Skilled Occupation List & Skills Assessment Australia: Does Your Course Count Toward PR?

Whether your course “counts” toward Australian permanent residence comes down to two separate checks: is your nominated occupation on one of the skilled occupation lists, and does a positive skills assessment from the correct assessing authority confirm your qualification and experience match that occupation. There is no single “does my degree count” register you can search. Instead, Home Affairs publishes a combined list of eligible occupations (currently around 691 entries across four named lists) that tells you which of 42 official assessing authorities is responsible for your occupation, and that authority, not Home Affairs, decides whether your specific course and work history are close enough to a real match.

This guide walks through how ANZSCO occupation codes work, what the Core Skills Occupation List (CSOL) actually replaced in December 2024, how to find the correct assessing authority for your occupation, what each major authority actually checks, and the specific validity and timing rules that catch people out. If you have not already, it is worth reading our overview of PR pathways for international students first, since skills assessment is one of the first practical steps in nearly every pathway described there, including employer-sponsored visas (482, 186 and 494) and state nomination visas (190 and 491).

TL;DR

• Your occupation needs an ANZSCO code and a spot on one of the skilled occupation lists (CSOL, MLTSSL, STSOL or ROL) before anything else matters.
• Each occupation has one designated assessing authority out of 42 official bodies – VETASSESS handles the largest general spread, but ICT, engineering, nursing, teaching, accounting, trades, medicine and law each have their own specialist authority.
• A skills assessment checks two things separately: whether your qualification is comparable to the Australian standard for that occupation, and whether your work experience is genuinely relevant and at the right skill level.
• Assessments are generally valid for 3 years unless the authority states a different period, and thanks to a 2021 court decision (Thapa), you can now obtain your assessment within the 60-day window after being invited, not necessarily before.

What ANZSCO actually is, and why it decides everything

ANZSCO stands for the Australian and New Zealand Standard Classification of Occupations, a system jointly built by the Australian Bureau of Statistics and Stats NZ. Every occupation Home Affairs recognises for a skilled visa is tied to a 6-digit ANZSCO code, and that code is what determines the occupation’s skill level, its typical qualification and experience requirements, and which assessing authority is allowed to check your suitability against it. Before you can research anything else, you need the correct ANZSCO code for what you actually do, not just a job title that sounds close.

That last point matters more than it sounds. Home Affairs uses the 2022 version of ANZSCO for the Employer Nomination Scheme visa (subclass 186) and the Skills in Demand visa (subclass 482), which includes every occupation on the Core Skills Occupation List. For every other skilled visa – the points-tested Skilled Independent (189), Skilled Nominated (190), Skilled Work Regional (491), Skilled Regional (489), Training (407) and Temporary Graduate (485) – Home Affairs uses the older 2013 version of ANZSCO, which covers the MLTSSL, STSOL and ROL occupations. If you have held a skilled visa before and are applying again, it is worth checking whether an ANZSCO update has since split your old occupation into more specific codes, since Home Affairs states you must then select the code that actually matches your current tasks and responsibilities.

The four occupation lists, and what actually changed in December 2024

Home Affairs describes the combined list of eligible skilled occupations as covering occupations across what its own overview page calls 5 occupation lists, though the searchable tool itself names four directly: the Core Skills Occupation List (CSOL), the Medium and Long-term Strategic Skills List (MLTSSL), the Short-term Skilled Occupation List (STSOL), and the Regional Occupation List (ROL). A separate legislative instrument, IMMI 12/096 Specification of Occupations and Assessing Authorities, governs which occupations need a skills assessment specifically for the Regional Sponsored Migration Scheme (subclass 187) Direct Entry stream, which is the most likely candidate for that fifth reference. In practice, almost every reader only needs to know which of the four named lists their occupation sits on, since that is what the visa-eligibility tool actually shows.

The CSOL is the newest of the four. It took effect on 7 December 2024, the same day the redesigned Skills in Demand visa (subclass 482) replaced the old Temporary Skill Shortage visa, and it applies to the 482 Core Skills stream and the Employer Nomination Scheme (186) Direct Entry pathway. Counted directly from the official published list, the CSOL currently holds 456 occupations, though Jobs and Skills Australia ran a public consultation on the list in the second half of 2025, so treat that figure as current at the time of writing rather than fixed. Crucially, the CSOL did not replace the MLTSSL, STSOL or ROL outright – those three lists are still in full legal force for the points-tested and regional visa subclasses. An occupation can sit on more than one list at once (many appear as “MLTSSL;CSOL” or “STSOL;CSOL” in the official tool), which is why checking your specific occupation, not just the list name, is the only reliable approach.

How to actually check if your occupation is eligible

Home Affairs runs a single searchable tool covering the combined list, at immi.homeaffairs.gov.au under “Skilled occupation list.” Checked directly for this guide, the tool held 691 occupation entries with no filters applied. Search by occupation title, and each result shows the ANZSCO code (both the 2013 and 2022 version where they differ), every visa and stream it is currently eligible for, which of the four lists it sits on, and – critically – the exact assessing authority responsible for that occupation. This single result line is the fastest way to answer “does my course count,” because it tells you who to actually contact next, rather than leaving you to guess.

The 42 assessing authorities, and which one is actually yours

Home Affairs does not carry out skills assessments itself. It delegates that job to 42 official assessing authorities, each responsible for a defined slice of the occupation list, and it will only accept an assessment from the authority listed against your specific ANZSCO code. Sending your qualifications to the wrong body, even a reputable one, produces an assessment Home Affairs cannot use. The list runs from small specialist regulators, like the Australasian Osteopathic Accreditation Council for osteopaths and the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Accreditation Council (ANMAC) for nursing, through to VETASSESS, which covers the broadest general spread of occupations, including most business, hospitality, trades and miscellaneous professional roles that do not have their own dedicated body.

A handful of occupations skip the separate assessment step altogether. For doctors, Home Affairs accepts evidence of full, unconditional or conditional specialist medical registration issued by the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) as the skills assessment itself, no separate application to a second body required. For solicitors, an Australian legal Admission Certificate or current Practising Certificate from the relevant state or territory legal admissions authority serves the same purpose. Everyone else nominating a listed occupation needs to apply directly to their designated authority.

Every one of these bodies sets its own procedures, evidence requirements, fees and processing times, and Home Affairs is explicit that this is the applicant’s own responsibility to manage. If you are exploring the nursing pathway specifically, our AHPRA registration guide for nursing graduates covers the registration side once your ANMAC skills assessment is in hand, and our cost of living guide is worth checking so these assessment fees fit into your total study-to-PR budget. VETASSESS quotes 7 weeks for a standard professional-occupation assessment, or 10 business days once a Priority application is confirmed eligible. Engineers Australia does not publish a guaranteed outcome time but commits to assigning a fast-track application to an assessor within 20 business days. AITSL reports that most assessment-ready teacher applications are completed within 4 weeks, occasionally up to 6. These timeframes genuinely vary between authorities and change over time, so always confirm the current figure on the authority’s own site before planning your application timeline around it.

What a skills assessment actually checks

Despite the different fees and paperwork, most assessing authorities run a version of the same two-part test VETASSESS describes directly: your qualification is compared against the Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF) to check it is genuinely comparable to the Australian standard for that occupation, and your employment history is separately assessed for whether it is relevant to the nominated occupation and performed at the right skill level. A strong qualification does not automatically carry a weak or unrelated work history, and vice versa – both parts need to hold up.

The professional bodies tend to go further than a simple AQF comparison. CPA Australia, for the six accounting occupations it assesses (Accountant General, Corporate Treasurer, External Auditor, Finance Manager, Management Accountant and Taxation Accountant), runs a three-part test: your degree must be comparable to at least an Australian bachelor’s, your course content is mapped against mandatory subject-area competencies specific to the ANZSCO code you are nominating, and your English proficiency is checked separately. Engineers Australia splits applicants into two very different pathways: if your degree is from a program accredited under the Washington, Sydney or Dublin Accords, you get a faster, cheaper qualification-only assessment; if it is not accredited under one of those Accords, you need to submit a Competency Demonstration Report (CDR), a much more detailed written submission demonstrating how your training and experience meet Engineers Australia’s competency standards. AITSL is the outlier in the other direction – it assesses qualifications only, explicitly excludes work experience from the assessment, and states plainly that it does not maintain a list of pre-approved accredited programs, meaning every applicant’s course is individually mapped against the AQF-level and study-area requirements for their nominated teaching occupation.

How long your skills assessment stays valid

Home Affairs applies one consistent validity rule across the points-tested and employer-sponsored pathways: if your skills assessment does not show its own expiry date, it is valid for 3 years from the date it was issued. If the assessing authority states a shorter validity period on the assessment itself, that shorter period applies. If the authority states a longer one, Home Affairs still caps it at 3 years from the assessment date. In practice this means a handful of authorities that issue assessments valid for, say, 5 years are quietly overridden back to 3 years for visa purposes – always work off the Home Affairs rule, not just the number printed on your certificate.

The 60-day flexibility does not extend to every visa the same way. For employer-sponsored pathways, the rules are stricter on sequencing even though the 3-year clock is identical: under the Employer Nomination Scheme (186) Direct Entry stream and the Regional Sponsored Migration Scheme (187) Direct Entry stream, your skills must already have been assessed as suitable before the date you lodge the visa application itself, though you can submit the physical evidence afterward. Both streams also require at least 3 years of full-time employment in the nominated occupation at the required skill level, on top of the positive skills assessment, and a skills assessment issued for a Temporary Graduate visa (485) application cannot be recycled for a 186 or 187 application – it has to be a fresh assessment aimed at permanent migration criteria.

What each visa pathway actually requires

The skills assessment rules are not identical across every visa subclass, and reading the wrong section of a competitor’s article is a common way to plan around the wrong requirement entirely. Here is what applies to each main pathway, as stated directly by Home Affairs.

Points-tested visas: 189, 190, 489 (invited pathway), 491

You must nominate an occupation on the relevant skilled occupation list for the specific visa subclass, and you must hold a suitable, currently valid skills assessment by the time you are invited to apply, with the Thapa-based 60-day flexibility described above. Note the skills assessment itself does not add points on the points test – it is a separate pass/fail eligibility gate you must clear before your points score is even considered, distinct from the points you earn for age, English, qualifications and experience.

Employer-sponsored: 186 and 187

Under the Direct Entry stream for either visa, a positive skills assessment is required and must be obtained before you lodge the application, plus 3 years of full-time relevant employment at the correct skill level. Under the Temporary Residence Transition stream (for existing 482/457 visa holders moving to permanent residence with the same employer), a skills assessment is not required by default, though a case officer can still request one if they consider it necessary to decide the application. The Labour Agreement stream follows whatever specific terms are set out in the employer’s individual labour agreement. For more detail on how the sponsorship side works, see our full guide to 482, 186 and 494 visas.

Skills in Demand visa (482)

Certain primary applicants must complete a mandatory skills assessment as part of the application, unless a specific exemption applies to their occupation or circumstances. The assessment must have been begun or completed within the 3 years before you submit the visa application, and including the skills assessment reference number in your application is explicitly recommended to avoid processing delays. Even where a skills assessment is not mandatory for your occupation, Home Affairs can still request one in writing during processing if the case officer considers it necessary.

Temporary Graduate visa (485)

This is the pathway with the most different rules, and the one most relevant if you are reading this straight out of an Australian degree. The Post-Vocational Education Work stream requires you to nominate an occupation on the MLTSSL specifically (not the CSOL, STSOL or ROL), and you only need to show that you have applied for a skills assessment, not that you have already received a positive outcome, at the time you lodge your visa application – though a negative result later can still affect your case. If your qualification was earned in Australia on a student visa, the underlying course must have been registered on CRICOS. By contrast, the Post-Higher Education Work stream (the one most graduates with a bachelor’s, master’s or PhD from a recent qualifying course use) does not require a skills assessment at all.

Why skills assessments actually get knocked back

Assessing authorities generally split a negative outcome into two separate failure points, and understanding which one applies to you changes what you can actually do about it. VETASSESS’s own fee schedule, for example, distinguishes between a qualification found “Not Suitable” because it is not highly relevant to the nominated occupation or not pitched at the required AQF level, and an employment history found not suitable for any other reason. The two are assessed and can fail independently – a genuinely strong degree does not rescue employment history that is too junior, unrelated, or under-documented, and vice versa.

Teaching is a useful example of how strict the matching can be. AITSL requires at least one full year of study specific to the age range of your nominated teaching occupation (early childhood, primary or secondary), and because it does not maintain any pre-approved list of accredited overseas or Australian programs, every qualification is individually checked against that requirement rather than accepted on reputation alone. A generalist education degree that never focused on a specific age band can genuinely fail here even from a well-regarded university, which is a distinct issue from anything to do with English proficiency or paperwork quality.

A practical step-by-step to check your own occupation

1. Write down what you actually do day to day, not your job title – the specific tasks, tools, level of independence and seniority.
2. Search the Home Affairs skilled occupation list tool by the closest occupation name to those tasks, and note every ANZSCO code, list (CSOL/MLTSSL/STSOL/ROL) and visa eligibility shown against it.
3. If nothing matches cleanly, search the ABS’s own ANZSCO structure by duties rather than title, then re-check that code against the Home Affairs tool.
4. Note the exact assessing authority shown for your occupation – this is the only body Home Affairs will accept an assessment from.
5. Go to that authority’s own website and read their specific guideline for your occupation, not a generic page, since requirements genuinely differ by occupation even within the same authority.
6. Compare your actual qualification (subjects studied, course length, AQF level) and your actual work history (duties, hours, duration, seniority) against what the guideline asks for, honestly rather than optimistically.
7. If you are unsure, most authorities offer a paid pre-assessment advice or document-check service before you commit to the full fee – worth using if your case is not clean-cut.
8. Apply to the correct authority, track your assessment’s stated validity period against your intended EOI or visa lodgement date, and keep a copy of every document submitted.

Mistakes worth avoiding

• Choosing a nominated occupation because it appears on a favourable list, rather than because it genuinely matches your qualification and work history – a mismatch usually surfaces at the assessment stage, not before.
• Applying to the wrong assessing authority because a job title looked close enough – always confirm the authority against your exact ANZSCO code in the official tool first.
• Assuming a skills assessment obtained for a Temporary Graduate (485) visa will carry over to a 186 or 187 application – it will not.
• Working off a validity period printed by the assessing authority without checking Home Affairs’ own 3-year cap, which can override a longer figure shown on the certificate.
• Leaving the assessment until after you are invited for a points-tested visa and assuming the full 60 days is generous – some authorities’ standard processing alone takes 7 weeks or more.
• Not keeping certified copies of every document submitted, which matters if you need to apply for a renewal or a review later.

Two worked examples

These are illustrative, not personal advice, but they show how the pieces above actually fit together in practice.

Example 1: a software engineering graduate

A graduate finishing a Bachelor of Computer Science, now working part-time as a developer, wants to check whether Software Engineer counts toward PR. Searching the Home Affairs occupation list tool for “Software Engineer” returns ANZSCO code 261313, shows it sits on the MLTSSL and CSOL, is eligible for the 189, 190, 491, 485 (Post-Vocational stream) and 482 Core Skills stream, and lists the Australian Computer Society (ACS) as the assessing authority. From there, the next step is not applying to VETASSESS or Engineers Australia by mistake – ACS specifically assesses ICT qualifications against ICT curriculum core and major requirements, and a General Skills assessment currently costs AUD 1,498. If the degree included enough core ICT content and the work experience is genuinely at the right level, this is a comparatively straightforward path; if the degree was a general IT diploma without enough core computing content, ACS may still find the qualification suitable at a lower relevant-experience threshold, or ask for more detail.

Example 2: a civil engineering graduate from a non-accredited program

A civil engineering graduate whose Australian university program is not accredited under the Washington, Sydney or Dublin Accords faces a different pathway even though Civil Engineer (233211) is also on the MLTSSL and CSOL, with Engineers Australia as the assessing authority. Instead of the faster, cheaper Accord-accredited qualification assessment (from AUD 555.50), this applicant needs to submit a Competency Demonstration Report, a detailed written submission mapping specific projects and experience against Engineers Australia’s published competency standards, at a higher fee of around AUD 1,034. The occupation and the assessing authority are the same as an Accord-accredited graduate’s, but the actual process, cost and evidence burden are meaningfully different – another reason to check the specific pathway on the authority’s own site rather than assuming every applicant in an occupation follows an identical process.

A skills assessment is ultimately a factual check, not a formality – the assessing authority is independently verifying that your course and your work history genuinely match the occupation you are nominating, using criteria they publish and control. Starting from the correct ANZSCO code, confirming the correct assessing authority, and reading that authority’s specific guideline for your occupation before you apply is the difference between a straightforward positive outcome and a costly, time-consuming appeal.

If you are specifically an IT or engineering graduate, our PR pathway guide for IT and engineering graduates walks through the full sequence end to end, including common ANZSCO codes, the 485 bridge visa, and how the points test rewards STEM qualifications.

Frequently asked questions