# ACS Review & Appeal | Bachelor Degree Assessed As AQF Associate Degree



## borak (May 4, 2015)

Dear Folks,

Let Start a thread on the issue of "ACS Review & Appeal | Bachelor Degree Assessed As AQF Associate Degree" .

I have done 4 years Bachelor degree of Software Engineering from a well known and recognized university in Pakistan. It is a 4 years Hons degree.

After ACS assessment, they assessed my Bachelor Of Software Engineering Degree as AQF Associate Degree not as a Bachelor Degree, whereas i have standard credit hours with a complete 4 year university program. 

I am now thinking for ACS Review & Appeal !! Has any one done it before and what was the outcome? Senior folks really need your help and support.


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## sol79 (Oct 2, 2012)

Hi Borak,

Did you apply for a review or an appeal? What was the result?

I received the same assessment result regarding my BE (Computers) from Manipal (Mangalore University). I have applied for a review with some additional documents such as the course listings, etc. I applied yesterday and it's at Stage 4 already, so should be processed soon. I'll let you know how mine went ahead (if you're still interested).

Best Regards,
S


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## borak (May 4, 2015)

*Assessment review*

Hi Sol79,

Well brother i did not go for review because i was quite busy with my job and didnt get time for that. I think you can request for a review no later then 2 months of assessment date from ACS. 

Best of luck for you dear, let me know once you are done.

Thanks


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## sol79 (Oct 2, 2012)

Thanks bro! I applied for a review with my college leaving certificate and a detailed course outline the day I received my assessment, on 09/11/2015. It's already at Stage 4 b (In Progress). It should hopefully be done today or tomorrow. I'll reply here when I get the result.


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## sol79 (Oct 2, 2012)

borak said:


> Hi Sol79,
> 
> Well brother i did not go for review because i was quite busy with my job and didnt get time for that. I think you can request for a review no later then 2 months of assessment date from ACS.
> 
> ...


My review was finalised today (3 business days!). They've reassessed my BE degree as AQF Bachelors and deducted 2 years of work experience. Earlier they had assessed it as AQF Associate and deducted 5 years.

This gives me an extra 10 points (5 for Qualifications and 5 for work exp).

Hope this helps. All the best.


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## Soulistik (Nov 2, 2015)

brother i am in the situation .. any updates on ur situation.?


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## Soulistik (Nov 2, 2015)

brothers i am in the situation .. any updates on ur situation borak?

sol79 .. can u kindly help me and let me know what is that u did to get your degree reconsidered ?


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## borak (May 4, 2015)

Hi Folks,

Well i did not apply for review, im struggling with PTE to get 90 all, may sol79 can help with that, sol79 please let us know what extra documents did you provide to ACS which made your way easy. 

Im sure there will be other people having the same situation. Our posts can help them.

Cheers


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## tarun_puri03 (Mar 17, 2016)

*Issue with work experience*

Hi All
I am new to this forum. I have got my ACS result recently and am eligible for PR, but am facing a problem. I had provided the declaration for my current company and got is signed by my technical lead. Every thing seems to be in the correct format as mentioned in the ACS guidelines. But in my ACS result, the case officer has made my current experience null saying that I have not provided sufficient documents. I had a conversation with her over mails and came to know that my declaration does not state that the person who has declared the my experience is related to me in the same team. But that is not the case.
Now they are asking me to lodge a review request. Below is the content of my declaration:

*************************************************************************
I, Gunasekar Chinnapalaniappan, make the following declaration under the Indian Notary Act, 1952:
I solemnly and sincerely declare that Mr. Tarun Puri is an employee at Harman International Private Limited on a full time basis from January 29th, 2015 till present. His employee number during the tenure in Harman is 2105 and he is working from the office located at the following address:
Harman International,
Ground Floor,
Salarpuria Supreme,
Marathahalli, Bengaluru,
Karnataka - 560037

Mr. Tarun Puri is a full time employee at Harman International with Engineer, SW ( which is equivalent to Software Engineer in the current market ) as the designation assigned to him.
During his tenure, he is working on various projects under my guidance wherein we are part of the same project teams.
The chronological details of the clients and his roles and responsibilities in them are listed as under:

1.	Subaru, North America:
Mr. Tarun Puri is working for the above mentioned client from February 2015 till date under my mentorship and guidance during which, his roles and responsibilities are as listed below:
•	He is working on the voice recognition module for this project and is an individual contributor.
•	He is developing code in C++ on QNX platform to support voice related features for the above mentioned client.
•	He is a feature owner for various voice related features and has been involved in designing the flow for these features and developing them.
•	He has worked closely with the team to implement various Dialogs that will be a part of the final product.
•	He has worked on user interface part of the module where he has been writing code which will interact with other services like media, HVAC, phone, navigation etc.
•	He has been involved in fixing bugs in the code and optimizing it for a better performance under regressive conditions.
•	In order to adhere to various processes, he has been involved in testing the features developed by him and other team members by writing unit test cases.
•	He is maintaining the various project documents which are being used during the life cycle of the project like traceability matrix, test documents, requirement documents etc.
•	He has been interacting with the client under the guidance of his seniors to discuss the road blocks in the project’s delivery.


2.	Harley Davidson, North America:
Mr. Tarun Puri is working for the above mentioned client from July 2015 till date under my mentorship and guidance during which, his roles and responsibilities are as listed below:
•	He is working on the voice recognition module for this project and is an individual contributor.
•	He has been actively involved with other teams in resolving any bugs that have been present in the product currently running in the market.
•	Identifying the differences in the current running software dialogs and the in house Harman dialogs and thus, modifying the Harman dialogs to be in line with the current market version.
•	He is developing code in C++ on QNX platform to support voice related features for the above mentioned client.
•	He is a feature owner for various voice related features and has been involved in designing the flow for these features and developing them.
•	He has worked on user interface part of the module where he has been writing code which will interact with other services like media, HVAC, phone, navigation etc.
•	In order to adhere to various processes, he has been involved in testing the features developed by him and other team members by writing unit test cases.
•	He is maintaining the various project documents which are being used during the life cycle of the project like traceability matrix, test documents, requirement documents etc.
•	He has been interacting with the client under the guidance of his seniors to discuss the road blocks in the project’s delivery.

During his tenure in Harman, Tarun Puri has been successfully and actively participating in project development in very regressive time lines maintaining very high standards of delivery.

Declared By:


Gunasekar Chinnapalaniappan
Currently Employed At: Harman International Private Limited as Sr Engineer 2, SW (which is 
equivalent to Team Lead in the current market )
Residing At: House Number 13, 3rd Main, Indiragandhi Street, A.Narayanapura,
Udhayanagar, Tin Factory, Bengaluru, Karnataka - 560016 
Office Phone Number: +91 80 49365921
Personal Mobile Phone Number: +91 9886261629

**************************************************************************

Am a bit confused now if I should go for the review or not? Because I don't find anything wrong with this declaration. Please correct me if I am wrong at any place. This rejection has reduced my 1 year of Harman experience.
Should I go ahead and raise an EOI or should I raise a review? Does the ACS result impact my employment in Australia?

Thanks in advance for the response.

Tarun Puri


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## ScotDownUnder (Dec 9, 2015)

As long as you have sufficient points to apply, there is nothing stopping you.
Unless you go to work for the ACS themselves, an employer is extremely unlikely to want to see your ACS assessment: I know I'd rather see a portfolio / technical assessment for a coder I was hiring.

On whether there's anything wrong with the declaration, the grammar's all over the place. It has made for a fascinating jet-lagged morning read with my double espresso!
And what is this obsession with the term 'senior' that many of my Indian peers seem to have? Maybe I'm just old and jaded, but "junior" and "senior" are terms I threw out years ago: junior sounds patronising, senior sounds like you belong in an institution...


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## tarun_puri03 (Mar 17, 2016)

ScotDownUnder said:


> As long as you have sufficient points to apply, there is nothing stopping you.
> Unless you go to work for the ACS themselves, an employer is extremely unlikely to want to see your ACS assessment: I know I'd rather see a portfolio / technical assessment for a coder I was hiring.
> 
> On whether there's anything wrong with the declaration, the grammar's all over the place. It has made for a fascinating jet-lagged morning read with my double espresso!
> And what is this obsession with the term 'senior' that many of my Indian peers seem to have? Maybe I'm just old and jaded, but "junior" and "senior" are terms I threw out years ago: junior sounds patronising, senior sounds like you belong in an institution...


Hi Scot
Thanks a lot for your response. I followed a template provided by one of my friends to me. So all this reference to seniors and juniors. I know it is completely out dated. But yes thanks for pointing it out. 
And just a query: What exactly do you mean by working for ACS itself?
I am looking forward to work in my current profession i.e. Software Engineer when I reach Australia. And just for a reference, here is the text from my ACS report. Please point out if you identify any complexities I may come across later in the process:
*************************************************************************
Dear Mr Puri,
Thank you for your ICT skills assessment which was received by the Australian Computer Society on 7
March 2016.
Your skills have been assessed to be suitable for migration under 261313 (Software Engineer) of the
ANZSCO Code.
Your qualification has been assessed as follows:
Your Bachelors of Technology in Computer Science Engineering from Punjab Technical
University completed April 2012 has been assessed as comparable to an AQF Bachelor Degree
with a major in computing.
The following employment after September 2014 is considered to equate to work at an appropriately
skilled level and relevant to 261313 (Software Engineer) of the ANZSCO Code.
Dates: 09/12 - 01/15 (2yrs 4mths)
Position: Project Engineer
Employer: Wipro Technologies
Country: INDIA
The following employment has been assessed as not suitable.
Dates: 01/15 - 03/16 (0yrs 0mths)
Position: Engineer, SW - Not Assessable due to Insufficient Documentation
Employer: Harman International Private Limited
Country: INDIA
Please note that the Department of Immigration and Border Protection reserves the right to undertake
further investigation regarding your skilled employment experience.
While the ACS is authorised to assess ICT skills assessments, the final decision in awarding points
remains with the Department of Immigration and Border Protection.
Page 2
This assessment is based upon the documents provided. By issuing this letter or otherwise, the ACS
makes no representation regarding:
• The authenticity of documentation provided or the veracity of content.
• The suitability of the applicant for migration or employment.
This assessment is valid for a period of 24 months from the date of this letter.
The ACS thanks you for your application and looks forward to assisting you with your future as an ICT

Thanks in advance
Tarun


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## ScotDownUnder (Dec 9, 2015)

I simply mean if you get a job with the ACS, they might have an interest in just reviewing what they issued you. Nobody else will be!

This looks fine. ACS have given you an all clear to go in terms of applying. I can understand why they haven't been able to assess things based on the statutory declaration (and wonder if this could also be down to the fact that the dates run until March 2016 - the ACS will only consider full months and (if you're still employed there) the question would be why the letter isn't on headed paper from the employer themselves.

If you've got the 60 points, throw your EOI in the pile. Seems alright.



tarun_puri03 said:


> Hi Scot
> Thanks a lot for your response. I followed a template provided by one of my friends to me. So all this reference to seniors and juniors. I know it is completely out dated. But yes thanks for pointing it out.
> And just a query: What exactly do you mean by working for ACS itself?
> I am looking forward to work in my current profession i.e. Software Engineer when I reach Australia. And just for a reference, here is the text from my ACS report. Please point out if you identify any complexities I may come across later in the process:
> ...


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## tarun_puri03 (Mar 17, 2016)

Thanks a ton for the response Scot. This information has definitely reduced my worries a lot. Otherwise I would had ended spending another $395 to raise a review. If you have some idea of the points, can you please analyse mine? The details go as under:
* Age - 26
* PTE Score - Listening - 90 Reading - 83 Writing - 86 Speaking - 90 Overall - 86
* I have a comparable AQF Bachelors in computing as per my ACS report
* The valid experience as per this report is 4 months
* I don't have any work experience in Australia
* I have never studied in Australia.

Thanks in advance...


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## ScotDownUnder (Dec 9, 2015)

65, if what you've given is accurate.

Word of advice, in the EOI mark your work experience as NOT RELEVANT. Otherwise you're going to get points you won't be entitled to. Automatic reject when the CO looks at your case.

It'll be fine. Good luck 



tarun_puri03 said:


> Thanks a ton for the response Scot. This information has definitely reduced my worries a lot. Otherwise I would had ended spending another $395 to raise a review. If you have some idea of the points, can you please analyse mine? The details go as under:
> * Age - 26
> * PTE Score - Listening - 90 Reading - 83 Writing - 86 Speaking - 90 Overall - 86
> * I have a comparable AQF Bachelors in computing as per my ACS report
> ...


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## tarun_puri03 (Mar 17, 2016)

Amazing advice Scot. This is definitely going to help me a lot. At least the C) is not going to reject my EOI . Please let me know if there are any other suggestions you have. I am not going through any consultancies. Doing it on my own without prior experience. Thanks a ton... U Rock


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## ScotDownUnder (Dec 9, 2015)

tarun_puri03 said:


> Amazing advice Scot. This is definitely going to help me a lot. At least the C) is not going to reject my EOI . Please let me know if there are any other suggestions you have. I am not going through any consultancies. Doing it on my own without prior experience. Thanks a ton... U Rock


Pleasure, mate.

Save your money - it's easy enough to do if you're fluent in English (which, clearly, you are). I've been toing and froing since getting my visa, and it's quite depressing to see so many people who have only a middling grasp of English think that they can land high-pace, high-stress, high-performance roles in Australia. I love the dynamism of cosmopolitan environments: however, it's pretty damned hard to have an effective meeting, when participants don't have enough confidence or skill with the language to argue potently.

Wow. That wasn't meant to sound like a rant! 
You'll be absolutely fine. Get your LinkedIn profile updated and ready for landing, would be my advice, mate. With 65 points, you'll be getting an invite very shortly. (Next Wednesday, I think the next round is?)


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## tarun_puri03 (Mar 17, 2016)

Haha

You seem to be surrounded by a lot of incompetent English speakers it seems. Or may be you are in a bad mood... 
Keep showering me with your suggestions brother. Am going to need them all. Next Wednesday is the next round? I never knew this. God there are a hell lot of things am not aware of. LinkedIn done.
Hey is there any format to be followed as a CV? I mean am not pretty sure if the format of CVs vary from country to country....


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## ScotDownUnder (Dec 9, 2015)

I'm only surrounded by them right now because I'm back in the South of England... 
I'm in a perfectly good mood: I just don't like to see people view things through rose-tinted glasses and then get upset when they realise that they're simply not equipped for the tasks and environments they put themselves into.
CVs for Australia are not too dissimilar to British ones (but there *are* differences). Might be worth googling up a few websites with suggestions. You might also find it helpful to have it reviewed by a CV consultancy (don't pay more than about AUD $80 - $100 at the most for this) once you land in Australia.


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## tarun_puri03 (Mar 17, 2016)

Thanks for all the info mate... U ROCK...


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## jmcsmars (Apr 20, 2016)

*ACS appeal*

Hi guys,

I have a 3 year long Bachelor Degree in Computer Science. I received my ACS assessment but it was qualified as AQF Associate Degree, major in computing. 

I checked the AQF framework and what I got from that is that the Associate Degree is for 1,5 to 2 
year courses. So I'm trying to understand why my degree is assessed as Associate Degree.

I've sent a couple of emails to ACS, one reply was a generic email, saying "it was assessed according to AQF framework”, another reply they talk about "Skill Level Requirement Met Date", what in this case I'm just questioning about my Degree, not my valid work experience.
Does anyone know how this qualification works? It’s not just related to the course years? Does it depend on other properties of the course?

With the Associate Degree qualif. I just have 10 points on the Qualification part for the 189 visa. I really need Bachelor qualif. To get the 15 points.

Do you think I should do the appeal? Is it worth it spending the money? 

I’m a little bit afraid that, if they assessed this way the first time, if I make an appeal they could even downgrade my assessment even more.

Thanks for your help.

Regards
JM


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## jmcsmars (Apr 20, 2016)

Hi guys, 

Can you help me here, please, with the post above?

Trying to figure out this...

Thanks
JS


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## tarun_puri03 (Mar 17, 2016)

Hi
I got my invitation to apply for visa under sub class 189. Am creating the immigration account for the same. Have a quick doubt. While filling the valid experience, should I be considering only the experience validated through ACS or my total experience?


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## sol79 (Oct 2, 2012)

tarun_puri03 said:


> Hi
> I got my invitation to apply for visa under sub class 189. Am creating the immigration account for the same. Have a quick doubt. While filling the valid experience, should I be considering only the experience validated through ACS or my total experience?


On the online form, you need to enter your total work experience which you submitted to ACS. 

HOWEVER, mark the experience AFTER the skill date as "relevant". Your skill date would be the month/year on your ACS report (The following employment after month/year is considered...).

If that month/year falls during employment with a company (very likely), then make two entries for that job. For example: My skill date is Nov 2007. I was employed from Aug-2007 till July-2009 with a company. So I made two entries.

Aug-2007 to Nov-2007 - marked as not relevant.
Dec 2007 to July 2009 - marked as relevant.

Hope this helps. Good luck!


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## tarun_puri03 (Mar 17, 2016)

Please correct me if I am wrong:
I worked with one company from September 2012 to January 2015. Then I started working with a new organization from January 2015 and am currently working. As per ACS, below is the experience detail:
September 2012 - September 2014 - Not relevant ( They cut two years of experience )
October 2014 - January 2015 - Relevant
January 2015 - March 2016 - Not relevant ( Had some documentation issues but still went ahead with EOI)

So my experience in overseas nominated occupation or a closely related occupation at a skilled level immediately before lodging this application will be less than 3 years right?


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## sol79 (Oct 2, 2012)

tarun_puri03 said:


> Please correct me if I am wrong:
> I worked with one company from September 2012 to January 2015. Then I started working with a new organization from January 2015 and am currently working. As per ACS, below is the experience detail:
> September 2012 - September 2014 - Not relevant ( They cut two years of experience )
> October 2014 - January 2015 - Relevant
> ...


Correct.


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## tarun_puri03 (Mar 17, 2016)

Thanks a ton...


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## sol79 (Oct 2, 2012)

tarun_puri03 said:


> Thanks a ton...


Anytime


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## javedpsh (Apr 23, 2017)

*afq associate*



sol79 said:


> My review was finalised today (3 business days!). They've reassessed my BE degree as AQF Bachelors and deducted 2 years of work experience. Earlier they had assessed it as AQF Associate and deducted 5 years.
> 
> This gives me an extra 10 points (5 for Qualifications and 5 for work exp).
> 
> Hope this helps. All the best.


HI Brother my bachelor of information technology 4 years also assessed as a AFQ associate degree.could you pL tell me what documents i need to submit for review.

your support will be highly appreciated.

Thanks


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## javedpsh (Apr 23, 2017)

borak said:


> Dear Folks,
> 
> Let Start a thread on the issue of "ACS Review & Appeal | Bachelor Degree Assessed As AQF Associate Degree" .
> 
> ...


HI Brother my bachelor of information technology 4 years also assessed as a AFQ associate degree.could you pL tell me what documents i need to submit for review.

your support will be highly appreciated.

Thanks


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## OFW (Feb 12, 2018)

Hello,

I was assessed with AQF Associate Degree Major in Computing.

Now i am planning to attend a 1 year part-time post-graduate IT diploma.

Will my AQF Associate Degree be changed to AQF Bachelor's Degree if i finished 1 year part-time post-graduate IT diploma?

Anyone knows/had similar experience?

Thank you.


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## jurk20 (Jan 4, 2018)

I heard that one of the basis for grading the qualification as associate or bachelors is the average grade. 
So if you get an average grade of 1 to 2, it may assess as Bachelors.


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