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If you are looking to move to Australia and work here with a visa for qualified people under the General Skilled Migration (GSM) program, you must first qualify for your visa.
There are point-based visas (Skilled Independent, Skilled Nominated or Skilled Regional) and also temporary and permanent visas without (sponsored) points available, but if you want to apply for a points-based visa, you will need enough points to receive an invitation to submit an application.
The Department of Internal Affairs of Australia operates a point system and, if you want to know if you have the possibility of qualifying for one of these points-based visas, you will need to see how many points you can get.
There are a lot of point calculators that can be found on the Internet and some are pretty flashy. You know, answer some questions by selecting your answers from the drop-down menus and, suddenly, your point total appears at the bottom of the page.
There is no such technology here, but not many of those websites will tell you this …
Australia opens its doors mainly to young, intelligent, qualified and qualified people, people with good knowledge of the English language, people who can offer something to Australia. It is a very selective process.
For the elderly, people without skills, people who do not speak good English, the answer is almost certainly “No”.
That is a very cold and difficult view of how the system works, but it is probably a true reflection of how it is for the vast majority of people seeking to move to Australia. That said, there are more than 130 different types of visas and there will be, as there always have been in the past, exceptions to the previous rules.
The list of exceptions is probably quite long, from the refugees to the extremely rich. But for the vast majority, it’s about age, grades, skills, understanding the English language and, very often, the points.
It can be very difficult to know if you are able to apply or not, and if you need professional assistance, consult my Visa Evaluation Service.
Points calculator
Then, get yourself a low-tech ballpoint pen and a piece of even lower tech paper and calculate how many points you could get right now.
First, you get points for your age:
The basic requirement is that you are under 50, but if you have …
- Between 45 and 49 years of age, you can apply but get 0 points for your age.
- Age 40 – 44 = 15 points
- Age 33 – 39 = 25 points
- Age 25 – 32 = 30 points
- Age 18 – 24 = 25 points
Update: some people are not sure how many points they get for their age, it’s very simple. Example; someone who is 39 years old and 11 months old still falls into the category of 33 to 39 years old. Only when they turn 40 do they enter the category 40 to 44.
Proficiency in the English language:
- Superior = 20 points
- Competent = 10 points
- Incompetent = 0 points
Your English language skills are assessed through the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) test. There are four parts in this test; Talk, read, listen and write. To be superior, you must score a minimum of 8 for each one. To be competent, you must obtain at least 7 points for each part and to be competent you must obtain at least 6 points for each of the four.
Update: So, it’s not the average of your four scores, it’s not the highest, it’s actually the lowest score you get that determines your overall score and whether you are Superior, Proficient or Proficient. For this reason, many people struggle with IELTS.
Fortunately, since I initially created this page, more tests have been introduced in English that have been accepted by the Australian government. According to my agent LMS, they are:
I’m not entirely sure how the scoring system works on any of the previous tests, but I’ve had many readers who say they found the Pearson test, the first on this list, preferable to the IELTS.
If you have a passport from the United Kingdom, EE. UU., Ireland, Canada or New Zealand, automatically qualify as competent, but that gives you zero points. If you need more points, you must take the exam. For other passport holders, even though the competent does not grant any points, you must still take the exam to improve your competence to continue.
Note that there are two types of IELTS tests; The general exam and the academic exam. The general IELTS test is the standard English test and the academic is required by certain academic or medical / specialist occupations. The test you take depends to a large extent on what the type of work you do requires and / or the requirement of potential sponsors. Learn more….. Australian Immigration Points
