Really sorry for the long post but ACS are really beginning to annoy and frustrate me. I feel that my dream of moving to Australia could be ruined by them being what I would call pedantic with all my documentation. I submitted an application to ACS for skills assessment as a System Administrator. As part of my application I included my Bachelor of Science in Information Technology and Telecommunications details, MCSA, CCNA (vendor qualifications) & Engineer Ireland membership details. I gave them letters from previous employers. I sent them a statutory declaration to cover my current employers which was backed up with evidence e.g pay slips, letters from HR etc. In total I think I sent them just over 30 pages of documentation. My employment experience is just over 6 years now.

The week before Christmas they came back via my agent and said they were not accepting my MCSA information even though all necessary verification was included on form, letters from my previous employers as it had not being typed the way they wanted and would not accept my statutory declaration in relation to my current employment without a third party declaration.

I have since supplied them with MCSA information on a typed page including verification websites and re-done reference letters from previous employers. ACS confirmed this morning that they might now accept my MCSA certification and are still undecided about my previous employers reference letters. In relation to my current employer they want some sort of corroborative declaration. If I don't supply this by end of month they will refuse my application. Without my current employer I only have 2.5 years work experience. This 2.5 years would not really be considered System Admin work.

I am part of a small team of 4 others and we all report directly into our manager. It is a flatline reporting structure. I cannot go to my manager for the reference as the last person to do so for a visa to Canada got let go as part of a so called re-structuring. Our HR department is now based in India so not going to get anything out of them.

Anyway one of my team-mates who is older than me and who has worked in the company longer than me has agreed to write letter to ACS for me on company headed paper. He has worked in the company a week longer than me. Everybody else on the team has being with the company for less time than us. The PASA guidelines state that letter must come from a colleague who occupies or has occupied a higher position than you and is an expert in your nominated occupation, within the organisation you were employed at. Since he is not in a higher position than me will ACS accept this letter? Will I have to also submit an organisation chart signed by my manager per the PASA guidelines?

Anybody got any advice on what I can do as at end of my tether and agent does not seem to know what to do next? Again apologies for the really long post.

Hi,
Your teammate can give you a letter for this. He can state that he is your senior engineer or lead or mentor (since you have mentioned he is your senior, I assume you go up to him for technical issues) in the work and both of you reporting to same manager. If he can give the letter in company letter head, there is no need for organisational chart (at least when I applied a year back, organisational chart was needed only if your colleague is not giving the letter in company letterhead). Let me know if I'm not clear.

Thanks for the feedback. Do you think it would be sufficient to state he was ServiceDesk (Helpdesk) Lead? This is his main area of responsibility without it being official. He assigns all the tickets and ensures we meet SLAs. The letter will be on company headed paper.

That should be fine. You make sure it sounds like you work under him or he leads you technically. (I think, if he assigns tickets to you, any escalation on your resolution of issues should be handled by him, right?).

Also your agent should be able to guide you in this.

This almost exactly what happened to me last year with my ACS assessment.
I couldn’t go to my management or HR for risk of being re-positioned elsewhere outside the company. I worked in a high level team of 5 and had a slightly less senior colleague sign my reference (writing truthfully) I wrote myself. This was for Systems Manager under the old codes and was passed by the ACS with no issues.
Only thing was that by the time the assessment came back, DIAC pulled down the shutters on new applications before the July 2010 changes.

Thanks guys. I got sorted with team mate writing a reference for me. Just got two more questions one relating to agent and other ACS group.

I am getting very suspicious of my agent. I don't think they have submitted my application to ACS. If\when they submitted the application to ACS should I have got cc on confirmation email or any communication from ACS? One of the reasons I think they might have not sent it in, is they coming back asking for documents to be re-done. I wouldn't think ACS would keep dragging it out and allowing people to keep re-sending documents to them until they got it right. Anyway question is if I ask agent for ACS reference number can I contact ACS and talk to them in relation to my application?

My agent also says while I'm Group A I require 4 years work experience. After reading the PASA guidelines I believe I only need two. I did 4 year degree course in IT&T. As part of my degree I had to do full time work placement. This placement was as a Junior System Administrator. After I graduated I spent two years doing application support. I have being in my current job which is a system admin role except in name since start of 2007. I think application went to ACS in November. Based on my current job experience up till end of October 2010 + college work experience I would have at least 4yrs 2 months experience. Agent says my work placement does not count. Does work placement count and how many years work experience do you think I need for my application? I know nobody can say for certain how many years work experience I need but just looking to see what general consensus is.

If you're application was submitted to and processed by the ACS, then you only need to to check here to see it's status http://www.acs.org.au/skillsapp/index.cfm

Ask your agent for the application number and password which they typically would have sent you after the ACS confirmed the start of processing. Typically it's a 10 week process after they receive your documentation so if it was lodged in November then that’s an awfully long time to wait.

This sounds very fishy responce from ACS, and I would ask to see the emails from ACS.

Before doing anything check you have an application in the system