Hi everyone,
I am an Australian- trained Occupational Therapist (OT) and my 485 visa application was refused in March due to the reason of not satisfying with 485.223 which specify:
When the application was made, it was accompanied by evidence that the applicant had applied for an assessment of the applicant’s skills for the nominated skilled occupation by a relevant assessing authority.
I was confused whether my professional registration would be counted as the Skills Assessment because the registration standards are fairly similar to the requirements of the skills assessment. As such, I answered "NO" to the question regarding whether I have applied for a Skills Assessment but the system still let me through and directed me to the skills assessment section to give further details. I found an option called "Council of Occupational Therapist Registration Board Inc" and I thought that was referring to the OT registration board under AHPRA. As a result, I selected that and provided details extracted from the AHPRA receipt. I also uploaded the AHPRA receipt as evidence. In ealy Feb, the Department corresponded me and gave me 28 days to provide the skills assessment but it did not mentioned that the registration I applied did not count as the skills assessment.
I rang the Immigration Department and the lady was still unable to confirm if I need to do the skills assessment while I am a registered OT and advised me to e-mail the processing officers directly. Unfortunately, I did not have any response from the Department. In mid-Feb, I uploaded my registration certificate up to the system and notified the Department.
In late Feb, I received another correspondence from the department clarifying that the registration did not fullfill the requirement of skills assessment and requesting me to provide a skills assessment issued by OT council in 7 days. I responded immediately by e-mail to notify the Department I will organise it at the end of the week due to financial hardship. I received the receipt from OTC on the 8 Mar 2018, however, they rejected my application on the same day and I could not upload it to the system.
I felt unfair for the visa refusal because the misunderstanding was purely caused by the system errors and miscommunication. Beside, I found that the processing officer miscalculate the days for responding the request on the second letter they sent me. Consequently, I applied for an AAT review. Did anyone experience similar situation in the past and went through the AAT review? What is usual processing time for the case to be reviewed by an AAT member? How to increase my chance of success in the review? Thank you so much and any opinions, thoughts and advice would be greatly appreciated.
I am an Australian- trained Occupational Therapist (OT) and my 485 visa application was refused in March due to the reason of not satisfying with 485.223 which specify:
When the application was made, it was accompanied by evidence that the applicant had applied for an assessment of the applicant’s skills for the nominated skilled occupation by a relevant assessing authority.
I was confused whether my professional registration would be counted as the Skills Assessment because the registration standards are fairly similar to the requirements of the skills assessment. As such, I answered "NO" to the question regarding whether I have applied for a Skills Assessment but the system still let me through and directed me to the skills assessment section to give further details. I found an option called "Council of Occupational Therapist Registration Board Inc" and I thought that was referring to the OT registration board under AHPRA. As a result, I selected that and provided details extracted from the AHPRA receipt. I also uploaded the AHPRA receipt as evidence. In ealy Feb, the Department corresponded me and gave me 28 days to provide the skills assessment but it did not mentioned that the registration I applied did not count as the skills assessment.
I rang the Immigration Department and the lady was still unable to confirm if I need to do the skills assessment while I am a registered OT and advised me to e-mail the processing officers directly. Unfortunately, I did not have any response from the Department. In mid-Feb, I uploaded my registration certificate up to the system and notified the Department.
In late Feb, I received another correspondence from the department clarifying that the registration did not fullfill the requirement of skills assessment and requesting me to provide a skills assessment issued by OT council in 7 days. I responded immediately by e-mail to notify the Department I will organise it at the end of the week due to financial hardship. I received the receipt from OTC on the 8 Mar 2018, however, they rejected my application on the same day and I could not upload it to the system.
I felt unfair for the visa refusal because the misunderstanding was purely caused by the system errors and miscommunication. Beside, I found that the processing officer miscalculate the days for responding the request on the second letter they sent me. Consequently, I applied for an AAT review. Did anyone experience similar situation in the past and went through the AAT review? What is usual processing time for the case to be reviewed by an AAT member? How to increase my chance of success in the review? Thank you so much and any opinions, thoughts and advice would be greatly appreciated.
