How long each AU and NZ assessment outcome stays valid: two years, three years, five years, seven years — and one that never expires

There is no standard validity period for a qualification assessment in Australia or New Zealand. There are at least six different ones, and the differences between them are not decorative — they decide whether a renewal exists, whether it restarts the clock, and whether a near-miss on one document costs you another.

The three rules that actually cause damage: an expired outcome usually cannot be renewed at all, a renewal or reassessment often does not extend the original expiry date, and two documents on the same file can expire on different days.

The clocks

Authority / document	Published validity	Is there a renewal product?
VETASSESS — full skills assessment	“usually valid for three years from its issue date”	Yes, AUD 520.30 incl GST within three years
ACS — migration skills assessment	“Suitable outcomes are valid for 2 years”	No — “ACS does not currently support Outcome Reassessment nor Outcome Renewals”
CPA Australia — migration assessment	“valid for three years from the date of your initial assessment outcome”	Update applications exist, but see the reset rule below
CA ANZ — migration skills assessment	“valid for three years from the date it was issued”	No — “CA ANZ does not offer a renewal service”
IPA — qualification / skilled employment assessment	“valid for a period of three years from the date of the assessment”	No renewal; “you’ll need to lodge a new assessment application using the same IPA reference number”
ADC — initial assessment	“Successful initial assessments are valid for seven years”	Renewal fee published (AUD 35)
ADC — written examination pass	“valid for five years”; the practical must be sat “within five years of you passing your written examination”	none published
ADC — skills assessment	three years	—
Australian Physiotherapy Council — Interim Certificate	“valid for two years after you have successfully completed Eligibility Assessment and Cultural Safety Training”	none published
AITSL — teacher skills assessment	“valid for the period shown on the outcome statement from the date of issue and cannot be renewed”	No
AITSL assessment as read by TRB Tasmania	“valid for two years from the date of issues”	—
NZQA — International Qualification Assessment	no expiry published; NZQA’s recognition statement carries no stated end date	add-on evaluations can be requested within 12 months

The four rules that catch people

Rule 1 — an expired outcome is usually a new application, not a renewal. VETASSESS is explicit: “Once your skills assessment outcome letter has expired, it cannot be renewed. You will need to submit a new skills assessment application.” The price difference is stark — AUD 520.30 for a renewal inside three years against AUD 1,205.60 for a fresh assessment. At ACS, CA ANZ and IPA there is no cheaper option at all, so an expiry is always a full fee.

Rule 2 — a renewal or update does not necessarily restart the clock. This is the one that produces genuine surprise. CPA Australia: “Please note that any subsequent updates, such as applying for a qualification assessments of additional ANZSCO codes, skilled employment assessments or reviews, will not reset the expiration date of an application.” CA ANZ, on why it offers no renewal at all: “Reassessments do not extend the original expiry date. As reassessments are allowed within the three-year validity period, CA ANZ does not offer a renewal service.”

VETASSESS is the one place where the published position is ambiguous. Its renewal page says a suitable outcome is “valid for three years from its issue date”, and then, answering how long a renewed outcome lasts, says VETASSESS assessments “are currently valid for three years from the original issue date”. Those two sentences yield different expiry dates for the same renewed letter. We are not going to decide which one VETASSESS means. Ask in writing before you pay the renewal fee, and keep the answer.

Rule 3 — criteria can change between your first assessment and your renewal. VETASSESS: “To satisfy our requirements when applying for a renewal, you must demonstrate that your skills meet the current criteria for your nominated occupation. It is important to check the current criteria because they may have changed.” ACS goes further and says a repeat application can go the other way: “it is sometimes possible for returning applicants to receive an outcome not in line with their previous assessment outcomes.” A previous suitable outcome is not a floor.

Rule 4 — a second, longer clock may be running on your employment evidence. VETASSESS will not accept employment that has aged out regardless of the assessment’s validity: “Employment that is outside of the last five years cannot be accepted and will not meet the skills assessment requirements.” An outcome can be inside its three years and still fail renewal because the work that supported it has fallen outside the five-year window.

Where two clocks on one file expire on different days

Dentistry is the clearest case, and it is a three-clock problem. The ADC initial assessment is good for seven years. The written examination pass is good for five. The practical examination must be sat inside that five years. So the binding constraint is never the seven-year document — it is the five-year one, and the practical examination has a published turnaround of “4 to 7 months from application period to results release (approximately)”, is offered in limited windows, and happens only in Melbourne. Passing the written examination in year one and leaving the practical to year five is a plan with no margin in it.

Teaching has a version of the same problem in a different shape. AITSL’s assessment “cannot be renewed”, and the English test that supported it has its own window — three years at AITSL and at VIT, NESA, QCT and TRB NT, but only two years at TRBWA, TRB SA, TRB Tasmania and TQI. It is entirely possible to hold a live AITSL assessment and a dead IELTS certificate, or the reverse. The numbers are in English language requirements, regulator by regulator.

The New Zealand exception

NZQA’s International Qualification Assessment is the outlier on this page: it carries no published expiry. NZQA describes what it is — “This evaluation is called an International Qualification Assessment (IQA). It allows individuals, employers and organisations to see how qualified a person is for work and immigration purposes” — and what it will not do, which matters more for planning:

“We cannot evaluate: secondary school qualifications / incomplete programmes of study / programmes of study not leading to the award of a qualification / certificates of attendance … / professional registration, permits, licenses or certifications / membership certificates issued by chartered bodies, unless they are formally recognised by the relevant government or government-mandated education bodies in the country of award, at the time of award.”

And it will not accept someone else’s homework: “We cannot accept recognition evaluations from other countries because our evaluation compares an overseas qualification to a level or a qualification on the NZQCF.” An Australian skills assessment is not an input to an IQA, and vice versa — see an NZQA IQA and an Australian skills assessment are different products.

Note the trap in the “no expiry” position: the assessment may not expire, but the body relying on it can impose its own currency rule. The New Zealand Teaching Council requires an IQA before registration; the Nursing Council imposes practice-hours currency requirements independent of any document’s age.

So what should you actually do

Write down every date on every document you hold, and the date each one dies — not the date you received it. Then find the earliest one, because that is the date your plan actually runs to. If a renewal exists at your authority, use it well before the deadline: VETASSESS advises applicants to renew “at the same time as they apply for a state or territory migration program - or earlier”, precisely because state deadlines are short. If no renewal exists — ACS, CA ANZ, AITSL — plan on the assumption that you get one shot per assessment cycle and budget the full fee again.

And do not treat an outcome letter as a credential. ACS says so directly: “a suitable letter is not a formal IT award, qualification, or license and should not be utilised as such.” What one actually says, and does not say, is decoded in what a skills assessment outcome says. The fee consequences of missing a window are in VETASSESS fees and published processing times and ACS fees and processing times, and the challenge deadlines — which are shorter than any of these validity periods — in review, reassessment and appeal options at each authority.

What this page does not do

It does not tell you when your document expires; the document does, and where an authority’s own pages disagree we have said so rather than picked a side. Validity is also not the same as acceptance: the Department of Home Affairs sets its own requirements for what it will accept and when, and VETASSESS says as much — “It is your responsibility to confirm with the Department of Home Affairs as to whether you need a renewed skills assessment outcome.” Every figure above was read from the authorities’ own pages on 3 September 2026; several of those pages carry no visible review date. For visa questions go to the Department of Home Affairs or a registered migration agent.