Institute of Public Accountants (IPA)

The qualification benchmark is specific. Only a qualification comparable to an Australian bachelor degree or higher with adequate coverage of the required core competency areas is accepted, and only a full 12 to 16 unit Master of Professional Accounting without exemptions from an accredited Australian university is treated as equivalent. For a General Skilled Migration assessment an English test is compulsory even for applicants from English speaking countries, with minimum scores for tests taken from 7 August 2025 of IELTS Academic 7.0 in each component, PTE Academic 58 listening, 59 reading, 69 writing and 76 speaking, or TOEFL iBT 22, 22, 26 and 24.

The Skilled Employment Assessment has strict employment rules. Work must be closely related to the assessed occupation, undertaken within the last ten years and after completing the bachelor-equivalent qualification, paid at market rate and continuous for a minimum of 20 hours per week; averaging 20 hours over a period is not accepted. The total must be at least one year, with at least three months in each role. The IPA will not accept altered references after lodgement and does not review skilled employment outcomes once decided.

Applications go through a secure portal after payment; applications submitted by email are not accepted, and a representative must be recorded in the authorised person section. A review must be lodged within 60 days of the assessment date and is refunded if the outcome is overturned.