dasalcedo

Hello guys,

Very long time user, victim of pre-September 2007 changes and still here in Australia (my wife is studying a Master at Uni)

As the time for gathering the paperwork for application for permanent visa is coming, we have been doing some research about the point test and we have a question:

My wife is a physiotherapist from Colombia. As she has not worked as a physio for more than 5 years so we decided for her to do a Master of Physiotherapy which she is going to finish next May.

Immi.gov.au says that in order to get points for the Master she needs something like an equivalence from her bachelor too. What happens when the Master has the same title than the bachelor she currently has?

It sounds like she has to make two applications with the Australian Physiotherapy Council for the same title? What worries me is that the application for equivalence cost AU$2200 and it is not guaranteed that is going to be a success.

If she does not get the equivalence, how many points are going to be awarded in this case?

old.sparkles

I'm not sure why you would worry that both degrees have the same name. When applying for assessment, can't you send all qualifications in one - apply to have the Masters assessed and send the bachelor with it in support. From the points list though, a bachelors assessed to be of the required standard is the same points as Masters.

Have you also checked the straight skills assessment - if the masters is issued by an Australian university on the list, it wouldn't need to be assessed for equivalency I think - have a look http://www.physiocouncil.com.au/form...t-assessment-1

You could also try contacting the council for advise, or an experienced MARA agent to give yourselves the best opportunity for success

dasalcedo

Thanks old.sparkles for your response.


As I understand, what immi says is that if you want 15 points awarded for the master you have to assess your bachelor as equivalent.

For the master I don't need to do an equivalency but I would need an skill assessment for migration purposes and we are going to use the master for that assessment.

My question is if i have to do an equivalency of qualifications for the bachelor knowing that the title is the same than the master she is doing at the moment? If APC does not give my wife the equivalency for the bachelor done in Colombia she won't get 15 points for qualifications?

old.sparkles

I think it's probably best to get some professional advice. Skill select says

so it may be possible to get the points without paying for equivalency. It might be worth checking.

dasalcedo

I think you have solved my problem. It appears I was reading the wrong info as I was using immi.gov.au old info which says:

Now I see that the info that you got from Skill Select is the updated info. That means we just need the assessment for migration purposes with the Master as it is recognized by the board of physiotherapy for practice in Australia.

old.sparkles

I would still confirm this with a MARA agent to be safe - hopefully they won't charge too much but it's better than getting the visa refused later if we've read that statement wrong

dasalcedo

Actually, we are going to use an agent, it is just that we are gathering some info before going through the agent.

Thank you very much.

old.sparkles

If I was you then, I'd do the skills assessment and IELTS if needed - and when you go to the agent, get them to check the points and hopefully save the $2200 on getting the bachelors assessed.

You'll have to let us know how you get on - Good luck