Skilled Occupation Lists

What are skilled occupations?

Skilled occupations are for workers who have experience and/or qualifications in certain occupations that Australia or Australian employers need. These occupations offer non-Australians a chance for a permanent residency pathway, or stay in Australia to work short term or long term.

Please click this link for skilled occupations and enter your occupation at the bottom of the page to see if your occupation or qualification is on a skilled list.

Note that more comprehensive assessments are generally required for some occupations that may be hard to define or for skills that may be relevant for state occupation lists.

Relevant permanent visa skilled occupations come from a number of occupation lists.

Note that all of these visas have really detailed requirements, such as skill assessments and English language and age and also figuring out what you actually do! That is a big consideration which many people come undone on.

Australian skilled occupation list has changed and now includes the Skills in Demand (SID) visa

Home Affairs announced in Dec 2024 that the new 482 Core Skills Stream and Specialist skills stream visa will take effect. This means the old 482 occupation lists and pathways to permanent residency have changed from the old TSS 482 and 457. In some cases it is easier for many.

New eligibility for this subclass where the new (and old) occupations have different requirements such as more reliance on the ANZSCO ABS data as to what minimum qualifications the worker actually requires. This is as some roles qualifications can be met without the qualification itself but rather equivalent work experience, plus potentially one more year experience to be eligible for this visa.

This is huge news!

With the removal of the 457 visa program and revised the Skilled occupation Lists for the subclass 189/190 to the Australian MLTSSL in 2017 .

Short term list for 482 are now eligible for permanent residency

New new provisions were announced in 2022 where some of these skilled occupations may now be able to transition to permanent residency (subclass 186 Temporary Resident Transition) (‘TRT’) for workers who are on a 482 and had an occupation not on the long term skilled occupation list but rather the short term occupation list. This was finally introduced in late 2023 where the transition for being eligible for permanent residency for someone holding a 482 is now shorter with only two years as opposed to the previous three years

See below for the new skilled occupation job list for Australia.

482 to permanent visa

This means some skilled 482 workers who were not eligible to work in Australia under the skilled work program are now eligible for the permanent subclass 186 sponsored work visa ( TRT stream)

PLEASE NOTE: most people need to have an assessment as there are various legal instruments, deviations on definitions of occupations, mandatory skill assessment requirements etc.

To save time and stress it is always best to at least get an occupation and pathway assessment before proceeding with an employment or skilled visa option. There are so many legal instruments to navigate and much of our role is doing clean ups when someone decides to try it alone without any advice. Not seeking advice ruins lives.

Info on some of the current Australia skilled lists for the main employer sponsored or permanent skilled visas are;

If your occupation is listed here below in the new skilled occupation list then you may be currently eligible for a sponsored work visa either temporary or permanent under relevant visa subclass 482 (this may change) or other types of independent sponsorship such as state (check relevant state to see if you are eligible). Contact us or email us if you need any visa advice or migration assistance with eligibility and visa application.

Sublclass 491 temporary regional visa to 191 permanent visa

The new term temporary regional skilled work visa is for workers who are employed by an approved sponsoring employer for a period of up-to three years. Once the mandatory time working for the regional employer has been met they are eligible to be sponsored for the subclass 191 permanent residency stage of that visa. Note that certain postcodes apply for regional areas and the occupation must be on the Regional Skilled list.