Skilled Occupation Lists and Relevant Skills Assessment: Which List Applies to Your Visa

Different visa subclasses use different occupation lists

There is no single occupation list covering every Australian skilled visa. In its “Before you begin” guidance for an Expression of Interest (EOI), the Department of Home Affairs tells applicants to check their occupation against a skilled occupation list and states: “Different skills lists apply to different visas.”

The relevant list therefore depends on the visa subclass and, in some cases, its stream. Home Affairs also uses different versions of the Australian and New Zealand Standard Classification of Occupations (ANZSCO), so selecting the correct visa category alone does not determine which classification version is used.

CSOL, MLTSSL, STSOL and ROL sit within two ANZSCO versions

Home Affairs identifies four named occupation-list categories in its combined skilled occupation list:

• Core Skills Occupation List (CSOL)
• Medium and Long-term Strategic Skills List (MLTSSL)
• Short-term Skilled Occupation List (STSOL)
• Regional Occupation List (ROL)

Its ANZSCO version rule divides those lists between two classification editions:

Home Affairs says it uses ANZSCO 2022 for subclass 186 and subclass 482, including the occupations on the CSOL. It uses ANZSCO 2013 for all other skilled visa subclasses, including occupations on the MLTSSL, STSOL and ROL.

That does not make the three ANZSCO 2013 list labels interchangeable names for one list. The department’s combined resource records whether an occupation is included on the MLTSSL, STSOL and ROL, while the version rule places those classifications within the 2013 side of the combined list.

The Skills in Demand visa also has a stream distinction. In the department’s statement of where the combined list applies, subclass 482 is identified specifically as the Core Skills Stream.

The combined list named by Home Affairs covers these visa programs

Under the Home Affairs page’s statement of which visas the combined list applies to, the named programs are:

ANZSCO 2022 grouping

• Employer Nomination Scheme (ENS) visa, subclass 186
• Skills in Demand visa, subclass 482 — Core Skills Stream

ANZSCO 2013 grouping

• Regional Sponsored Migration Scheme (RSMS) visa, subclass 187 — Temporary Residence Transition Stream
• Skilled Independent visa, subclass 189 — Points-tested stream
• Skilled Nominated visa, subclass 190
• Training visa, subclass 407
• Temporary Graduate visa, subclass 485
• Skilled Regional (Provisional) visa, subclass 489
• Skilled Work Regional (Provisional) visa, subclass 491
• Skilled Employer Sponsored Regional (provisional) visa, subclass 494

The combined resource is more than a set of occupational titles. Home Affairs says it specifies:

• the ANZSCO code for each occupation;
• caveats excluding use of an occupation in certain circumstances, for the ENS Direct Entry stream and Skills in Demand visas;
• whether the occupation is included on the CSOL, MLTSSL, STSOL or ROL; and
• the assessing authority for skills assessments.

The department describes ANZSCO as providing information about an occupation’s skill level and the qualifications and/or experience needed to work in it. It also records that updates to the ANZSCO dictionary may reclassify an occupation or split it into multiple specialisations. The version distinction is therefore part of the occupation-classification system, not merely a different label attached to the same code.

Temporary Residence Transition streams have no occupation list

There is an express exception to the combined-list groupings: Temporary Residence transition streams in the subclass 186 and 187 programs do not have an occupation list.

For those streams, Home Affairs says occupation eligibility is based on the occupation from the most recently held temporary skilled visa.

This exception also explains an important qualification in the department’s combined-list page. Although subclass 187 Temporary Residence Transition Stream appears in the page’s list of programs associated with the combined resource, and subclass 186 appears in the ANZSCO 2022 grouping, the same page separately states that both transition streams have no occupation list.

Accordingly, the ANZSCO 2022 statement for subclass 186 should not be read as creating an occupation-list requirement for its Temporary Residence Transition stream. The stream-specific exception is part of the department’s published framework.

The assessing authority and legislative instrument answer different parts of the check

The combined Home Affairs resource identifies the assessing authority for skills assessments alongside the occupation information. The EOI guidance separately directs applicants to include their English test and skills assessment results as they receive them.

Stream-specific requirements can also matter. For the Temporary Graduate visa subclass 485 Post Vocational Education Work stream, Home Affairs says the requirements for the nominated occupation are set by the relevant skills assessment authority. It also says that authority will determine whether those requirements have been met.

For the current eligible occupations, however, the department identifies a different authoritative publication: the legislative instrument for the relevant visa program. Home Affairs expressly directs readers to that instrument for the current list of eligible skilled occupations.

The two official records therefore have distinct functions within the published system:

• the combined Home Affairs resource identifies the ANZSCO version, occupation-list category, applicable caveats and assessing authority; and
• the relevant program’s legislative instrument is the authoritative source for the current eligible-occupation list.

Official sources

• Department of Home Affairs, “Skilled occupation list”, accessed 3 October 2026.
• Department of Home Affairs, “Expression of Interest”, accessed 3 October 2026.