tunlex01:


1. Payslip and bank statement are enough for ACS assessment. You will need to provide for each employer.
Bank statement - you will need to provide for ALL the years covering your salary payment.
Payslip - 4 per year (1 per quarter) will be good for each of the year
Must have 2 payment evidence for all the 6 years. (please count the dates (including dys/month) and ensure they are 6 or more years.

2. Your bachelors and masters in a related course will get the experience requirement reduced to 2 years (if the masters is considered AQF masters) or 2 or 4 years (if the Vietnam masters is considered AQF Bachelors or Graduate diploma)
Your previous experience will still count apart from the usual deduction of 2 or 4 depending on the AQF of the new masters.

Thanks so much for your detailed responses. I really appreciate. I think I need to get ACS assessment of my degree first. If it’s recognized , then I just need extra 1 year to get the required 2 years experience with Payment evidence. How competitive is my field tho? Any idea ? Cloud DevOps engineer / security engineer. Age is 29

Edited: also, can I upload my document to ACS for assessment to actually get ACS evaluation, even tho the work experience isn’t upto the expected number of years yet? I just want to hear from them directly if it’s recognized or not.

tunlex01:


1. No. ACS requires 6 years experience in your case which you must also provide at least 2 payment evidence which you don't have
2. Sadly, ACS will not assess you without all the requirements being met.
In your case, you ae better of on a study visa to Australia to upgrade your qualification or take a part time masters in Vietnam.

Thanks for taking the time to read and comment on my story. I have two questions:
1. You mentioned needing two forms of payment evidence, are the payslips and a bank statement okay, or do I need separate evidence for each company I’ve worked for? Also, how far back should I provide statements and payslips—just one year, or the entire period of employment?

2. Studying in Australia is too expensive, so I’m considering a part-time Master’s in Vietnam. Would my Bachelor’s degree plus this new Master’s qualify for the application? And how is work experience calculated—if I get my Master’s in 2027 and have been employed at a tech company since 2024 (with payslips and statements), does my eligible work experience start before or only after completing the Master’s?

Hello everyone,

I’ve been following this page anonymously for some time and just decided to join to share my challenge.

Too Long? Please Read

I graduated with a Computer Science degree from a university in Benin Republic in 2019. That same year, I began my National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), which I completed in 2020.

Before graduating, I had co-founded two tech companies in Nigeria and had been working on them since 2018—one as a tech outsourcing firm and the other as a product-based company. As self-funded startups, we prioritized paying our employees and covering operational expenses rather than paying ourselves regular salaries. Two years later, we dissolved our office space and transitioned to remote work.

My degree program in Benin Republic was a three-year university program. After graduating, I moved to Vietnam in 2022, where I worked as an English teacher while still maintaining the tech products and services I had previously built. Additionally, I handled tech-related roles at the same English center where I worked. However, my contract letter only states “English Teacher” with no mention of my IT-related responsibilities. I am unsure whether they would be willing to update my job description if I request it.

In 2024, I joined one of the biggest IT firms in Vietnam as a Cloud/DevOps Engineer, where I have now worked for about a year.

In the past, I attempted to apply for Master’s programs, but my applications were rejected due to my three-year degree from Benin Republic. When I consulted an immigration agent, they informed me that my degree would not be considered valid for assessment and suggested that I would need at least six years of work experience to compensate for the degree requirement.

Challenges I’m Facing
1. Work experience with my co-founded companies in Nigeria: Since I was a co-founder, I do not have payslips or bank statements showing regular salaries, as we prioritized company growth over personal compensation until we eventually could not sustain the company.
2. Work experience with my first employer in Vietnam (English Center): While I can provide payslips and bank statements proving my employment, my contract only states “English Teacher”, despite my involvement in IT-related work for the company.

Key Questions
• Can I claim work experience from both the companies I co-founded in Nigeria and the English teaching center in Vietnam, even though I lack formal salary records and my contract letter from Vietnam doesn’t mention my tech role?
• If I can claim these experiences, that would complete the required six years of work experience, but how do I address the issue of missing payslips, bank statements, and inaccurate job descriptions?
• For my current IT job (1 year), I have proper payslips, bank statements, and a job description that align with my role.

Additional Information
• Age: 29
• Marital Status: Married (no children)
• Wife: Undergraduate, also living in Vietnam
• Current Tech Role: Cloud/DevOps Engineer
• Previous Tech Experience In Addition To The Afformentioned: Worked as a Security Analyst for four months in a top MSSP in Lagos in 2022, before moving to Vietnam.

I’d really appreciate advice from experienced professionals who have navigated similar challenges. Any guidance would be invaluable.