The usual Engineers Australia Migration Skills Assessment process takes 4 to 7 months. Once you submit the MSA Engineers Australia application, you can opt for the Engineers Australia Fast Track Assessment process where your application is passed on to an assessor or the case officers within five to fifteen working days. EA charges a premium fee of $275 (including GST) for the fast-track service.
The fast-track EA MSA service is only available to applicants who have already submitted their visa application online. Those who haven’t applied yet can request the Fast Track service when they submit their application.
Since the usual MSA processing time can take several months, you might want to use the Fast Track service and get your visa approval quickly.
Why does Skills Assessment processing take time?
The waiting period for the Engineers Australia Migration Skills Assessment depends on the number of applications it receives. Many of these applications do not have all the required information and thus, their assessment gets delayed.
EA requests not to contact the authority about the status of the application before 16 weeks (or four months) in the case of normal skill assessment process and before 15 days in the Fast Track process – as it will only delay processing times of all applications it receives. However, you can send a blank status email request to receive an automated response that contains the updated advice on dates of applications currently being processed.
Why go for Fast Track Skill Assessment process?
Australia has always welcomed engineers. Most engineering occupations are on the SOL list. The country even accepts fresh engineering graduates with no work experience, who can apply for an 18-month work visa of the Skilled Recognized Graduate Subclass 476 visa category. The fast-track processing service has been introduced since January 2016 enabling the 5-day turnaround period for skill assessment processing which is much quicker than the standard turnaround of 13 weeks or longer.
Normally, the CDR processing can be quite a lengthy process. If your engineering occupation files under ‘in demand’ lists by Australian states and territories, you get a valuable advantage of increase in your point score and your visa getting prioritized. So, if your occupation is in the SOL lists or you already have an Australian employer interested in hiring you, you might want to opt for the fast-track process and get your visa approval as quickly as possible.