VETASSESS: Employment Date

VETASSESS: Employment Date

VETASSESS has announced that, for the assessment of general professional occupations, it will use not only month and year to calculate employment dates, but also day:

VETASSESS currently uses only month and year to calculate the employment dates. As of the 14th 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 will 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


Schedule an appointment with Greenhill Australia