I often got asked can I lodge the visa application before receiving my skill assessment result.
The answer is we need to read the Time of Application Criteria, some visa categories only require evidence of lodging skill assessment (e.g. 485 Graduate Visa) at the time of application while other visa categories require you must have positive skill assessment result before applying (i.e GSM Visas)
If you don’t get it right, you most likely will receive a negative outcome.
Here is a case study:
Jessica is a hairdresser from UK. Her second working holiday visa is expiring within weeks.
Jessica was excited and thinking she can remain in Australia and apply for the permanent resident.
However, there is one thing that she was not sure, that is skills assessment requirement. She hadn’t done a skill assessment and wonder if this is a requirement for 187 direct entry.
Since not much time left on her current visa, Jessica decided to lodge the application without the skill assessment result. Meanwhile, just to be safe, she started to apply for a skills assessment. She got a positive skills assessment result after 3 months of lodgment.
Jessica attached the skills assessment result to her RSMS application and was confident that she would have the visa granted shortly.
A few months later, her 187 visa was refused because she did not satisfy the Time of Application criteria
Comment: Most 187 occupations do not have skills assessment requirement except when the nominated occupation is a trade occupation and the applicant’s qualification is not from Australia. If this is a case, providing positive skills assessment is a time of application criteria, in other word, Jessica should have the positive skills assessment result before lodging the RSMS application.
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