Ok great, thanks for that info. There isn't any mention of VETASSESS on the letter from my employer, so hopefully DIAC won't be able to mess that up, but who knows.

I'll prepare my employer to receive the email/phone call.. that is going to be a little uncomfortable but whatever. I got away without telling him what the letter was for originally, but there's no avoiding it now!

Tomorrow night I'm planning to call VETASSESS and play dumb to ask what is going on. It will be interesting to see what kind of information they give me.

This is getting a little crazy. I want to know whether then DIAC then grants you a 'positive skills assessment' that you then lodge with your visa application. Or if they give the ok to VETASSESS to issue that. Being in an information vacuum is so hard.. once you think you finally understand how it works, they throw you a curveball and it's depressing.

Oh well, thanks for making this easier-- please keep me updated if you hear anything! thanks