ACS Skills Assessment: The Four Pathways for ICT Occupations

It is the Australian Computer Society's check of an ICT qualification and experience for skilled migration. ACS confirms your qualification carries enough ICT content for the nominated occupation, and dates when your experience reached professional level. The outcome supports points-tested visas and employer routes that require an assessment. Four pathways carry it, matched to different qualification and experience mixes.

General Skills costs $1,498, Post Australian Study $1,136, and both Recognition of Prior Learning and Qualification-only cost $625. Appeals run $516 and $620 across the two levels. Those figures come from the ACS fees page read on 26 September 2026. The ACS cost sits apart from any professional fees and from later government visa charges, so budget them separately.

ACS assesses the qualification first, for level and ICT content against your nominated occupation. It then reads employment and dates the point your experience met the skill level. Work after that date earns skilled-employment points; work before it supports suitability. You can start the application and complete submission within 90 days, which rewards assembling references properly before lodging.

ACS publishes no fixed window. Its process page states applications are processed as soon as possible, with delays driven by documentation quality. Summaries elsewhere print four to six weeks. That figure did not appear on the ACS pages read on 26 September 2026. Treat completeness as the real timeline lever, and check the ACS information hub for current guidance.

Four groups carry the file. Qualification certificates with full transcripts. Employment references on letterhead with dates, weekly hours and duties. Identity documents, and a CV that matches the references. Add payslips or contracts behind the key employment claims. Recognition of Prior Learning applicants also write two project reports in their own words. Thin references are the single most common documentation request, so front-load the detail.

For migration purposes the outcome is accepted for up to three years from its issue date. A shorter period stated on the letter itself governs. Both the expression of interest and the visa application should sit inside that window. Diarise the expiry when the outcome arrives. An expired assessment cannot support an invitation, whatever the rest of the file says.

It depends on the pathway. General Skills expects a substantial background over several years. Post Australian Study wants one year of relevant Australian work, or the ACS Professional Year instead. Recognition of Prior Learning is built entirely on experience, asking ample years in place of a qualification. Qualification-only skips experience and exists for the 485 graduate route, not for points-tested visas.