Are you an Engineer looking for permanent residency in Australia?

The good news for Engineers is that a number of engineering occupations are included on the Skilled Occupation List (SOL) and therefore permanent residency options are available for Engineers.

To proceed with permanent residency under SkillSelect a skills assessment is a requirement. The relevant skills assessment authority for the above occupations is Engineers Australia.

THE SKILLS ASSESSMENT PROCESS

English Requirement

Engineers Australia require evidence of English Language competency. The two acceptable tests are IELTS (minimum score of 6 in each of the four modules in the General or Academic version of the test) and TOEFL iBT (Listening: 12 Reading: 13 Writing: 21 Speaking: 18).

There are certain exemptions to the English requirement, including:

• Applicants who have completed an Australian undergraduate engineering qualification or a 2 years Master’s degree or PhD program at an Australian University.

• Applicants who are native English speaker- A native English speaker is a person who lived and was educated (primary, secondary and tertiary education) in the country where the official language is English: Australia, New Zealand, USA, UK, Ireland and Canada (excluding Quebec).

Exemptions are at the discretion of the Engineers Australia Assessor.

Qualification Requirement

Accredited Qualifications:

• Specific qualifications from certain countries are accredited with Engineers Australia under signed agreements with participating countries.

• If you hold an accredited qualification the skills assessment is simplified and the processing times and lodgement fees are reduced.

Non- Accredited Qualifications:

• If you do not hold an accredited qualification, but hold a Bachelor Degree in an Engineering Discipline, you will be required to write and prepare a Competency Demonstration Report (CDR).

• The purpose of the CDR is to demonstrate your employment, experience and competency as an Engineer and professional development as an Engineer.

A CDR consists of:

• 3 career episodes. A career episode focuses on a specific role, project or engineering problem. As part of the episode you need to explain your role in the project or role and how you applied your engineering knowledge and skills.

• Summary Statement- This is an analysis and summary that you have demonstrated all of the required engineering competencies throughout your three career episodes.

• Continuing Professional Development- This includes courses, journals, conferences, formal study and any other professional development

Current processing times

The current turnaround time for non-accredited qualifications is 15 weeks.

The current turnaround time for Accredited Australian and Accord qualifications is 8 weeks.

Engineers Australia do offer a fast track service for an additional fee of $275.00. This allows you to skip the queue by having your application assigned to an assessor within 15 working days.

Our Registered Migration Agents have several years’ experience in assisting Engineers through the skills assessment and permanent residency process. To assess your options, please complete an online assessment here.