Skills assessment expired before the invitation: the three-year rule, why the invitation date is the one that counts, the sixty days, and renewing in time

MARN 1576536

The three-year rule

Since 2014 the regulations have provided that a skills assessment for the points-tested visas is taken to have expired three years after the date it was made, or on the earlier date the assessing authority specifies in it, so that an assessment is valid for three years or for the shorter period the authority prints and never for longer; before that an assessment never expired, and applicants invited on assessments from the previous decade were granted. The rule applies to the 189, the 190 and the 491, and in the same form to the 186 direct entry stream and the 482 where an assessment is required, and it reads the date of the assessment as the date on the outcome letter, not the date of application to the authority or the date the applicant received it. The skills assessment guide covers the authorities and the process.

The dates authorities print

The authorities differ: some print a validity of two years on the outcome letter for migration purposes, some print three, some print nothing, and some, assessing for registration or membership as well as migration, print five or none for their own purposes; where the printed period is shorter than three years it governs, where it is longer the regulations cap it at three, and where there is none the three years run from the letter's date. An applicant reads the letter for its own date and its own validity statement and then applies the cap, and an applicant with an assessment from an authority that prints two years has two, not three, whatever the Department's general statement says. A reassessment, a review or an appeal that produces a new outcome letter restarts the period from that letter's date in most authorities' practice, and the applicant checks the new letter rather than assuming.

Why the invitation is the date

The criteria for the points-tested visas require that, at the time of invitation, the applicant had a suitable skills assessment for the nominated occupation, and the Department tests validity at that moment: an assessment that was valid on the date the invitation issued meets the criterion, and one that had expired does not, and the applicant invited on an expired assessment has an invitation that cannot produce a grant, because the criterion is tested at a date that has passed. The expression of interest that produced the invitation claimed a valid assessment, and the invitation was issued on that claim; the Department does not re-issue an invitation for a later assessment, and the applicant goes back to the pool with the new assessment and waits for the next round. The time-of-invitation criteria also cover the English test, the age and the points claimed, and the invitation checklist lists each.

The assessment that expires during the sixty days

An assessment valid on the date of the invitation letter and expiring within the sixty days the invitation gives to lodge has been read, by the Department in its practice and by the Federal Circuit Court in a decision on the point, as valid at the time of invitation, the court reading the time of invitation as the period during which the invitation can be acted on rather than the instant of its issue; an applicant in that position lodges inside the sixty days, with the assessment, and the Department grants on it. The safe course is to lodge before the assessment's date, which removes the question, because an argument about the meaning of the time of invitation is an argument an applicant does not want to have at the Department or the Tribunal. An applicant who cannot lodge before the date, because the police certificates or the health examination are not ready, lodges inside the sixty days anyway, since the other documents can follow and the assessment's validity cannot be recovered.

The EOI and the expired assessment

An expression of interest in SkillSelect records the assessment's reference, authority and date, and the applicant who lets the assessment expire while the expression of interest stays in the pool is claiming an assessment that no longer exists; SkillSelect does not check, and the round invites on the points and the claim. An applicant who renews updates the expression of interest the day the new letter issues, with the new reference and date, so that the next invitation is on the valid assessment; an applicant who is invited before updating, on the old claim, with the new assessment in hand, has an invitation on an expired assessment and a new assessment that was not the one at invitation, which the Department has treated as not meeting the criterion in some cases and accepted in others, and the consultation reads the current practice. The expression of interest's own two-year life runs separately, and the not-invited guide covers the wait that outlasts both.

Renewing with each authority

• Most authorities offer a renewal or reissue for an applicant whose circumstances have not changed, at a lower fee than a fresh assessment, on a short form with the earlier outcome and a declaration, in weeks.
• Some require a full reassessment where the earlier assessment is older than a set period or where the occupation's criteria have changed, at the full fee, in months.
• Some assess employment to a date and require updated employment evidence for the renewal, which is also the chance to add the points for the years since.
• An authority that has changed its criteria since the first assessment can return a different outcome, and an applicant whose occupation's criteria have tightened checks before applying; the negative outcome guide covers the renewal that comes back different.
• The renewal's date is the new letter's date, and the three years run again from it.

The fees guide sets out what each authority charges.

Lodging with a renewal pending

The Department has published, from time to time, a position allowing an applicant whose assessment expires after the invitation and before lodgement to lodge with evidence that a renewal has been applied for, and to provide the renewed assessment before the decision, which addresses the applicant whose authority is slow; it has not allowed an applicant whose assessment had expired before the invitation to lodge on that basis, because the criterion is tested at invitation and the renewal cannot reach back. The position is the Department's practice rather than the regulations, it has changed, and an applicant lodges on it only after reading the Department's current statement and only where the expiry falls after the invitation; a renewal that comes back with a different occupation or outcome does not meet the criterion, and the application is refused.

The 186 and the 482

The 186 direct entry stream requires a skills assessment valid at the time of application, with the same three-year cap, and the 482 requires one for the occupations and nationalities the instrument lists, valid at the time of application; there is no invitation, the date is lodgement, and an applicant whose assessment expired the week before the nomination and visa were lodged is refused on the criterion, with the employer's nomination charge and the applicant's visa charge spent. An employer-sponsored applicant renews before lodgement, and an applicant whose renewal is pending at lodgement is examined under the Department's practice on the point, which for the 186 has been less forgiving than for the points-tested visas. The 186 transition stream does not require an assessment for most occupations, since the two years of sponsored work stand in for it.

The refusal and the Tribunal

A points-tested visa refused because the assessment had expired at the time of invitation is a refusal on a time-of-invitation criterion, which the Tribunal cannot cure: the Tribunal decides whether the criterion was met at the time it had to be met, and an assessment obtained later is not evidence that one existed then. The applicant is left with a refusal on the record, the section 48 bar if onshore, the visa charge spent, and the need to renew, re-lodge the expression of interest and wait for another invitation, with the refusal disclosed on the new application. The points refusal guide covers the refusals that share this shape.

The planning rule

1. Write the assessment's expiry date on the file the day the letter arrives, applying the authority's printed period and the three-year cap.
2. Start the renewal at thirty months, or six months before a shorter printed date, so the new letter issues before the old expires.
3. Update the expression of interest with the new assessment the day it issues.
4. Check the English test's validity and the age at the same time, since they are tested at the same moment.
5. If invited with the assessment expiring inside the sixty days, lodge before the expiry date.
6. For the 186 and 482, renew before lodgement, not before decision.

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General information only, current at October 2026; not advice on your own case. The time-of-invitation criteria for subclasses 189, 190 and 491 and the time-of-application criteria for subclasses 186 and 482 in Schedule 2 to the Migration Regulations 1994, including the provisions deeming a skills assessment to expire three years after it was made or on an earlier date specified in it, and the Department’s published practice on lodgement with a renewal pending, as at the date above; the Department’s practice changes and the current published position governs. Outcomes depend on the Department’s assessment of each application; no registered migration agent can guarantee a result (Code of Conduct, Migration Agents Regulations). Keshab Chapagain, MARN 1576536.