Engineers Australia Review and Appeal: Fees & Deadlines

If you disagree with your Engineers Australia assessment outcome, there is a two-tier process: you request a review first, and you can only lodge an appeal once you have received a review outcome. You cannot skip straight to an appeal.

Both stages have hard deadlines, fixed fees and one crucial limitation that catches most applicants out: they reconsider the decision on the evidence you already submitted. A review is not a second chance to send better career episodes. Understanding that distinction is what determines whether you should appeal at all, or simply reapply with a properly prepared CDR.

The process at a glance

	Review	Appeal
Who decides	An internal Engineers Australia assessor with no prior involvement in your application	An independent panel of experts from industry or Engineers Australia
Deadline to lodge	Within 3 months of the date on your assessment outcome letter	Within 6 months of the date on your original assessment outcome letter
Prerequisite	An assessment outcome you disagree with	You must already have a review outcome
Processing time	Up to 7 weeks	Up to 12 weeks
Fee (2026–27, incl. GST)	$368.50	$704.00
New evidence	Only if the assessor requests it, or in exceptional circumstances	Only if the panel requests it, or in exceptional circumstances
If you win	Review fee refunded, revised outcome letter issued	Review and appeal fees refunded, revised outcome letter issued
Finality	You may go on to appeal	The appeal outcome is final and cannot be challenged further

A note on fees. The figures above are from Engineers Australia’s 2026–27 schedule, both on its fees page and its reviews and appeals page. You may still see $357.50 and $682.00 quoted on third-party sites — those were the previous year’s amounts. Check the figure shown in the online form at the moment you lodge.

Step one: work out why the outcome was negative

Your outcome letter and any accompanying assessor comments are the only reliable guide to what went wrong. Before spending $368.50, identify which of these applies — because only some are grounds for a review.

What happened	Review or appeal?
The assessor overlooked a document you definitely submitted	Review. This is a core ground.
The assessor relied on information not relevant to your application	Review. Core ground.
Process was not followed — for example you were never given a chance to respond to a request	Review. Core ground.
You believe the assessment showed bias that disadvantaged you	Review. Core ground.
You were assessed as engineering technologist instead of professional engineer	Possibly a review — but only if you can frame it within one of the four grounds below, for example that submitted material was not considered. Simple disagreement with the assessor’s judgement is not a ground.
Your career episodes genuinely did not demonstrate several competency elements	Neither. Rewrite and reapply.
Your CDR was flagged for plagiarism or similarity	Neither, usually. Engineers Australia treats this as an ethical breach carrying immediate rejection and a 12, 24 or 36-month ban on reapplying; a review will not undo that.
You forgot to submit a key document	Neither. New evidence is generally not accepted; a fresh application is the realistic route.

If your problem is the content of the report rather than the handling of it, your money is better spent on a corrected CDR than on a review. Our guide on what to do when a CDR is rejected by Engineers Australia covers the rewrite route in detail.

The four grounds for requesting a review

Engineers Australia will consider a review where you believe:

the assessment did not consider all relevant submitted materials;
irrelevant information was considered;
due process was not followed; or
the assessment demonstrated bias that disadvantaged you.

Notice that “I disagree with the assessor’s professional judgement” is not on that list. Your grounds letter has to translate your disagreement into one of these four categories, evidenced from your own file.

How to write the grounds letter

Both stages require a letter clearly stating your grounds. A structure that works:

Identify the application. Your name, Engineers Australia ID, application number, nominated occupation, and the date of the outcome letter.
State the ground. One sentence naming which of the four grounds you are relying on.
Quote the finding you are challenging. Use the assessor’s exact wording from the outcome letter.
Point to the evidence already on file. For each disputed finding, name the document, page and paragraph you submitted that addresses it — for example, “PE2.3 was assessed as not demonstrated; career episode 2, paragraphs 2.11 to 2.16, submitted 14 March 2026, sets out the design synthesis process, and the summary statement cross-references those paragraphs.”
Say what outcome you are seeking. A positive outcome, or assessment in a different occupational category.
Keep it factual. No emotion, no migration circumstances, no commentary on the assessor personally. Bias claims need specifics, not adjectives.

Then complete the online review or appeal form on the Engineers Australia website and attach the letter.

What happens during a review

An internal review assessor who had no involvement in your original application reconsiders all the information used in the initial decision. New evidence is only accepted if that assessor specifically requests it, or in exceptional circumstances determined by Engineers Australia. The process takes up to seven weeks, and you receive the outcome by email.

If the original decision is overturned, your review fee is refunded and a revised outcome letter is issued. If it is upheld, you receive a detailed explanation of the reasoning — which is genuinely useful, because it tells you precisely what a new CDR would need to fix.

What happens during an appeal

An appeal is only available once you have a review outcome. An independent appeal manager, uninvolved in either the original assessment or the review, forms a panel of subject-matter experts from industry or Engineers Australia. The panel examines all the information considered by both the original and review assessors and reaches its own decision. It takes up to 12 weeks.

If the appeal succeeds, both your review and appeal fees are refunded and a revised outcome letter is issued. If it fails, the decision is final and cannot be challenged further within Engineers Australia.

The deadline trap

The two deadlines run from different letters, and the appeal window does not restart:

Review: within 3 months of your assessment outcome letter.
Appeal: within 6 months of your original assessment outcome letter — not the review outcome.

Since a review can take up to seven weeks, lodging a review late can leave you with very little of the six-month appeal window remaining. If you intend to keep the appeal option open, lodge the review early.

Review and appeal, or reapply?

Weigh the two paths on cost, time and probability:

	Review then appeal	New CDR application
Cost	$368.50, plus $704.00 if you appeal	$1,034.00 for a standard CDR assessment
Time	Up to 7 weeks, plus up to 12 weeks	Around 15 weeks to be assigned to an assessor for a standard application
Works when	The evidence was already there and was mishandled or overlooked	The evidence was genuinely insufficient, or a competency element was not demonstrated
Refundable	Yes, if you succeed	No

A review is cheaper and refundable, so it is worth pursuing when you have a real procedural ground. But if the underlying report was weak, a review simply confirms the original finding and costs you two months.

Frequently asked questions

Can I appeal without requesting a review first?

No. An appeal can only be lodged once you have received a review outcome. The process is deliberately two-tier.

How much does an Engineers Australia review and appeal cost?

Under the 2026–27 fee schedule, a review is $368.50 and an appeal is $704.00, both including GST. Fees are refunded if the decision is overturned in your favour.

How long does a review take?

Up to seven weeks. An appeal takes up to a further 12 weeks.

Can I submit new documents with my review?

Generally no. New evidence is considered only if the review assessor or appeal panel specifically requests it, or in exceptional circumstances determined by Engineers Australia. If your case depends on documents you never submitted, a fresh application is usually the more realistic route.

Will a review change my occupational category?

It is possible, but there is no guarantee, and category disagreement is not itself one of Engineers Australia’s four grounds for a review. You would need to show that relevant submitted material was not considered, that irrelevant information was considered, that due process was not followed, or that the assessment was biased. If your case is really that the evidence was thin, a new application with stronger career episodes aimed at the category you want is the more reliable route.

Is the appeal decision really final?

Within Engineers Australia, yes — the appeal outcome cannot be challenged further. The review and appeal process is also not the channel for complaints about Engineers Australia’s products or services, or about a member’s conduct; those have separate procedures.

Does a negative outcome stop me applying again?

A standard negative outcome does not prevent a fresh application with a corrected CDR. An outcome involving plagiarism, fake documents or misleading information is treated far more seriously: Engineers Australia states this brings immediate rejection plus a 12, 24 or 36-month ban on applying again, and your details may be reported to the Department of Home Affairs. Engineers Australia can impose or extend a ban at any stage of the process.

Not sure which route is yours?

Send us your outcome letter and the CDR you submitted. We will tell you plainly whether you have a procedural ground worth reviewing, or whether the faster path is a rewritten report — and we will not sell you a rewrite you don’t need.

CDR review with detailed comments and plagiarism check — from $50.
What to do if your CDR was rejected.
How to write a summary statement that covers all 16 elements — the most common cause of a not-demonstrated finding.
Get a free assessment of your situation.

Source: Engineers Australia, Assessment reviews and appeals and Assessment fees and additional services. Deadlines and fees change — confirm on the Engineers Australia website before lodging.