The MSA Booklet: Every Rule That Can Get You Rejected

Applicants read three sample CDRs and none of the actual requirements, then discover their episodes are 4,000 words, their paragraphs are unnumbered, and their summary statement cites page numbers.

The booklet is free, short, and is the document your assessor is working from. It is published on the Engineers Australia website and revised periodically. Download the current edition before you draft anything — not a copy someone posted in a forum three years ago.

Everything below is a summary. Where this article and the current booklet disagree, the booklet wins.

• Three episodes, each covering a distinct period, project or role.
• 1,000–2,500 words each. Shorter reads as thin; longer buries the competencies you are trying to demonstrate.
• First person, singular. "I calculated", not "we calculated" and not "the team calculated".
• Numbered paragraphs, continuous within each episode: 1.1, 1.2, 1.3 for the first; 2.1, 2.2 for the second.
• English only, written by you, in your own words.

The structure is fixed at four parts:

At least one episode should demonstrate design. Ideally the three cover different aspects of your practice so competency coverage spreads naturally rather than being forced.

The summary statement is a table, not an essay. Three columns: the competency element, a brief description of how it was demonstrated, and the paragraph references.

So an entry reads: PE2.1 — Selected and applied limit-state analysis to resolve the serviceability drift exceedance — 1.11, 1.12, 2.8.

Two rules trip people up constantly:

References must be paragraph numbers. Not page numbers, not section headings, not episode titles. This is the reason continuous paragraph numbering is mandatory — without it the summary statement cannot function.

The paragraph must actually demonstrate the element claimed. Assessors check. A reference pointing at a paragraph that does not support the claim reads as padding, and enough of them read as a report that was retrofitted rather than planned.

Use the prefix matching your category: PE, ET or EA. See the sixteen elements explained.

The CPD list records what you have done to stay current since graduating. Present it as a table: date, activity, provider, duration, and a line on relevance. Recognised categories include formal postgraduate study, short courses and workshops, conferences and technical meetings, private study of standards and literature, structured workplace learning, service to the profession, and preparing or presenting technical material.

There is no hours minimum attached to the migration assessment itself — that applies to chartered status and NER. But a list of three entries spanning eight years reads badly, and most engineers under-record. Internal training, software courses, standards you studied for a specific job and graduates you mentored all count. See our CPD guidance.

The CV is capped at three pages and must list all employment chronologically with dates, employers, positions and duties. It has to agree with your career episodes and your reference letters — a CV describing you as a maintenance supervisor while an episode has you designing a pressure vessel invites a question you would rather avoid.

Alongside the CDR itself:

• Passport bio page, current and in colour
• English test result from a recognised provider, within validity
• Degree certificate and complete academic transcripts — every year, every subject, plus the grading scale where it is not self-evident
• Employment references on company letterhead, stating dates, position, hours and actual duties
• Certified English translations of anything not in English, submitted with the original

Name consistency across passport, degree and references is a leading cause of requests for further information. If your name appears differently on any of them, include the evidence explaining why. Full checklist in our documents guide.

1. Copying a published sample. Every submission is text-matched against published sources and Engineers Australia's own archive. A match can attract a ban of up to twelve months. Samples are for understanding structure only.
2. Writing as "we". Competency is awarded to a person.
3. Unnumbered paragraphs, which makes the summary statement unusable.
4. Exceeding the word count, usually by treating the episode as a project report.
5. A four-page CV. A small thing, and entirely avoidable.
6. Three episodes about one project, which guarantees narrow competency coverage.

All six are checkable before you submit. The assessment fee is not refunded on a negative outcome, which is why a pre-submission review against exactly these rules is the cheapest step in the process.

The booklet's rules govern the documents; myPortal governs how they reach the assessor. A few practical points that cause avoidable delay.

File format and legibility. Upload clear, complete scans. Colour where the original is coloured, at a resolution that stays readable when zoomed. An unreadable transcript comes back as a request for further information, and the clock restarts.

One document per upload slot. Combining your transcript, degree and references into a single PDF makes the assessor's job harder and increases the chance something is missed.

Nominate carefully. Your ANZSCO occupation is selected during the application. Changing it later means a new application and a further fee, and your career episodes may need rewriting because they must evidence the duties of the code you nominated.

Answer requests for further information promptly. These are normal rather than a sign of trouble, but applications sit idle until you respond, and the delay is entirely yours.

Keep a copy of everything you submit. If the outcome is unexpected, you will need to know exactly what the assessor saw — and if you later apply for a second occupation, or for NER or chartered status, the same material forms the base of that application.

The booklet also governs what happens afterwards, and applicants often do not read that far until they need it.

Assessed at a different category. Common, and not an error. If your qualification supports Engineering Technologist, you will be assessed there regardless of what you nominated. The outcome is positive — it simply may not be what your visa plan assumed.

A request for further information. Normal rather than a warning sign. The application pauses until you respond, so respond promptly and completely.

A negative outcome. Read the letter carefully: it will indicate whether the problem was competency coverage, content, occupation match, or something structural like plagiarism. Those need very different responses. A coverage problem may be fixable by rewriting one episode; a plagiarism finding carries a waiting period before you may reapply.

Review or appeal. Engineers Australia offers a review process with its own fee and timeframe. It is worth considering where you believe the assessor overlooked evidence that was present, and it is not a way to submit new material.

Because the assessment fee is not refunded in any of these situations, checking the report against the booklet before submission is the cheapest insurance available. See CDR review.