SKILL Assessment by ACS - Part 1

Next in line was the process to get my skills assessed from relevant authority which is accepted by DIAC so that I can acquire points for my education and experience in the related occupation. So, when my IELTS result was out in September - I read in forums and contacted my brother for guidance as to how to go about the same, as he also got ACS assessment in his time. A change that I could see was that now we can upload all the documents required instead of couriering them all to ACS physically; that was quite a relief as it would made process easier, faster and economical. But this was the only good news about the process - because after my brother told me all the documents that was required for the same - I knew it would take a lot of effort, and for some documents I really thought - it was not even feasible getting them.

First thing was a document on HR Letter Head from all companies I have worked for stating my roles and responsibilities while I was working with them. At that time I was in my 2nd company. Sound simple enough - but the issue was my previous company was big IT giant and had very strict policies regarding the letters issued to employees and this sort of letter was prohibited by policy; and obviously from my current company I could not get any such letter from HR as I can not tell them what am up to - and getting any such thing would be like putting a blaring alarm in their ear! Alternate to a HR letter head document was to get a declaration on stamp paper from my manager or at least two level senior to me with the same content signed by notary or similar power person. I called up my manager from previous company - though it was more than three years since I left the company and no contact since then, but I knew that my manager was a really cool person, my hopes were on a good enough level :)

Initially I was in shock that my manager denied to any such thing as to sign a stamp paper stating that this is completely legal thing and he can not state any thing from company's side on such a legal paper. After too much convincing he said that 'okay -  I would confirm from HR and see if am allowed to do that as per company policy'. That was it - I thought all my plans to rejoin my brother at down under were becoming thin. But after some follow up with him he got ready to do this. Now - when I think about what he did was quite wonderful and very right thing. I also got such letter from my current company - can not really say who gave the sign off for good reason ;-p. Apart from this letter - I also got ID Card scan and business card scan of the signing person in both cases. Other than these main-effort-taking-documents, the list that I got from my brother was quite huge including any and everything from my school time to my career time - each certificate, marksheet, education proof, career proof. It was in total 160+ pages I had when I was done preparing.

Another confusion at this time was to upload "original documents" color scan OR scan of "certified photocopy" of original. Later, got to know that we have to use the latter one. It was a good stack of 160+ pages which was to be notarized with 'Outside India Stamp' - official fees per document is 150 INR. Do the maths! 

This task was done somehow - am not going into the details. Time was late October when I was done preparing everything and was ready to apply for ACS!

.. continued to next post!
Next - ACS SKILL Assessment - Part 2