Top Tips on how to claim Overseas and Australian employment points
What is Skilled Occupation Assessment and how are you awarded employment points?
Skills assessment involves assessing your qualifications and employment against the suitability of your nominated occupation. Employment assessment involves determining whether your work experience (obtained either in Australia or overseas) is at an appropriate skill level and relevant to your nominated occupation.
Applicants are awarded points for employment experience in a skilled occupation, either in Australia. Experience must be in a nominated occupation on Australia’s Skilled Occupations List or an occupation that is closely related to earn points for skilled employment and must have been gained within the last ten years.
Employment Suitability Condition
Your employment must have been paid employment. Internships and volunteer work cannot be used to claim points. This means that paid leave will also be counted. Extended leave without pay such as parental leave may not cannot be counted.
Time claimed can be from both experience in Australia and from overseas, however are counted separately. You can claim 3 years from overseas experience and 1 year in Australia to give you 10 points (5+5), but you cannot combine 2 years overseas and 1 year Australia to get you 3 years. Experience can only be claimed from the 10 years preceding your application
If you have experience in Australia, any work done that was in breach of your visa conditions at the time would not be counted. If you held a student visa and worked beyond the 40 hours a fortnight restriction, your experience will not be considered.
Skilled employment
Employment must be ‘skilled employment ‘and must be after you are deemed ‘skilled’. ‘Skilled employment’ needs to involve roles and responsibilities at least entry level requirements for the nominated occupation. An applicant is ‘deemed skilled’ at the point he/she is performing at an expected standard. The department refers to the assessing bodies opinion on when a person is ‘deemed skilled’ and ‘skilled employment’ can only be claimed from the date you are deemed skilled.
Points for skilled employment
In Australia, there are different authoritative bodies for different occupation, here are list of some major occupation’s authoritative entities:
This council assesses Architects.
This authority assesses computer professionals like Programmers, System Designers, System Mangers etc. Refer to the SOL for more occupations.
This authority assesses Dentists and Dental Specialists.
This authority assesses Managers and Administrators. Refer to the MLTSSL, STSOL and ROL for a complete list.
The institute assesses the qualifications of overseas trained medical scientists
This authority assesses all Trades. Refer to the MLTSSL, STSOL and ROL for further details.
Along with the CPAA and ICAA, this authority assesses Accountants.
This authority is the largest Skills Assessment Authority in Australia. It assesses all remaining Trades and General Occupations. Refer to the MLTSSL, STSOL and ROL for further details.
Points are awarded separately for skilled employment experience gained within Australia and elsewhere. Points from both tables can be combined, but the maximum total points award for skilled employment is 20 points.
To Conclude, having employment experience can certainly help the aspirants who want to migrate to Australia, be it overseas work experience or from the local Australian employment, however, the points score from employment would differ according to the time period of employment.
It is highly recommended to take the expert advice on this matter before claiming the employment points so as to not to risk your DHA visa application refusal.
How many hours to work in a year to claim for work experience point for Australian PR application
Hi Jaz
A full-time position is considered to be at least 38 hours per week and MUST have third party “payment evidences that are acceptable to DHA” else your points claim can be assessed to be incorrect leading to your visa application refusal.
All the best!