Negative skills assessment: why it happened, review or appeal or reapply, and what it does to your visa

MARN 1576536

What a negative outcome means

An assessing authority is a body the Minister has specified to assess skills for an occupation, and its assessment is evidence the Department requires for the skilled and most employer-sponsored visas. A negative outcome is the authority's finding that the applicant does not meet the standard for the nominated occupation on the evidence provided; a partial or lower-level outcome is a finding that the applicant meets a related or lower occupation, or meets the qualification standard but not the employment standard. Neither is a decision under the Migration Act, neither is reviewable at the Tribunal, and neither binds the Department to anything except that a positive assessment is not yet in hand. The remedies are the authority's own, set out in its policies and in the outcome letter. The skills assessment guide explains the system.

Why assessments fail

• The wrong occupation. The duties in the employment references match a different ANZSCO occupation from the one nominated, usually a related one at the same level, and the authority assesses against the one nominated.
• Employment below the skill level. The work was in the occupation but at a level the authority considers below the skilled standard, or was in a role with the right title and the wrong duties.
• The qualification not comparable. The overseas qualification is assessed as below the Australian level the occupation requires, or in a field the authority considers insufficiently related.
• Evidence not accepted. References not on letterhead, not signed by the right person, lacking duties, hours or dates; payslips or tax records missing for the period claimed; a self-employment claim without third-party evidence.
• Not enough post-qualification experience. The authority deducts years, as ACS does for ICT, or requires a period after the qualification that the applicant has not reached.
• Integrity concerns. Documents the authority could not verify, or an employer who did not confirm, which the authority treats as not meeting the standard and sometimes reports.

Review, reassessment, appeal, fresh application

• Review. The authority looks again at its own assessment of the same evidence, for an error in applying its criteria. Cheap, quick, and useless where the evidence was the problem.
• Reassessment. The authority considers the application again with additional or corrected evidence, usually for a fee close to a new application. The route for missing or defective references.
• Appeal. At authorities that offer one, a further consideration by a different assessor or a panel, usually only after a review, within a stated period, and usually on the same evidence. The outcome is final within the authority.
• Fresh application. A new application in the same or a different occupation, with the evidence rebuilt. No deadline, full fee, and the route when the occupation was wrong.

Authorities name these differently and some combine them. The outcome letter lists what is available and the period for each, and a route chosen for the wrong reason, a review where the evidence was the problem, wastes the deadline and the fee.

The main authorities

• Engineers Australia. A review of the outcome, then an appeal, within six months of the outcome letter; new evidence only where the assessor asks for it or in exceptional circumstances; fees refunded if the appeal succeeds. A negative CDR outcome is most often a career episode that does not demonstrate the competencies, and the practical route is a review with the episodes rewritten where the authority permits, or a fresh CDR.
• VETASSESS, professional occupations. A review, an appeal within 90 days of the review outcome, a reassessment against a different occupation, or a fresh application; the appeal is final. A lower-level outcome on the qualification is often answered by a change of occupation.
• VETASSESS, trades. Much shorter periods, in days from the outcome, for a review or a reassessment including a further technical interview or practical assessment; the letter is read on the day it arrives.
• ACS. A review and an appeal under its published appeal policy, with its own periods and fees; a negative outcome is usually the deduction of experience or the qualification assessed as not closely related, and a reassessment with the qualification mapped or the experience evidenced is the usual answer. The RPL route is available where the qualification is the problem.
• TRA and the trades programmes. Reviews and appeals under each programme's rules, with periods set in the outcome letter; the migration skills assessment, the OSAP and the TSS pathway each differ.
• The health and teaching bodies, ANMAC, AHPRA-linked assessments, AITSL, the AMC, which have their own review processes tied to their registration standards.

Fees, forms and periods change, and the authority's current policy, not this page, governs.

New evidence

The distinction that decides the route is whether the problem was the evidence or the assessment of it. Where the reference lacked duties, the payslips were missing, or the self-employment had no third-party proof, the evidence was the problem, and the remedy is a reassessment or a fresh application with the evidence fixed; a review will fail because the assessor assessed what was there correctly. Where the evidence was complete and the assessor misread the duties, miscounted the years, or applied the wrong occupation description, the assessment was the problem, and a review or appeal is the remedy, argued from the evidence already on file. An applicant who is not sure which it was reads the outcome letter's reasons, which usually say, and the self-employed evidence guide covers the hardest evidence case.

A different occupation

Many negative outcomes are a wrong occupation rather than a wrong candidate: a project manager assessed as an ICT business analyst, a chef assessed as a cook, a marketing specialist assessed as an advertising specialist, a mechanical engineer whose work was in engineering technology. The authority's letter sometimes says which occupation the evidence does match, and a reassessment or fresh application in that occupation succeeds. Before paying for it, the occupation is checked against the list for the intended visa, the points it carries, and the state nominations open for it, because a positive assessment in an occupation that is not on the list, or that a state does not nominate, is a document with no visa behind it. The occupation guide sets out which authority assesses which, and the consultation checks the lists.

What it does to a pending visa

A visa application lodged on a positive assessment that is later withdrawn, or on an assessment that expires, or lodged in anticipation of one that comes back negative, fails the criterion that requires it, and the Department refuses unless a positive assessment is provided by the time of decision for visas that assess the criterion then, or at the time of application for visas that fix it then. For the points-tested visas the assessment must have been positive at invitation; for the employer-sponsored visas it is usually assessed at decision, so a reassessment that arrives before the decision can save the application, and a request to the Department for time, with the reassessment receipt, is sometimes granted. A refusal on this ground brings the ordinary consequences, including the section 48 bar onshore, which is why an applicant whose assessment fails during processing considers withdrawal before refusal: the withdrawal guide.

What it does to an expression of interest

An expression of interest in SkillSelect claims a positive assessment in the nominated occupation, and an invitation issued on a claim that the applicant cannot support produces a visa application that is refused and an invitation that is wasted. An applicant with a negative assessment does not submit or leave live an expression of interest claiming one; the expression is updated or withdrawn until the positive assessment exists, and the points and occupation are re-entered when it does. A state nomination applied for on the strength of an assessment that was then withdrawn is notified to the state. The SkillSelect guide covers the claims and the consequences.

Deciding the route

1. Read the outcome letter for the reason, the routes offered, and the period for each, and note the date.
2. Decide whether the problem was the evidence, the assessment, or the occupation.
3. Evidence: reassessment or fresh application with the evidence fixed. Assessment: review, then appeal, inside the period. Occupation: fresh application in the right one, after checking the lists.
4. If a visa application is pending, tell the Department what is being done and when it will be ready, and consider withdrawal if the timing cannot work.
5. Fix the expression of interest so that it claims only what is held.

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General information only, current at October 2026; not advice on your own case. Regulation 2.26B of the Migration Regulations 1994 and the skills assessment criteria of the relevant visa subclasses, as in force at the date above; the review, reassessment and appeal processes, periods and fees are those of each assessing authority and change without notice, and the authority’s current policy governs. Outcomes depend on the assessing authority’s and the Department’s assessment of each matter; no registered migration agent can guarantee a result (Code of Conduct, Migration Agents Regulations). Keshab Chapagain, MARN 1576536.