Answers by Experts in professional occupations - June 2024

1. My employer doesn’t support my plan to migrate and will not issue a statement of service. Is there any other document I can provide instead? 

We understand that your employer might not want you to leave, but there are documents you should have, such as your contract or initial letter of employment, letters of promotion, pay slips, and taxation evidence. Sometimes position descriptions are publicly available to download from a website. You may include an affidavit or statutory declaration but be aware that we cannot make a decision based solely on this document. 

2. I cannot get an original statement of service. Is a soft/electronic copy of a statement of service accepted for skills assessment purposes? 

A soft copy issued electronically and directly from the organisation may be accepted. It should carry the official company logo, signatures of your employer or a person who is authorised by your employer, and official contact details of the organisation. 

3. For evidence of paid employment, I am paid in cash. Is this acceptable? 

If an applicant is paid in cash, or official payment evidence is unavailable, we may consider other types of evidence, such as electronic funds transfer directly from your employer. To avoid any doubt, please note that in many instances where applicants are paid in cash and no other official form of evidence can be provided, this will fail to meet the requirements for your employment claims. This is because cash payments often cannot be independently verified, and this limits our ability to determine your employment claims. 

4. I have been asked to provide evidence of portfolio projects, but some of the information is confidential, such as customer names and sales outcomes. What can I do to satisfy your criteria? 

We don’t want you to breach confidentiality or reveal any intellectual property. You can redact any information that is highly confidential. We don’t want to know specifically what your organisation does or what your clients have requested. We want to know what you do, how you do it and why you do it. We want to align that information to the requirements for the occupation you have selected. If you are approaching your employer or your HR department seeking these references, point out that all we want to understand is what you do.  

5. In big corporations, job titles can be very general, which means a job title on an applicant’s statement of service might not match the title used in a skills assessment. How can I prove my job responsibilities are aligned with the role described in the skills assessment? Would my statement of service be accepted? 

Titles are not important for our assessment purposes. What we want is information about what you do on a daily or weekly basis that meets the requirements for the occupation. We are assessing the scope of your authority, your tasks and duties, the level of your seniority relevant to the nominated occupation, and your reporting lines. Give us documentation that includes elements such as what you do, why you do it, how you got there. Was it through your qualifications, career progression, was it through promotion, was it through industry experience? 

6. My former employer is no longer in business. How can I supply documents to meet your requirements? 

Not every company that we've worked for over our careers will still be in operation. They may have ceased business or merged with another entity.  However, the Internet is a wonderful resource these days, and we still need to verify that a company was operating, even if it has gone out of business. 

Business registration documents can still be sought, and applicants will have employment contracts, bank documents, evidence of tax paid and superannuation (pension) documents.