# Vetassess Highly Relevant criteria vs ANZSCO Closely Related Occupation



## Giru (Oct 5, 2014)

Dear Friends

I am writing this to seek clarification on "Closely Related Occupation" definition.

As you are aware that Immigration website of Australia states as follows:

To claim points for skilled employment you must have, in the 10 years before you were invited to apply, at least 20 hours of paid work per week in your nominated skilled occupation and/*or a closely related occupation*.

Now closely related occupation is defined as follows:

Any periods of employment in a closely related occupation must be undertaken at the equivalent skill level of your nominated occupation. This means that any employment that you claim as ‘closely related’ to your nominated occupation should be:
•*in the same ANZSCO Unit Group*. For example, the occupations of Management Accountant and Taxation Accountant are in the same group, or
•consistent with a career advancement pathway. For example, Accountant to Chief Financial Officer, or
•where the relevant assessing authority has determined that the employment is closely related to the nominated occupation.


Now here is my situation:

I have around 4 years of post qualification experience in Legal and Compliance. During these 4 years I was also appointed Company Secretary for companies in India.

Now Internal Auditor and Company Secretary fall within the same ANZSCO Unit Group and therefore my initial assumption was that I was eligible to apply for 189 sub class visa for Internal Auditor Occupation Code.

I therefore submitted my skill assessment application to Vetassess. I received a negative outcome letter from them saying that my B.Com degree was highly relevant but my experience was not highly relevant to the occupation of internal auditor.

I thereafter mailed a query to them seeking the reasons to which I received a reply from Vetassess that it assesses only experience which is Highly relevant to the *Nominated Occupation*.

They further in their mail agreed that my occupation was closely related to Internal Auditor occupation however they evaluate closely related occupation only in point test advisory.

Now I am confused that since I have a negative outcome for skill assessment whether I would be eligible to apply for Visa even if I got a positive point test advisory. Further since immigration mentions that I should use the skilled employment commencement date as mentioned in the skill assessment letter would that mean that I would not be able to use the point test advisory letter or does it mean that I need to submit again a skill assessment for Company Secretary profession.

Request your help and guidance on the same if someone has faced a similar situation.


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## ozbound12 (Mar 23, 2012)

No, you cannot proceed without a positive skills assessment. The points test advisory is just an indication of whether or not you would get the points for your qualifications and work experience, but does not constitute a positive skills assessment on its own. (In fact, the points test advisory is not even required.) If you were not assessed positively for the occupation you nominated, you do not qualify for migration unless you can nominate another occupation and receive a positive skills assessment for that occupation.


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