Skilled Migration Visa Documents and When a Notary Is Needed

For an Australian skilled migration visa, few documents must be notarised. Home Affairs usually accepts scans or copies certified by an authorised person. The strict party is the skills assessing authority, which sets its own rules for your occupation. Some want certified copies to their standard, some want documents sent by the institution, and a few want notarisation.

Key takeaways

• Read the skills assessing authority's published document rules first. They bind, and they differ by occupation.
• "Certified copy" in an assessing authority's guidance means whatever that authority says it means, which may not match Home Affairs' list.
• Overseas degrees and employment evidence are certified, if at all, in the country that issued them.
• An Australian notary is useful for a power of attorney to retrieve records abroad, and for sworn declarations an authority specifically asks for.
• English test results and documents sent directly by an institution need no notary at all.

Who is the strict party in skilled migration?

In most visa streams, the Department of Home Affairs sets the document standard. In skilled migration, the stricter party is usually the skills assessing authority: the body that assesses whether your qualifications and experience match your nominated occupation. Engineers, accountants, trades, health professionals and many others each go to a different authority.

Home Affairs generally accepts a clear scan, or a copy certified by an authorised person, and the range of people who may certify is wide. Its certified copy page explains who that is in Australia. Assessing authorities set their own document rules, publish them, and apply them literally. Some want copies certified to a specified standard. Some want documents sent directly by the issuing institution, with anything that passed through your hands disregarded. Some do require notarisation.

So the first step is not "find a notary". It is "read the assessing authority's own published requirements", because they are the binding ones.

Where is a notary genuinely needed?

Overseas degrees, transcripts and trade certificates. Where the assessing authority requires notarised and authenticated copies, this is done in the country that issued the qualification. An Australian notary cannot attest that a foreign university conferred a degree. What an Australian notary can do is certify that a copy matches an original produced to them. Some authorities accept that, and others explicitly do not.

Overseas employment evidence. References, service certificates, payslips and tax records come from a former employer abroad. Where a reference is confirmed on oath or by declaration before a notary in that country, it carries more weight than letterhead, and some authorities require exactly that. The referee signs where the referee is.

Self-employment and unpaid experience. Where there is no employer to write a reference, the substitute is usually a declaration by you. It is supported by whatever business registration, tax or client records exist. Whether a Commonwealth statutory declaration or a notarised affidavit is wanted depends on the authority. Ask before paying to have anything sworn.

Documents that must be retrieved from a distance. Your university, employer or registry may be overseas and deal only with you in person. A power of attorney signed before an Australian notary, then apostilled or authenticated by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), lets a named agent act. The document they obtain is then certified there. See powers of attorney and declarations.

An Australian qualification going the other way. You may be having an Australian degree assessed by an overseas body, or registering an Australian qualification abroad. That is an outbound document. DFAT legalises an original university document once the university has verified it. A notarised copy works only if the notary's certificate states that the original was verified with the university. A plain "true copy" certificate is not enough for DFAT.

Where does a notary buy you nothing?

• English test results, which are normally reported by the testing organisation directly and not certified by you at all.
• Documents the authority wants the institution to send directly. A notarised copy you send instead is disregarded.
• Australian transcripts and certificates for an Australian assessing body, unless its guidance says otherwise.
• Anything Home Affairs takes as a certified copy by an authorised person, such as a Justice of the Peace.
• Uploaded scans where originals are not requested.

Notarising a document the recipient never asked to be notarised is the most common wasted expense in this stream. It does not make the application stronger, and an assessor does not score it higher.

What does each item usually need?

Document	For the assessment	For Home Affairs
Overseas degree or transcript	As the authority says; notarised abroad if required	A clear scan
Australian degree or transcript	As the authority says; sometimes sent by the university	A clear scan
Overseas employment reference	On letterhead, or sworn abroad if required	A clear scan
Self-employment evidence	A declaration plus records, in the form asked	A clear scan
English test result	Reported by the test provider	Reported by the test provider
Passport and identity documents	Certified copy, per the guidance	A clear scan

How are translations handled?

Documents not in English need an English translation. For Home Affairs, translations made in Australia should be by a translator credentialled by NAATI. Translations made overseas should carry the translator's full name, address, telephone number and details of their qualifications.

Assessing authorities frequently add their own translation rules. Some name acceptable translator categories. Some want the translation bound to a certified copy rather than to the original. A notary does not translate, but can witness the translator's declaration and bind the translation to its source document. See NAATI translation with a notary.

What order should you work in?

For an overseas qualification or reference:

1. Read the assessing authority's document requirements and follow them exactly.
2. Obtain the original, or an institution-issued certified copy if that is what it specifies.
3. Notarise in the issuing country, if required.
4. Apostille or legalise in that country, if required.
5. Translate, checking whether the authority wants the translation before or after.

Step 1 is not optional, and it is not interchangeable with Home Affairs' rules. For an Australian document heading overseas, the order is: original, Australian notary where needed, then DFAT. Check the destination on the HCCH status table on the day to see whether it takes an apostille or needs embassy legalisation after DFAT.

Skilled migration runs on invitation rounds, and points can depend on circumstances that change with time. The document chain is the part you control least. Start the assessment file first and work everything else backwards from it. Check each body's current published timeframe rather than relying on a rule of thumb.

How is a self-employment declaration prepared?

A declaration about your own work is the document most likely to need a formal witness, so it is worth preparing carefully. Set out the business, your role, the dates, and the work you did in terms your nominated occupation's description would recognise. Attach the evidence you refer to: business registration, tax returns, invoices, client letters. Leave it unsigned until the appointment.

Then check which form the assessing authority wants. A Commonwealth statutory declaration can be witnessed by anyone on the Commonwealth list, including a Justice of the Peace, and costs nothing. A sworn affidavit before a notary is a different document and is needed only if the authority asks for one. The witness checks your identity and watches you sign; the truth of the declaration is yours, and a false one is an offence.

Common mistakes

• Working to Home Affairs' rules for the assessment. The assessing authority is the receiving authority for the assessment, and its rules are usually narrower.
• Sending a notarised copy of something the institution must send. It will be disregarded, however well certified.
• Carrying an overseas degree to an Australian notary. The notary can only confirm the copy matches the paper. If notarisation is required, it happens where the degree was issued.
• Swearing a declaration nobody asked for. An affidavit costs more than a statutory declaration and is not stronger evidence if the authority wanted the other.

Here is an illustration, not a real case

A civil engineer in Adelaide, with a degree from a university in India and six years' experience there, prepares a skills assessment. The assessing authority's guidance says certified copies are acceptable and names who may certify. He uses a Justice of the Peace for his Australian-held originals, at no cost. His former employer in Pune writes a detailed reference on letterhead, which the guidance accepts. The one notarial act comes when his old university will release a duplicate transcript only to an agent. He signs a power of attorney for his brother before a notary in Adelaide, and DFAT apostilles it.

In short

For skilled migration, the skills assessing authority is the strict party, not Home Affairs. Read its published rules for your occupation first, and follow its meaning of "certified copy". Overseas qualifications and references are certified, if at all, in the country that issued them. An Australian notary earns a place for a power of attorney to retrieve records, and for declarations the authority specifically asks to be sworn.

People also search for

• Which employer-sponsored visa documents need a notary?
• How do you notarise a reference letter?
• Which permanent residency documents need a notary?
• Which student visa documents need a notary?
• Which partner visa documents need a notary?

Preparing a skills assessment? Send us the authority's document rules, and we will explain each step before you book.