ACS Skills Assessment - how long?

[Guest MarK Jowett]

Well that's similar to my work, so you should be fine on the experience front, not sure about your quals though. I got in touch with my CO as he/she had contacted me earlier as my documents hadn't arrived when expected. Nor sure how you'd go about contacting them other than that. Might want to try emailing the general contact address and giving them your application number?!

[Guest joseph1801]

relying on my MCSE and experience basically (cat B). I went through Go Matilda and they seemed quite optimistic....

[Guest MarK Jowett]

ah right, I didn't use an agent, but I was Group A so I guess that made it a bit more straight forward

[zebedee]

Welcome to the party Joseph!

 

I'm hoping my experience gets me through also - I've always considered it 50/50 in terms of my chances.

[Guest MarK Jowett]

Not wanting to rub salt in the wounds but - State Sponsorship Application form submitted - BOSH!

[Guest Weeze]

Hi, I'm Mark's partner. Wooooo Skills assessment done!

[Guest MarK Jowett]

Weeze, this thread is for IT Geeks only, please go play with the other WAGS

[zebedee]

Top job - and with the UK falling apart all over the place....it's gotta feel good! and hello Weeze!

 

(my remortgage offer has come through today which is kinda related and good news - it basically gets me out of paying £5500 when we come to sell it!)

[Guest oidara]

Congratulations, Mark! That's the first hurdle over with.

[Guest joseph1801]

thanks zebedee,

 

I know where you're coming from with the uncertainty, and I delayed submitting my application until I was 100% sure I had >6 years relevant experience.

what qualifications did you submit? I worry that they will decide the MCSE isnt relevant to the sys admin role

[Guest MarK Jowett]

Good news on the remortgage Zebedee - we rent so don't have to worry about that!

[path2aus]

Just into my 11th day since the date of acceptance as shown on the ACS status page and I am already getting impatient. Its a hard wait and I hope that it is worth it. I just don't want my occupation to be taken off by the time the results come out. Its a very frustrating process.

[path2aus]

Congrats Mark and Zebedee

[zebedee]

I have a non-honours degree in Earth Sciences, so that went in and I have 3 current MCTS qualifications, so I am a bit short of the MCSE that you have. I'm getting on a bit in years (more so than young Mark here), so I've racked up 12 years experience at engineer level which I am hoping gets me through. We've talked about migrating for years (we had 4 weeks in Oz on holiday back in 2003) but it is only now that I think we are in the right place to do it, lots of reasons really, and I won't bore you with my life story (which isn't that interesting anyway!)

 

It's in the hands of the great ACS gods I guess so we'll just have to hope, good luck!

[Guest joseph1801]

I've got a degree in History, but left that out in the end as my migration agent decided it wasnt relevant. We went over in 2009 and have been trying to get back ever since, which isnt easy given how the rules keep changing.

has anyone got a plan B if (god forbid) the SA list fills up? really dont fancy going into the Expression of Interest system they're bringing in!

[zebedee]

Well, as things stand at the moment, we are pretty set on Adelaide as, despite having not been to that particular city, it sounds ideal - good weather, not too huge, family friendly, lots of places to explore, but I guess plan B might involve looking at trying sponsorship to NT instead, as they have sys admin places. I don't think we would bother with the expression of interest, we've already decided that the state sponsorship is probably our only realistic chance. If it doesn't work out, we'll be very disappointed but will have felt that we had given it our best chance and at least we can move forward without the regret of - "what if".

[Guest Chris_J]

Chris - how is the SS going - was it hard work, or had you done most things already? how long do you think it will take?

 

Hi Mark, not too sure in all honesty. It has taken nearly 2 weeks for the paper work to arrive, which it did on the 4th. If I'm honest, I think it will take at least 4 weeks for a decision, I'm hoping sooner but I bet it takes longer

[Guest Chris_J]

Not sure who it was with the MCSE, but you should be fine. I went for group A but got moved to group B as I was deemed to have a minor in ICT..... my degree was Accounting Information Technology. As long as you've got over 6 years too it should be good.

[Guest MarK Jowett]

Zebedee - Adelaide is brilliant, perfect for our time of life. I've been basically everywhere is Oz, but went to Adelaide in december 2009 and fell in love with it. It's beautiful, clean, quiet, friendly and erm brilliant!

 

The City itself is great but the beaches are out of this world - massive long sandy beaches which are never massively busy (well except for Glenelg maybe). Can't wait to take my dog out for her morning walk along the beach and have a quick dip!

[zebedee]

Stop it! Stop it! No, actually, don't - it sounds wonderful. We had an all too brief 4 weeks out there back in 2003 and did a bit of travelling around - it was magical.

[Guest joseph1801]

Morning All,

Its Monday and sys admin is now low availability - reasons to be cheerful..........anyone?

[zebedee]

Oh no, that's very crummy. I knew it was going to be an uphill struggle but this is bad news.

 

Just checked my application, still stage 4.

[Guest joseph1801]

Still, the football and rugby went well

[Guest joseph1801]

Me too Zebedee. When did you submit your papers?

[zebedee]

I guess we had some good news in that our eldest did quite well in her 11+ plus mock exam at the weekend - bodes well for her if we are confined to living in the UK for eternity!

 

Mine went in on the 26th August....I always knew it was going to be a test of patience and not easy, but I didn't expect the places to get filled up so quickly.