From the 28th October it would appear the Permanent Residency hopes of potentially thousands of IT graduates studying in Australia will be dashed. 

The latest announcement regarding skill assessment guidelines from the Australian Computer Society outline the fact that new Australian IT graduates will only be able to obtain a provisional skill assessment for the 485 Graduate Visa.

The new provisional assessment will be called the "Temporary Graduate - 485". The letter (below) will specifically indicate the result is suitable for obtaining the 485 visa.

If you wish to apply for a "permanent skill assessment" you will need a "Graduate Skill Assessment".

When we spoke to Senior ACS Assessor Calvin today, he confirmed the new "Graduate Skill Assessment" will require a work experience component which is still to be announced but will released on the ACS web site sometime next week".

We expect that they will be following the VETASSESS skills platform example and will require 12 months relevant work experience in order to obtain the "PR" assessment.

There is little doubt that the news released by the ACS is deceptive in its design. It is far from clear to spell out what the changes for recent graduates will mean.

At this stage we will have to wait for this further information to be released regarding the mandatory work experience requirement to apply for permanent residency. We are suspicious that a special waiver may be implemented that those who complete an ACS approved Professional Year Program (PYP). It may become just a clever way for the ACS funnel thousands of International Students into their PYP programs who are not able to find jobs while they are on their 485 visas.

Readers may remember how we were critical of the Accounting assessing bodies giving a special IELTS exemption students who underwent their PYP programs. One has to wonder how students are miraculously able to achieve a higher standard of English in a PYP course. The result of this exemption for students no doubt has led to a significant increase of enrolments into their PYP programs.

The ACS today did not return our call for a media comment on this issue. I guess we will have to wait till next week to find out what this new work experience requirement will be.

ACS Announcement

Change of Name: Temporary Graduate - 485 

As of Oct 28, 2013, the Recent Graduate application type will change name to Temporary Graduate - 485.

The assessment criteria will remain the same -

*    Bachelor degree or higher with a major in computing that is closely related to the nominated occupation.

All applications lodged on or after Oct 28, 2013, will receive a result letter stating that the result has been issued for the purpose of lodging a visa subclass 485.    

Change of Name: Graduate Skills Assessment 

As of Oct 28, 2013, the Recent Graduate wanting experience considered application type will change name to Graduate Skills Assessment.

Only applicants that hold a valid Recent Graduate or Temporary Graduate - 485 skills assessment will be eligible to apply for a Graduate Skills Assessment. 

The Graduate Skills Assessment is to allow applicants that have previously applied for aTemporary Graduate - 485 to have their work experience assessed for a permanent skills assessment.

The assessment criteria will remain the same and the Skill Level Requirement Met Date will be noted as the completion date of the relevant Bachelor degree or higher on the ACS result letter.