As everyone knows, for Australian skilled migration visas 189, 190 and 491, the primary applicant’s skills assessment is valid for a maximum of 3 years (for example, accounting and engineering), and some are valid for 2 years (for example, IT and nursing). However, very few people know,that the secondary applicant’s skills assessment is, in fact, valid permanently.This article discusses this issue.
Before discussing the validity period of the secondary applicant’s skills assessment, let’sfirst talk about the validity period of the primary applicant’s skills assessment.Taking the Subclass 189 visa as an example, according to the migration law189.222(1), as shown in the image below — here’s a quick translation: at the time of invitation, (a) a skills assessment must be held; (b) this skills assessment must not be a 485 skills assessment; (c) the skills assessment must still be within its validity period; (d) the skills assessment’s validity period must not exceed 3 years
Therefore, as noted above, the primary applicant’s skills assessment may be valid for 3 years or less. (In fact,before the migration law was amended on 1 July 2014, the primary applicant’s skills assessment was also valid permanently, because at that time the migration law’s requirement for skills assessments only included item (a) in the image above, while (b), (c) and (d) were only added after the law was amended.
There’s a famous case in migration history, Octavia v Minister for Immigration, in which the applicant successfully won in the Federal Court, which meant the primary applicant’s skills assessment became valid permanently. The link to this case is here — if you’re interested, feel free to take a look:http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/cases/cth/FMCA/2011/16.html). When the editor was studying the migration law course, the teacher covered this case — below is a screenshot of the course material from that time; please look at the highlighted section:
Now, back to the main topic — today we mainly want to talk about the secondary applicant!
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After all that lead-up,let’s now talk about the secondary applicant.The points for the secondary applicant are set out in Schedule 6D of the migration law, under Part 6D.11, Item 6D111, as shown in the image below:
Aftercomparing this with the migration law’s requirements for the primary applicant’s skills assessment,you’ll find that items (d) and (e) in this image regarding the requirements for the secondary applicant’s skills assessment simply state that a skills assessment must be held (the same as the primary applicant’s situation before 1 July 2014, discussed earlier) — they don’t require the skills assessment to still be within its validity period, unlike items (c) and (d) for the primary applicant’s skills assessment discussed earlier. This means that, under the migration law, the secondary applicant’s skills assessment only needs tohad been assessed….as having suitable…(have once been assessed as suitable) — that’s all that’s required.
Furthermore, according to the Department’s internal case-handling manual PAM (short for Procedures Advice Manual, the manual used by visa officers to assess cases), there is a very clear description of the secondary applicant’s skills assessment as follows — take a close look at the red-boxed section in the image below and it will be easy to understand:
Therefore, to sum up,as far as partner points are concerned, the Department considers the secondary applicant’s skills assessment to be valid permanently(regardless of what’s written on the skills assessment itself.It’s like an IELTS results slip saying it’s only valid for 2 years, but the Department actually accepts it for 3 years — how long something remains valid is ultimately up to the Department).
Doesn’t this save everyone a few hundred dollars in skills assessment fees? If you enjoyed this, please like, share and follow at the end of the article!
If you’d like further answers or need help with an application (student visa/Subclass 485, skilled migration 189/190/491, partner migration, parent migration, visitor visa, citizenship, and more), feel free to get in touch with me!
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