Process
Apart from CAANZ, two other assessing organisations, Certified Practising Accountants Australia (CPA Australia) and the Institute of Public Accountants (IPA), are authorised to provide skills assessments for accounting occupations on the combined current list. Applicants need to choose only one authority and submit qualifications and skilled employment assessments to the same organisation. CPA Australia and IPA have their own assessment criteria that may be different from CAANZ requirements discussed below.
CAANZ provides 2 types of skills assessment, full and provisional. The former is for Points Tested Skilled Migration and the latter is for recent graduates of Australian Educational Institutions applying for a Temporary Graduate Visa.
Skilled employment assessment is separate from qualifications assessment, but applicants can submit combined application for both. However, CAANZ will only assess employment under the same nominated occupation and only if an applicant received a positive outcome of qualification assessment from CAANZ.
All applicants must provide English Language Test (ELT) results that are no more than 3 years old . For a full skills assessment the minimal scores for each module must be no less than in the following table. Minimal scores for provisional skills assessment are slightly lower.
Module
Reading
Writing
Speaking
IELTS Academic
7
7
7
CAE
185
185
185
TOEFL iBT®
24
27
23
PTE Academic™
65
65
65
Qualifications
Full skills assessment criteria differ depending on whether an applicant holds a degree or is a member of a recognised accounting body.
Current membership in one of the following professional bodies will generally satisfy the qualification requirements for migration purposes.
Global Accounting Alliance (GAA)
- American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA)
- Chartered Accountants Ireland (CAI)
- Chartered Professional Accountants Canada (CPAC) – Reciprocity applies to CPA, CA, CMA and CGA members
- Hong Kong Institute of Certified Public Accountants (HKICPA)
- Institute of Chartered Accountants Scotland (ICAS)
- Institute of Chartered Accountants England and Wales (ICAEW)
- South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (SAICA)
Other applicants need to have one of the qualifying degrees or to hold full membership in one of the qualifying accounting bodies. In general, the memberships mentioned below are assessed as comparable to the level of an Australian Bachelor degree.
Qualifying Degrees
- an Australian Bachelor degree, or
- 12 unit accredited Australian Master degree, or
- an overseas qualification comparable to the level of an Australian Bachelor degree or higher
Qualifying Accounting Bodies
- Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICA India) – full recognition policy
- The Malaysian Institute of Certified Public Accountants – full recognition policy
- Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA, UK) – individual subjects are assessed to determine the required competency areas
- Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA, UK) – individual subjects are assessed to determine the required competency areas
- The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Zimbabwe (ICAZ) – individual subjects are assessed to determine the required competency areas
In addition, applicants must have completed all mandatory competency areas. The first seven competencies out of the following nine core knowledge areas are mandatory for all accounting occupations. The last two competencies, Audit and Assurance and Taxation Law, are mandatory only for External Auditor and Taxation Accountant, respectively.
Core Knowledge Areas
- 1. Accounting Systems and Processes
- 2. Financial Accounting and Reporting¹
- 3. Management Accounting
- 4. Finance
- 5. Economics
- 6. Business Law²
- 7. Quantitative Methods
- 8. Audit and Assurance
- 9. Taxation Law
Core Knowledge Area
9
Accountant General 221111
optional
Taxation Accountant 221113
mandatory³
Management Accountant 221112
optional
External Auditor 221213
optional
Finance Manager 132211
optional
²Business Law includes both study in commercial law and corporations law.
³Australian taxation law is compulsory only for this code – local tax law is optional for all other codes.
Employment
Skilled employment assessment must be completed by the same assessing body that completed qualifications assessment. CAANZ will only consider skilled employment if tasks performed are closely related to the same nominated occupation used in qualifications assessment and if employment was:
- undertaken after completion of a tertiary qualification that is comparable to the level of an Australian Bachelor degree or higher
- minimum of 1 year in total and undertaken within 10 years prior to skills assessment application date
- paid and full-time equivalent (minimum of 20 hours per week)
Timeframes
Processing times for Australian qualifications is 3 weeks and for overseas qualifications is about 4 weeks. Processing times for skilled employment assessment only is 4 weeks. Combined qualification and skilled employment assessments are processed within 6 weeks. Reviews of either qualifications or skilled employment assessment outcomes take 2 weeks, while reviews of combined applications take 4 weeks. These processing times are calculated from the date when all required documents have been received.
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