Certified Practicing Accountants (CPA) Skilled Worker Assessment

The Certified Practising Accountants (CPA) assessing body assesses candidates who have expertise working in a professional accounting role. CPA Australia assesses a candidate’s employment history to determine whether the work experience obtained is relevant to the occupation selected in the ANZSCO occupation list.

The Eligibility Criteria and Requirements for CPA Assessment

These are the eligibility criteria that candidates will need to meet to have their skills assessed by the CPA:

• Your previous employment job duties must closely match the ANZSCO code under which you have applied for your occupation.
• You need to have relevant work experience that was obtained 10 years before conducting your CPA assessment.
• The occupation you undertook must have been undertaken after completion of a formal qualification that CPA Australia recognizes as at least equivalent to an Australian Bachelor’s level degree.
• Your occupation should be continuous for 10 years, and you must have worked for 20 hours per week in these 10 years.

Supporting Documents:

Along with meeting these criteria, you must also provide supporting documents and testimonials from your previous employer(s):

• The testimonial should be written on the company’s official letterhead. The letterhead should include the company’s full address, telephone number, email and website address.
• The letterhead should include the name and designation of the authorised person authorised to sign the letterhead. Any references that your colleagues provide will not be accepted.
• The letterhead should include the work contact number and email address of the person. Testimonial.

Testimonial: Include?

• The start and end date of your employment history
• The position(s) you have held
• Whether the position(s) you held were temporary or permanent
• Whether your occupation was full-time or part-time
• The working hours you spent per week
• The duties or responsibilities undertaken in each position
• The salary you earned

What if you are Self-Employed?

Self-employed candidates must provide a testimonial written on the official letterhead of the business. The letterhead should have the full address, email and website address.

The testimonial must include:

• Your employment’s start and end dates
• The number of hours you worked per week
• The job duties you served during your employment under each position
• The salary or money you made

Also, the following documents are required –

• The registration of your business name
• Your practising certification
• Tax returns of your first, middle and final year of your business operation
• You will also need to provide references from at least two or three clients on the letterhead.

English Language Requirement

CPA Australia considers the following tests or programs to determine the English proficiency of candidates:

• Cambridge English: Advanced (CAE)
• IELTS Academic
• PTE Academic
• Skilled Migration Internship Program Accounting (SMIPA)
• TOEFL iBT

The scores required to be eligible for the CPA assessment are as follows:

	Listening	Reading	Writing	Speaking
CAE*	185	185	185	185
IELTS Academic	7	7	7	7
TOEFL iBT	24	24	27	23
PTE Academic**	65	65	65	65

Provisional Assessment: If a candidate is applying for a temporary (subclass 485) Visa, the following scores are required:

	Listening	Reading	Writing	Speaking
CAE*	169	169	169	169
IELTS	6	6	6	6
TOEFL iBT	12	13	21	18
PTE Academic	50	50	50	50

You can use this online application form to apply for a skills assessment. You will receive your reference number and acknowledgement letter at your email address once you complete the skills assessment form. Further details will be mentioned in the acknowledgement email.

How do you apply for the Skills Assessment?

Getting Your Documents Prepared

Here is a list of must-have documents for the CPA skills assessment:

• Your academic documents (Degree and/or Certificates)
• Your transcripts of marks
• English test recognized a recognized test taker
• Syllabus
• A letter of Authority duly signed

These supporting documents can be scanned and emailed to the CPA, or you can post the copies of these directly to the CPA Australia’s assessment unit in Melbourne.

Emailing Your Documents

If you choose to email your documents, you must ensure that you follow specific scanning and formatting standards. All your original documents must be colour scanned. Any documents consisting of your credit card details must not be sent to the CPA for assessment.

The documents must be correctly scanned to ensure that there are minimal to no delays while assessing your documents. Do consider the following points in case of documents –

• All original documents must be scanned on both sides
• Ensure colour scanning of documents
• You must also ensure that the documents you are sending meet the following formats:
  • .jpeg
  • .bmp
  • .gif
  • .png
  • .pdf
  • .tiff

Please note that PDF files encrypted with a password will not be accepted.

You can send as many documents as you want, but the email size must not exceed 40 40MB. Compressed and archived documents cannot be accepted.

Posting Your Documents

CPA will accept only certified true copies of your original documents for assessment. Your documents can be certified by:

• A CPA, FCPA or full member of an IFAC professional body
• A notary public
• A commissioner for oaths
• A justice of the peace
• CPA Australia employees
• A police officer
• A bank manager, dentist, legal practitioner, medical practitioner, pharmacist, or veterinary surgeon
• Australian consular officer
• MARA is a registered migration agent

Steps to take after Skills Assessment

Assessment Validity

The validity of your skills assessment is for three years with the Department of Immigration and Border Protection (DIBP).

Your application remains valid with CPA Australia for two years from the original acknowledgement date.

You may also be required to complete further studies. You have two options to choose from:

• You can complete the additional studies via a CPA Program Foundation Exam
• Complete your additional studies via accredited courses offered by other higher-level education providers

Fee for CPA Australia Skills Assessment

Your assessment fee will vary depending on your location. If you are already a member of CPA Australia and have already paid the current full year’s membership fee, you do not have to pay any extra charges for your migration assessment.

The following table shows the amount you will need to pay for the CPA skills assessment:

New members	Fee (AUD)
Application fee (2017)	$180
Application review fee	$100
First-year membership: Associate (full year)	$325
First-year membership: CPA or FCPA (full year)	$720
First-year membership: Associate (half year)	$162.50
First-year membership: CPA or FCPA (half year)	$360