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Thread: ICAEW - does it need NZQA assessment

  1. #1
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    Default ICAEW - does it need NZQA assessment

    I am full member of ICAEW and based on that I claimed full membership of NZICA. My question is: do I need NZQA assessment of ICAEW or NZICA? Law says:

    SM14.20 Evidence

    Principal applicants under the Skilled Migrant Category must submit their qualifications and provide a NZQA assessment (Pre Assessment Result (PAR), International Qualification Assessment (IQA) or Qualifications Assessment Report (QAR) (see SM14.35)) unless:

    a) their qualification(s) is included in the List of Qualifications Exempt from Assessment; or
    b) their qualification(s) is included in the List of Qualifications Recognised as an Exception; or
    c) they have been awarded full or provisional registration by a New Zealand organisation authorised by law to give occupational registration, and registration involves an assessment that their overseas qualification(s) is comparable with a New Zealand qualification that is included in the List of Qualifications Exempt from Assessment.

    I guess point c) applies to me but I am unable to interpret i.e. NZICA is not on the list of Qualifications Exempt from Assessment. Does it means even NZICA being NZ organisation assessed ICAEW as its equivalent but because NZICA is not on the Exempt list I need to have ICAEW assessed from NZQA?

    Please note I do not hold any bachelors degree on top of ICAEW.

    Thanks in advance

  2. #2
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    Hi. I'd replied to your PM before I saw that you'd started a thread.

    The basic answer to anyone else reading is yes. if you can't satisfy a) or b) you will need NZQA assessment. NZICA do not offer registration in the way the manual intends. There are certain professions where you have to be registered before you can work (such as teaching, nursing and some engineering roles). For accounting, membership is not the same as registration. If you did want to practice as an accountant here (rather than be an external auditor) you would have to do the Certificate of Public Practice. From NZICA:

    CPP requirements
    To be issued a CPP, you must meet the following requirements:

    be a Chartered Accountant (CA)
    have been a CA for at least two years
    intend to offer accounting services to the NZ public
    have two years’ acceptable practical experience as a CA
    have attended an NZICA approved course for new practitioners within the preceding two years. Check for upcoming course dates.
    if admitted to NZICA membership through membership of an overseas accounting body, have completed approved courses in New Zealand Company and Partnership Law and New Zealand Taxation.

    Hope that helps.

  3. #3
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    Many thanks RedVee and also answering to my PM. I also sent you a PM

  4. #4
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    Now I am thinking:

    1) Not claim any points for qualification as I have 110 points (just checked) without claiming qualification points as I am starting skilled employment in NZ shorty.

    2) 110 points exclude points for "Areas of Absolute Shortage" based on External Auditor criteria as assuming when I am not claiming points for qualifications (because I have not got level 7 assessed NZQA results) i can not tick "Areas of Absolute Shortage"

    Anything else I should be aware of?

    Thanks a million

  5. #5
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    Others will help out here if I'm wrong, but you can't go the skilled route without an NZQA assessment. (Unless exempt as previously discussed) All applications under this category need to demonstrate how they are skilled, which in most cases will be by a combination of three things - job offer, work experience and qualifications.

    The qualification needs to support the skilled employment. So you couldn't say for example you had a job ( or were looking for a job) as an IT analyst if your qualification was in hotel management. Once you have residency, and done three months in the job you can work wherever you want.

    You do not need registration to be an external auditor, just the membership you already have. But you should only claim the points if that is what it says on your offer of employment letter.

    Now, what I don't know us whether NZQA is required for the work to residence route.

    But if you want to do SMC, with or without points fir external auditor, you will need assessment. For a few jobs, so many years if work experience can substitute for a qualification, but accountancy is not one of them.

  6. #6
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    Many thanks. I was under impression as long as you have 100 points with job or job offer your EOI will be selected. I tried to look online INZ to see if assessing qualification under SMC is a must but could not found. Do you know a reference for this or is it not written but understanding from INZ?

  7. #7
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    I think I found the info and you are right external auditors are not exempt from qualifications based on experience under ANZSCO. Which means its a must to have my ACA from ICAEW assessed. In this case suppose if NZQA assess it at level 7 general and not specific requirement as per LTSSL then I assume it will still be accepted by INZ but that in that case I can not claim bonus points for External auditor?

    Please correct me if I am wrong?

    Things are difficult

  8. #8
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    I'm afraid you are seeing this too mechanistically. Your EOI might get selected at 110 points with job offer but your ITA would still fail if you don't prove your qualification matches.

    I repeat, the job, your qualification and your experience ALL need to line up for SMC, whether you claim the points or not. If you say you have a job offer as an accountant/external auditor, your case office will want to check whether your qualification is suitable. The way they do that is to ask you for NZQA assessment.

    Have a look at this:

    http://www.immigration.govt.nz/migra...nt/default.htm

    In particular, the bit I've bolded below about How do you know if your employment is ‘skilled’?

    Occupations are ‘skilled’ if they are listed as skill levels one, two or three on the Australian and New Zealand Standard Classification of Occupations (ANZSCO). These are all listed in our operational manual at Appendix 6: List of Skilled Occupations.

    First, you need to make sure that the description of your job/job offer substantially matches the description of the occupation (including core tasks) in the ANZSCO.

    Then, check if your occupation is in part A, B or C of the List of Skilled Occupations.

    Occupations in Part A
    If your occupation is listed at Part A of Appendix 6: List of Skilled Occupations, you must also have one of the following:
    a relevant recognised qualification – the qualification must be at, or above, the qualification level on the New Zealand Qualifications Framework (NZQF) that corresponds to the skill level indicated for that occupation in the ANZSCO
    the relevant work experience that the ANZSCO indicates may substitute the required qualification
    the relevant requirements specified in column three of the Long Term Skill Shortage List (LTSSL) for your occupation (if your occupation is included in the LTSSL)
    five years of relevant work experience in a Skill Level One occupation.


    I also had a quick look at the residency from work criteria - and that too requires you to prove you are suitably qualified. So if you want residency at some point, whatever the route, you are going to have to have your qualification assessed. It ought not to be too much of a faff, due to the reciprocal arrangements with ICAEW and NZICA which NZQA will probably already have documented. And you are in no rush as you are going anyway, so the 35 working days isn't long to wait (just don't apply over Christmas in my experience as the timeframes go out of the window!) So you have to pay $756 for the assessment, but if you move here that will be a drop in the ocean. At least you wont waste money on getting a PAR, which is what I did before I knew any better. Tick as many of the "purpose" boxes that are relevant as its only one fee - so tick immigration, employment and education - just in case you want to go back at some point and do more study with NZICA or someone else.

    (PS- you only need to do the CPP I mentioned if you are going to offer accounting services to the public)

    Regards
    RedVee

  9. #9
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    Hi RedVee

    That is great. Thanks for comprehensive answer and this does make eveything clear. So thanks again. My last question before close on this topic.

    Within the 4 conditions in Occupation part A above, it says need to meet one of the below and I can see the forth one where it says 5 years of relevant experience. In my case I have 5 years of experience as external auditor. Would that eliminate the need for qualification? (although I now feel given the info you shared to have qualification assessed).

  10. #10
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    Hi, I can't properly check because the INZ website appears to be down. But in the AU version of the ANZSCO (which should be the same as it is AU and NZ) , it says the 5 year experience substitute applies only to company secretaries and corporate treasurers, who are in the same skill group (221213).

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