also day:
VETASSESS currently uses only month and year to calculate the employment dates. As of 14 February 2019, we will be considering the exact date, including day, month and year for the Date Deemed Skilled to align with the Department of Home Affairs requirement for the date an applicant’s employment is considered ‘skilled’.
Please note that we will continue to retrieve these dates from official documents only. Supporting employment documentation can include payslips, tax returns, and a statement of service from your employer clearly indicating the exact period of employment and if applicable, any period of unpaid leave.
Experience outside the last 10 years
The announcement also includes the following passage about employment outside the last 10 years (emphasis added):
Please be advised that as of 14 February 2019, VETASSESS may be able to consider closely related employment outside the last ten years, provided it is continuous employment with the same employer within the last ten years.
The last passage above left the writer scratching his head, but he has been informed by VETASSESS that it means the following: so long as an applicant has been working for the same employer for the last 10 years, experience with that employer outside the last 10 years may be considered.
It is not clear to the writer what difference that would make. After all:
- the work experience requirement for a subclass 186/187 visa under the Direct Entry stream is satisfied with only 3 years of relevant work experience;
- subclass 482 requires only 2 years of relevant work experience;
- For points-tested GSM visas, only the last 10 years are considered.
The only potential (and probably rare) scenario where an applicant would benefit from this change is where the applicant needs to demonstrate 2 years of work experience for subclass 482 or 3 years for subclasses 187/187 in occupation X and the applicant’s work experience is, for instance, as follows:
- applicant worked from 2004 to 2009 at an employer in occupation X
- same applicant continued to work for the same employer from 2009 to 2019, but in a different occupation, which is not closely related to occupation X
From reader Ales Welter
After publishing the above article, the writer received an email from reader Ales Welter, who raised a more plausible explanation for the above change concerning experience outside the last 10 years:
Hi Sergio,
thanks again for your timely, comprehensive and commented newsletters.
I have just one comment to Vetassess changes for employment falling outside the 10 years:
Please be advised that as of 14 February 2019, VETASSESS may be able to consider closely related employment outside the last ten years, provided it is continuous employment with the same employer within the last ten years.
I believe this change could be of a huge benefit to some persons who have long pre-qualification work experience in some occupations. An example:
A person has work experience as a Restaurant manager 1/1/2005-31/12/2018. This person obtained his first formal qualification at AQF Diploma level equivalent or higher in 2018.
Under pre-14 Feb 2019 guidelines, the date deemed skilled would be 13/2/2013 because:
Vetassess would consider employment 13/2/2009 – 31/12/2018. Vetassess would use 3 years (13/2/2009-12/2/2012) as a period of “qualifying employment” and 1 year (13/2/2012-12/2/2013) as a period of employment at an appropriate skill level. The date deemed skilled would be 13/2/2013. As a result. the person could claim points for 5 years of employment.
Under post-14 Feb 2019 guidelines, the date deemed skilled would be 1/1/2009 because:
Vetassess would consider employment 1/1/2005 – 31/12/2018. Vetassess would use 3 years (1/1/2005-31/12/2007) as a period of “qualifying employment” and 1 year (1/1/2008-31/12/2008) as a period of employment at an appropriate skill level. The date deemed skilled would be 1/1/2009. As a result. the person could claim points for 9 years of employment (=the employment after 13/2/2009, only employment within the last 10 years could be used for GSM points).
I hope I didn’t make a mistake in the calculation but the principle should be obvious.
Saying that, the pre-qualification employment could be considered for Vetassess occupation groups B,C and D only. However, under some circumstances, occupation groups A and E could profit from this change as well.
Thank you Ales. Good point!
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Sergio Zanotti Stagliorio is a Registered Migration Agent (MARN 1461003). He is the owner of Target Migration in Sydney. He can be reached at sergio@targetmigration.com.au