How Long a Skills Assessment Result Stays Valid
A skills assessment result is not valid indefinitely. Each assessing authority sets its own validity period — and if the result expires before your visa is decided, you may have to start over. This is a factor many people miss when planning.
Indicative validity by authority
The figures below are common references — check directly with the authority before planning, as policy can change with each update.
ACS (IT occupations): the assessment result is usually valid for around 3 years from the date of issue. After that point you need to lodge a new assessment if you have not been able to use it.
VETASSESS Professional: the validity period is usually also around 3 years. If you are in the skilled independent stream and the result expires while you wait for an invitation, you need to extend or reassess.
TRA — Job Ready Program: the JRFA (Job Ready Final Assessment) certificate is usually valid for around 3 years from the date of issue. However, because the overall Job Ready Program is long, timing from when you start to when you can use the result needs to allow for all the stages.
Engineers Australia (MSA): EA’s Migration Skills Assessment is usually valid for around 3 years from the date of issue. If you are accumulating Expression of Interest points and the result is about to expire, check the extension policy with EA directly.
ANMAC (nurses and midwives): the validity of a Full Skills Assessment is usually shorter — around 2 years. This reflects the reality that health practitioner registration (AHPRA) has its own cycle, and ANMAC wants the assessment kept close to the time of actual registration.
Why this validity matters
For the skilled independent streams (189, 190, 491), it can take several months from submitting an EOI to receiving an invitation, then more time to decide the visa. If the assessment result expires during that period, DHA usually requires a valid result — and you have to redo it.
For 186 Direct Entry, the assessment result must be valid at the time the nomination is lodged.
Work backwards from the date you need
A safe way to plan: identify the date you need to use the result (the EOI lodgement date, the nomination date…), subtract the validity period, and you have the latest date you can start the assessment. Then subtract the authority’s processing time — the result is the earliest reasonable date to lodge the assessment.
That said, starting too early also carries risk: if your visa plan stretches out and the result expires before you can use it, you lose the fee and the time. Balancing “early enough” against “not too early” is something a registered migration agent (MARA) can help you pinpoint for each case.