AMC – Chief Mates

Course Title: 

Bachelor of Applied Science, Nautical Science – Leading to AMSA Chief Mates CoC.

Course Start Dates:

▪ Feb 2024  

▪ June 2024

They run 2 batches in a year.

Course Duration:

10 months.

Visa Duration: 

13 – 14 months.

Course Fees: 

Au$ 23,000 – Au$ 28,000.

The vide variance is because AMSA does not accept STCW advanced courses and ancillary courses like AFF, MFA, PSCRB, ECDIS and GMDSS from most overseas countries. If you already hold a STCW II/1 OOW from AMSA, Australia, then your tuition fees are going to be closer to Au$23,000. Else, it will be closer to Au$28,000.

Health Insurance:

▪ Single student: Au$1,000.

▪ Married couple: Au$4,500

▪ Married couple with a child: Au$5,500.

The insurance rates are set by MEDIBANK, and it may vary a bit depending upon your nationality.

The University admission letter will mention the health insurance cost applicable to you.

Eligibility: 

You should be holding a STCW II/1 CoC (Unlimited) whilst having completed a minimum of 12 months of sea time as a deck officer on ships > 500 GRT. 

If you are not sure whether your CoC and sea time will be accepted by AMSA, Australia, please apply for AMSA eligibility by filling the AMSA 419 form and sending the relevant documents by courier to AMSA in Australia. The AMSA fees payment is to be done online. If you face any issues in filling out the AMSA 419 smartPDF form, kindly let me know.

AMSA eligibility is advisable but not mandatory for university admissions and visa procedure. Sometimes, the University may ask you to get the AMSA eligibility letter before issuing you an admission letter if they do not feel confident of the sea time documents that you have submitted for admission purpose.

You need to mandatorily have the AMSA eligibility before sitting for the AMSA orals. Students can apply for AMSA eligibility before travelling to Australia or during their stay in Australia as well. The AMSA eligibility processing time is around 6 weeks.

Seat Booking Procedure:

Please email or WhatsApp me the following documents for seat booking with AMC, University of Tasmania.

▪ Passport front page and address page.

▪ CDC front page and sea service stamp pages after your 2nd Mates CoC.

▪ CoC – All relevant pages including expiry date page.

▪ STCW basic courses – PST + PSSR + FPFF + EFA.

▪ Class X (O Level), Class XII (A Level) and any other higher Diploma / Degree level school qualification.

▪ ECDIS certificate.

▪ Ship Security certificate.

▪ GMDSS certificate.

▪ Oil, Chemical and Gas tanker familiarisation courses (if working on tankers).

Kindly make separate PDF files with proper file names and send them to me on WhatsApp for e.g. one PDF file for Passport, one PDF file for CDC, one PDF file for CoC, one PDF file for all STCW courses, etc., and so on.

If your family (wife and children) wish to accompany you to Australia, we will need their passport and your marriage certificate as well.

There is no payment to be made to the University for booking your seat.

E-mail: kunal.anshuman@springdaleindia.com

After submission of all documents, the University will issue you a conditional offer letter in about 3 – 4 weeks’ time. This will come to you by email directly from the University and CC to me.

The conditions mentioned on your offer letter would be the following:

▪ Submission of IELTS Academic or PTE Academic test result. Score required is 6 band overall in IELTS Academic with no score below 5.5. The PTE Academic score required is 50 overall with no sectional score below 42.

You can book IELTS Academic test on:

www.ieltsidpindia.com

You can book PTE Academic test on:

www.pearsonpte.com

▪Payment of the 1st semester course tuition fees + overseas student health insurance (OSHC) charge. 

This payment will normally be made about 1 – 3 months before the course start date. The balance tuition fees for the 2nd semester will be paid about 6 months later whilst the course is ongoing in Australia. The course is divided into 2 semesters. The first semester course fee is paid to get the visa letter issued by the University. The 2nd semester course fees are paid before the start of the 2nd semester in Australia.

STCW advanced courses (AFF + MFA + PSCRB + Medicare) and Tanker Courses (Oil, Chemical & Gas):

AMSA, Australia does not accept DG Shipping, India advanced STCW courses as well as tanker courses. So, these courses will have to be mandatorily done in Australia.

GMDSS from India is accepted by AMSA subject to you getting a CoR  (certificate of recognition) by submitting the AMSA 419 form.

If you are a student of some other nationality, please email to AMSA at:

quals@amsa.gov.au 

or amsaconnect@amsa.gov.au 

and check if your country STCW advanced courses and tanker courses are accepted by AMSA or not.

Total Cost & Part-time work in Australia:

▪ Tuition Fees: Au$26,000 (will vary +/- 2,000 Au$ per student depending upon STCW & GMDSS course approval).

▪ Health insurance: Au$1,000 (mandatory)

▪ AMSA fees: Au$1,000

▪ Living Expenses: Au$1,200 per month (i.e., Au$14,400 per year)

▪ Flight travel: Au$3,000

▪ Miscellaneous: Au$1,000

▪ Visa Medical: Au$50

▪ Visa fees: Au$650

Total: Au$47,100

PART TIME WORK:

Students are allowed to work part-time in Australia during their studies. You can work up to 40 hours every fortnightly during term and full-time during holidays. The minimum wage in Australia is Au$ 23.23 per hour. 

Earnings per month: (40×2) x 23 = Au$1,840

Assuming, you worked for 10 months out of 12 months of stay in Australia, your part-time earnings will be: Au$18,400.

Total expense for a student who works part time in Australia and one who does not work part-time in Australia are as given below:

▪ Au$28,700

▪ Au$47,100

Australia is a very expensive place to study and hence most students will do some part-time work to offset at least their living expenses in Australia. 

During vacation time, you can work full time and hence earn 2.5X what a student earns monthly part-time, but we have not considered that additional earnings for calculation purpose.

Your spouse is also allowed to work part-time in Australia. 

The cost involved if carrying your wife to Australia is as explained below:

▪ Living Expense: Au$400 per month i.e., Au$4,800 for a year.

▪ Flight ticket: Au$3,000

▪ Health Insurance: Au$3,000

▪ Visa Fees: Au$300

▪ Part time work earning at minimum pay if working 10 out of 12 months in a year: Au$18,400

Net SURPLUS earned by a working spouse will be Au$7,300.

So, if both student and spouse are working part time during your Chief Mates course in Australia, the actual cost will come to: Au$21,400.

Approximate net expense for a student and spouse under different conditions are given below:

▶ Total expense for student is Au$ 47,100 (25 Lakhs INR if 1 Au$ = 53 INR) if the student does not work in Australia.

▶ Total expense for student is Au$ 28,700 (15.20 Lakhs INR if 1 Au$ = 53 INR) if the student works part time in Australia.

▶ Total expense for student and wife is Au$ 58,200 (30.80 Lakhs INR if 1 Au$ = 53 INR) if none of them work part-time in Australia.

▶ Total expense for student and wife is Au$ 21,400 (11.30 Lakhs INR if 1 Au$ = 53 INR) if both work part-time in Australia.

Visa Processing:

We will be guiding you with the visa procedure. The visa procedure is totally online now and is similar irrespective of the nationality of the student.

▪ The visa processing time varies from 3 – 6 weeks normally.

▪ The length of visa is for around 14 months.

▪ The breakup of funds that you need to show for your visa is as explained below:

▶ Tuition Fees: Au$28,000

▶ Living Expenses: A$24,505

▶ Health Insurance: Au$1,000

▶ Flight Ticket: Au$3,000

Total visa show money: Au$56,505 (INR 30 Lakhs if Au$ = 53 INR).

If your tuition fees are less, then the visa show money will reduce accordingly.

If you are carrying your wife, the additional visa show money will be as below:

▶ Living Expense: Au$8,574

▶ Health Insurance: Au$3,000

▶ Flight Ticket: Au$3,000

Total extra funds to show for your wife will be Au$14,574 (INR 7.70 Lakhs at Au$ = 53 INR)

If children are to accompany you, the extra show money will be as below:

▶ Au$3,670 per child for non-school going children. 

▶ Au$9,661 per school going children.

▶ Travel cost per child: Au$3,000

▶ Insurance cost per child: Au$1,000

Educational Loan / Personal Loan:

As you would see, the amount to show for Australian visa is huge. Hence, most Indian students take loans be it personal loan, educational loan, loan against property, home loan top-up, loan against insurance policies, loan against jewelry, etc. If you wish to apply for a loan, please do let us know and we will ask the concerned person to get in touch with you.

The money for visa can be shown as cash in bank account, fixed deposits, or bank loan. You can also show funds held by your parents, in-laws, and own brother / sister. Any sudden reflection of large amount of money in your bank account will need to be explained with documentary evidence regarding its source as otherwise that can be a ground for visa refusal.

Permanent Residency (PR) in Australia

The PR for deck officers, engineer officers and Ships Master was stopped in Australia from 31 July 2017. Prior to that many seafarers did the Chief Mates or 2/E CoC from AMC, University of Tasmania and took PR in Australia. It is not certain when PR for seafarers will start again for Australia as PR for professions is demand-supply based. Once the seafarers who took PR in Australia move back to shore-based jobs in Australia, one expects that demand will then outstrip supply and seafaring professions will again get included in the shortage occupation list (SoL). It may happen in 1 year or 5 years, that is something nobody can predict. That it will open again is almost a certainty but when it will happen can’t be predicted. As it is over 6 years since PR was stopped for seafarers, it is anticipated that it will reopen in the next 1 – 3 years’ time.

This leaves a student looking to do the Chief Mates or 2/E CoC course from AMC, University of Tasmania with 2 options primarily:

▶ 1st Option: Finish your CoC course and obtain your Bachelor’s degree in Nautical Science from UTAS. Come back to your home country and start sailing. Whenever PR starts again for seafarers, apply for it from your home country only. PR processing takes about 6 months, and you will need to contact Australian govt. licensed migration agents who are called as MARA agents.

▶ 2nd Option: After obtaining your Chief Mates CoC and Bachelor’s degree from UTAS, proceed to do your MBA in Australia in a relevant field for e.g., maritime logistics & supply chain or maritime management from the University of Tasmania. These are 1.5 – 2 years courses. Together the Chief Mates / BSc & MBA will take your total course duration to 2.5 years. The rule in Australia is that if you do 2 years of full-time study at degree or above level, you get 2 – 4 years of post-study work visa in Australia. As Tasmania is a regional area, you get 3 – 4 years of post-study work visa if you work in Tasmania. Look for employment in Tasmania during your post study work visa. After completing 1 year of relevant skilled employment in Tasmania then apply for PR under different occupation category (not seafarer category) for e.g. business development manager, market research analyst, procurement manager, quality assurance manager, sales & marketing manager, university lecturer, etc. Your MARA licensed migration agent who files your documents for PR will check your prior academic qualification and work experience. He will guide you accordingly under which occupation (ANZSCO code) you should file for your PR. If you are married, your wife can work full time (as it is a PG and not a UG course) when you are doing MBA in Australia. The costs get greatly reduced if you are working part-time and your wife is working full time during your MBA course and your chances of applying for PR may open for both seafarer and non-seafarer category.

I have given link of x2 such MBA courses which may be of interest to you in future:

▪ MBA in Maritime Management:

https://www.utas.edu.au/courses/cse/courses/p7h-master-of-business-administration-in-maritime-management

▪ MBA in Global Logistics and Supply Chain Management

https://www.utas.edu.au/courses/cse/courses/p7e-master-of-global-logistics-and-supply-chain-management

Someone with a bachelor’s degree can opt to do this MBA course directly without doing the Chief Mates course also.

I work for the University of Tasmania, Australia and am not a MARA licensed migration (PR) agent. Hence, though I can help you out with admissions and student visa procedures as I am appointed by the University of Tasmania, but I cannot file your PR application.

If you would like to enroll for the Chief Mates course at Australian Maritime College, University of Tasmania, please do revert.

Thanking you in anticipation.

Contact Details:

Kunal Anshuman

Springdale India

529, Mastermind 4,

Royal Palms, Aarey Colony,

Goregaon E, Mumbai – 400 065

Maharashtra, INDIA.

Email: kunal.anshuman@springdaleindia.com

www.ukcoc.in 

File Attachments:

1. UTAS Tuition Fees

2. UTAS Admission Letter – SAMPLE

3. UTAS Financial Matrix form

4. Australia Visa Show Money Rules