CV and reference letters for an Australian skilled visa skills assessment

Subclass 189, 190 and 491 visas need a skills assessment for your occupation. Engineers Australia and VETASSESS require a CV, ACS lists it as optional, and all three judge experience from signed employer letters your CV must match.1

Written 20 October 2026. CitedCV. How we write our guides

First step: find the one body that assesses your occupation

Home Affairs accepts a skills assessment only from the assessing authority named for your occupation in its combined list of eligible skilled occupations. Its skills assessment page, last updated on 12 October 2026, adds that each authority has its own procedures, timeframes and charges. A software engineer goes to ACS, most engineers to Engineers Australia, and hundreds of professional and other non-trade occupations to VETASSESS.

Find your occupation and ANZSCO code on the Home Affairs list and note its assessing authority.
Open that body’s own document checklist; the three bodies in this guide ask for different things.
Ask each employer for a reference letter that meets the body’s list before you write a word of the CV.
Collect proof of pay or government records for every job you claim.
Write the CV last, copying employer names, titles and dates from the letters, not from memory.
Lodge the assessment early: Home Affairs wants it in hand by the time you are invited to apply.

Where the skills assessment sits in a 189, 190 or 491 application

Mandatory for the points-tested visas

The Home Affairs page lists four points-tested visas whose applicants must have a suitable skills assessment for their nominated occupation: the Skilled Independent visa (subclass 189, points-tested stream), the Skilled Nominated visa (subclass 190), the Skilled Work Regional visa (subclass 491) and the subclass 489 invited pathway. You must have obtained it by the time you are invited, although since the Thapa decision delegates also accept one obtained within the 60-day invitation period.

How long an assessment counts

If no validity period is shown, Home Affairs treats the assessment as valid for 3 years from the date of issue; a shorter period on the letter wins, and a longer one is cut to 3 years. A provisional assessment issued for a subclass 485 visa does not count.

What the 189 page adds

The subclass 189 page, last updated on 1 July 2026, says you must be under 45 when invited, have at least competent English at invitation, submit an expression of interest in SkillSelect and reach at least 65 points. Once invited you have 60 calendar days to apply, and Home Affairs cannot extend that.

Home Affairs checks your employment a second time

Points for skilled employment are claimed later in the visa application, and the 189 page sets its own rules for the references you upload there:

issued on the organisation’s official letterhead, with its full street address (not a PO Box), phone number, email address and website where available
the exact period of employment and each position held
whether the job was permanent or temporary, and full time or part time
main duties and the salary earned
the typed or stamped name and position of the signatory below the signature, and that person’s direct contact number

Home Affairs rejects a reference with only an illegible signature. Ask for one letter that carries both the assessing body’s items and these, so the same document works twice.

What each body wants from your CV

Engineers Australia: a detailed CV on every pathway

Engineers Australia’s guide “Prepare your Migration Skills Assessment application” (January 2026, v1.1) lists “your detailed CV” for the competency demonstration report (CDR) pathway, for the accredited pathways (Australian qualification, Washington, Sydney and Dublin Accord) and even for an updated outcome letter. The CDR pathway, for non-accredited qualifications, a different occupation than your degree title, or engineering managers, adds three career episodes of 1,000 to 2,500 words each, written in the first person, plus a summary statement mapping all 16 competency elements to numbered paragraphs.

Each career episode opens with the project dates, the location and the employer’s name, so your CV and your episodes describe the same jobs with the same months. Engineers Australia treats having your career episodes or summary statement written by someone else as plagiarism, with rejection and a ban of 12, 24 or 36 months.

ACS: the CV is optional, the letters are not

The ACS General Skills document checklist (April 2025) lists “Resume/Curriculum Vitae (optional)”, uploaded in the personal details section. ACS assesses each employment episode from reference letters and payment evidence. Experience counts only if it was paid for at least 20 hours a week, at professional IT level, started after age 18, and closely related to the nominated ANZSCO code; ACS also states that unpaid internships and volunteer work do not count.

On the General Skills pathway, a bachelor’s degree with an IT major closely related to the occupation needs 2 years of relevant experience in the last 10 years, or 4 years at any time. An IT minor, or a diploma with an IT major, raises that to 5 years in the last 10, or 6 at any time. If you worked two jobs at once, ACS assesses only the one that gives the better outcome and marks the other as concurrent.

VETASSESS: a CV in your own words

VETASSESS assesses 341 professional and other non-trade occupations. Its document page says a CV must be included in a formal skills assessment and that it should describe your studies, including major projects, and your employment history “in your own words”. Managers and four named occupations also need an organisational chart, and some need a project list on a VETASSESS template.

Comparison table: CV and reference requirements, read 20 October 2026

Built from each body’s own pages on 20 October 2026. Wording is shortened; the linked page decides.

Requirement	Engineers Australia	ACS	VETASSESS
Who it assesses	Engineering occupations (31 listed for the CDR pathway)	IT, data science and cyber security occupations	341 professional and other non-trade occupations
CV	Required: “your detailed CV”	Optional	Required for a formal assessment, in your own words
Name of the letter	Reference letter	Employment reference	Statement of Service
When a letter is needed	Career episodes based on employment, or the relevant skilled employment assessment	Every employment episode you claim	Every employment position you list
Letterhead	Company letterhead, company stamp if applicable	Company letterhead with employer name, address and website	Official letterhead with full address, phone, email and website
Who signs	Issuing manager, HR representative or direct supervisor, with work email and phone	An authorised person; name, title, phone and work email (no personal email)	Direct supervisor or HR manager; colleagues at the same level or below not accepted
Dates	Start and end date; date of issue	DD/MM/YYYY, or “current” for an ongoing job; date of letter	Exact dd/mm/yyyy for each position; issue date
Hours per week	Full or part time; employment means at least 20 hours a week	Minimum hours worked per week	Working hours per week
Salary	Pay rate	Annual salary before tax and benefits	Salary earned
Duties	At least five main engineering duties	Bullet points per position; duties copied from ANZSCO lists rejected	Main duties for each position
Pay or government proof	Government-issued records for the whole period, such as tax, social security or provident fund statements; payslips and bank statements not accepted as secondary evidence	Two types at the start and two at the end of each job, at least one not from the employer	One of: two payslips, tax records, bank statements with two salary payments, or insurance or superannuation records
No letter possible	Statutory declarations and affidavits not accepted	Statutory declaration route with four documents	Statutory declaration only alongside official employment documents
Translations	Authorised translator; registered ID, name and contact details on each copy	NAATI, the awarding institution, or a translating organisation’s letterhead with stamp, name, signature and phone	Registered translation service; originals and translations
Fee shown	CDR A$940 excl. GST (A$1,034 incl.); Washington Accord A$505 (A$555.50), 2026 to 2027 table	General Skills $1,498	Full assessment A$1,146 for non-residents for tax (A$1,260.60 incl. GST)

Fees were read on 20 October 2026. Engineers Australia’s fee page was last updated on 2 July 2026; the ACS and VETASSESS pages show no update date. The Engineers Australia letter items come from its relevant skilled employment section. Check the linked page before paying.

Worked example: one job written the same way in the CV and the letter

Deniz Aydın is invented. He finished a computer engineering degree in Türkiye in June 2018 and nominates Software Engineer, ANZSCO 261313, through the ACS General Skills pathway. He worked as a junior developer in Ankara from 02/07/2018 to 31/03/2021 and has been a software engineer at a payments company in İstanbul since 05/04/2021. On weekends he also builds small apps for clients; ACS would treat that as concurrent work, so he lists it on the CV without claiming it.

His CV entry for the current job

Software Engineer, Örnek Ödeme Teknolojileri A.Ş., İstanbul, Türkiye. 05/04/2021 to present. Permanent, full time, 40 hours a week.
Build and maintain Java and Spring Boot services for card payment authorisation, about 2 million transactions a day.
Write unit and integration tests and fix production defects found through monitoring alerts.
Moved releases to a GitLab CI pipeline with automated tests; a release now takes two hours instead of a working day.
Write API documentation and runbooks for the operations team.
Review code for four developers and propose library and framework upgrades.

The matching reference letter, in ACS order

Letterhead: Örnek Ödeme Teknolojileri A.Ş., full street address in İstanbul, company website.
Employee: Deniz Aydın, spelled as in his passport.
Date of letter: 06/10/2026.
Employment: 05/04/2021 to current, permanent full time.
Minimum hours: 40 hours per week.
Annual salary before tax and benefits, as the company states it.
Location: Outside Australia.
Position title: Software Engineer.
Duties, in the company’s words: develops and maintains back-end services of the card authorisation platform; prepares and runs automated tests and corrects production faults; maintains the CI and deployment pipeline; prepares technical documentation and operating procedures; reviews team members’ code and recommends technology upgrades.
Signature of an authorised person, ideally a digital signature with its verification certificate.
Signatory: full name, position title, direct phone number and work email address.

Line-by-line check before upload

Field	CV	Reference letter	Payment evidence
Name	Deniz Aydın	Deniz Aydın	Payslip and bank statement in the same name
Employer	Örnek Ödeme Teknolojileri A.Ş.	Same name on letterhead	Payslip with employer name and logo; bank deposit naming the employer
Title	Software Engineer	Software Engineer	Payslip shows the job title
Start	05/04/2021	05/04/2021	Two types of evidence from April 2021, one of them not from the employer
End	to present	current	Two recent types of evidence
Hours	40 a week	Minimum 40 hours per week	Not shown
Duties	Five bullets with numbers	Five bullets in the employer’s wording	Not shown

The CV can carry numbers the letter lacks, such as transaction volume, but no date, title or hours figure may differ. ACS says a work episode with unclear dates or duties is assessed as not suitable, and it rejects letters whose duties are copied from its ANZSCO lists or from another reference. Deniz’s earlier job gets its own letter with the same items and its own two pairs of payment evidence.

What changes for an engineer applying to Engineers Australia

The letter needs at least five main engineering duties and the pay rate; if it does not list all your duties, a job offer letter or annual performance review on letterhead can add them. Secondary evidence must be government-issued, show your name and the employer’s, and cover the whole period. Experience before your qualification was completed cannot be claimed, and where military service is mandatory you must show completion or an exemption certificate.

Sources and the date we read them

Home Affairs skills assessment page, updated 12 October 2026, and subclass 189 page, updated 1 July 2026.
Engineers Australia migration skills assessment page, updated 27 February 2026; its January 2026 preparation guide; its fee page, updated 2 July 2026.
ACS Info Hub pages (undated) and the General Skills checklist of April 2025.
VETASSESS document and fee pages for professional occupations (undated).

All were read on 20 October 2026. Rules and fees change; open the linked pages again before you apply.

Who this page is not for

Trade occupations: VETASSESS assesses them through a separate process with its own eligibility criteria and fees.
Doctors and lawyers: for them Home Affairs treats registration or admission to practice as the skills assessment.
Anyone deciding eligibility or points: this page compares documents; it does not tell you whether you qualify.
Applicants for employer-sponsored or Skills in Demand visas, which have their own skills assessment rules on the Home Affairs page.

Next steps

The resume you later send Australian employers is a different document, covered in our Australian resume format guide. The degree recognition guide shows how to write an assessed qualification on a CV.

CitedCV can write the English CV from the facts you enter, so each employer name, title and date stays the way you typed it from the letters. It does not check your file against any assessing body’s rules, and it is not a tool for career episodes.

Questions people ask

Do I need a CV for an Australian skills assessment?

It depends on the body. Engineers Australia asks for a detailed CV on every pathway, VETASSESS requires one for a formal assessment, and ACS lists the resume as optional.

What should an ACS employment reference letter include?

Letterhead, your full name, dates in DD/MM/YYYY, employment status, minimum weekly hours, annual salary, work location, title, bullet-point duties, and an authorised signatory with title, phone and work email.

Can my reference letter copy the ANZSCO duties?

No for ACS, which says references with duties copied from its ANZSCO lists or from another reference will not be accepted. Ask your employer to describe what you did.

Is a CDR the same as a CV for Engineers Australia?

No. A CDR is three career episodes and a summary statement mapped to 16 competency elements; your detailed CV is a separate required document on the same application.

Can I use a statutory declaration if my old employer will not write a letter?

Yes for ACS, through its statutory declaration route. VETASSESS accepts one only with official employment documents, and Engineers Australia does not accept statutory declarations as evidence.

How long is a skills assessment valid for a 189 visa?

Three years from issue when no period is shown, according to Home Affairs. If the letter states a shorter period, that period applies instead.

Which assessing authority do I need for Australian skilled migration?

The one named for your occupation on the Home Affairs combined list of eligible skilled occupations. Home Affairs accepts an assessment only from that authority.

Sources

Department of Home Affairs, Skills assessmentimmi.homeaffairs.gov.au/visas/working-in-australia/skills-assessment
Department of Home Affairs, Skilled Independent visa (subclass 189), points-tested streamimmi.homeaffairs.gov.au/visas/getting-a-visa/visa-listing/skilled-independent-189/points-tested
Engineers Australia, Migration skills assessmentwww.engineersaustralia.org.au/migrants/migration-skills-assessment
Engineers Australia, Prepare your Migration Skills Assessment application (January 2026)www.engineersaustralia.org.au/sites/default/files/2026-02/Prepare-your-migration-skills-assessment-application-Jan-2026.pdf
Engineers Australia, Assessment fees and additional serviceswww.engineersaustralia.org.au/migrants/migration-skills-assessment/assessment-fees-and-additional-services
Engineers Australia, How to write career episodes and a summary statementwww.engineersaustralia.org.au/sites/default/files/2025-07/How-to-Write-Career-Episodes-and-Summary-Statement-Guide-Jun-2025.pdf
ACS, Employment referenceswww.acs.org.au/msa/infohub/employment-references.html
ACS, Experience evidencewww.acs.org.au/msa/infohub/experience-evidence.html
ACS, Payment evidencewww.acs.org.au/msa/infohub/payment-evidence.html
ACS, Fees and paymentwww.acs.org.au/msa/infohub/fees-and-payment.html
ACS, General Skills pathwaywww.acs.org.au/msa/assessment-pathway/general-skills.html
ACS, General Skills document checklist (April 2025)www.acs.org.au/content/dam/acs/msa/infohub/ACS-GeneralSkills-DocumentChecklist-Apr2025.pdf
ACS, Document translationwww.acs.org.au/msa/infohub/document-translation.html
ACS, IT occupations and ANZSCO codeswww.acs.org.au/msa/information-for-applicants/occupations-anzsco-codes/information-technology.html
VETASSESS, Am I eligible to apply with my professional occupationwww.vetassess.com.au/skills-assessment-for-migration/skills-assessment-for-professional-occupations/am-i-eligible-to-apply-with-my-professional
VETASSESS, Skills assessment fees for professional occupationswww.vetassess.com.au/skills-assessment-for-migration/professional-occupations/skills-assessment-fees-for-professional-occupations