The occupation is not on the Core Skills List: the employer’s five routes, the one that gets refused, and the roles for which there is no route

MARN 1576536

Check the list against the duties, not the title

The Core Skills Occupation List is a list of ANZSCO occupations, and ANZSCO classifies by the tasks performed and the skill level required, not by the title an employer uses. A business that searches the list for its own job title and does not find it has not yet learned whether the role is listed: a customer success manager may be a listed sales or marketing occupation, a site supervisor a listed construction occupation, a kitchen manager a chef or a cook, a practice manager an office manager, a solutions consultant a listed ICT occupation, depending on what the person actually does all day. The reading is done from the position description, task by task, against the ANZSCO unit group's task list and skill level, and the result is either a listed occupation whose tasks the role substantially performs, in which case the role is nominated as that occupation and the title is of no consequence, or no listed occupation whose tasks it performs, in which case the routes below are read. The list page is searchable by occupation and the position description guide shows how the duties are set out so the Department can match them; the consultation does the reading in half an hour and is the cheapest step in the whole process.

The closest listed occupation, and the mismatch that is refused

The temptation, when the duties do not match any listed occupation, is to nominate the one they are nearest to and write the position description to fit. The Department reads for exactly that: the nomination criteria require the position to be genuine, meaning a position whose tasks are those of the nominated occupation at its skill level and which the business genuinely needs filled, and an officer comparing the position description, the organisation chart, the business's size and activity, the advertisement, the salary and the worker's background against the ANZSCO tasks sees a retail assistant nominated as a retail manager, a labourer nominated as a trades worker, or a bookkeeper nominated as an accountant, and refuses the nomination as not genuine. The refusal is on the sponsor's record, the nomination charge and the levy are not refunded, and a second nomination for the same role has the refusal to overcome. The genuine position guide sets out what the officers compare. Where the duties substantially match a listed occupation, with some that do not, the nomination is made for the listed occupation with the position described honestly, and the question is one of degree that the consultation answers before the levy is paid; where the duties do not match, the closest occupation is not the route.

The specialist stream: no list, a threshold instead

The Specialist Skills stream of the 482 replaces the occupation list with a salary: a position paid guaranteed annual earnings at or above the Specialist Skills Income Threshold, $146,576 for nominations lodged from 1 July 2026, can be nominated in any occupation except those in the ANZSCO major groups for trades workers, machinery operators and drivers, and labourers, with priority processing and the same pathway to permanent residence. It is the route for the senior engineer, the specialist clinician, the executive, the data scientist, the niche technical lead, whose occupation is unlisted or awkwardly listed and whose salary is well above the threshold anyway, and the nomination carries the same labour market testing, market salary and genuine position requirements as the core stream, with the salary itself the Department's proxy for skill. It is not a route for a role paid below the threshold, however specialised, and an employer that raises a salary to the threshold for the visa invites the question whether the market rate for the position is really that figure. The specialist stream guide sets out the criteria and the threshold's indexation.

The 494 and its regional list

A business in a designated regional area, which for this purpose is everywhere in Australia outside the Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane metropolitan areas, has the subclass 494 as well as the 482, and the 494 uses its own occupation list, which includes many occupations the core list does not, particularly in agriculture, hospitality, retail management, community services and the trades. A regional employer whose role is not on the core list checks the 494's list before considering agreements, because where the occupation is there, the route is a standard sponsorship and nomination with regional certifying body advice on the position and the salary, a visa of five years, and the worker's pathway to permanent residence through the 191 after three years in the region; the 494 requires the worker to commit to the regional area and to the sponsor for that period and is not available to a business in the three capitals. The 494 guide covers the list, the certifying body and the pathway, and the certifying body guide the advice the nomination needs.

An industry labour agreement

Where an industry has shown the Department a sustained need for occupations outside the standard program, the Department has settled an industry labour agreement with fixed terms that any business in the industry can apply to sponsor under: the aged care agreement for direct care workers, the dairy, fishing, horticulture, meat and pork agreements for the occupations those industries could not fill, the restaurant agreement for premium dining positions, and others. Each sets its own occupations, its own concessions on salary, English, age or experience, and its own conditions, commonly a minimum period of operation, a training commitment and consultation with the industry's union, and a business applies to access the template rather than negotiating; the application takes weeks to a few months and, once the agreement is in place, nominations and visas follow in the labour agreement stream of the 482 or 186 with the agreement's terms. For a role in one of those industries that is unlisted on the core list but within the agreement, this is the route, and the labour agreements guide sets out each one and what it covers.

A company-specific labour agreement

A business whose need is not met by the standard program or an industry agreement can negotiate its own: a company-specific labour agreement, under which the Department agrees that this business may sponsor these occupations, in these numbers, on these terms, for a period commonly of five years. The business shows a genuine need for the occupations that it has tried and failed to fill locally, with evidence of recruitment, the labour market and the industry; consults the relevant union and shows it; commits to training Australians; and proposes the occupations, their ANZSCO equivalents or skill levels, the salary, any concessions sought and the ceiling on numbers. The negotiation takes months, often six or more, costs professional time rather than a large government charge, and produces an agreement that is the business's own; it suits a business of some scale with a recurring need for an unlisted occupation, and does not suit a business that wants one worker next quarter. The company-specific agreement guide covers the application end to end.

A designated area migration agreement

A designated area migration agreement is a labour agreement for a region rather than an industry or a business: the regional body and the Department settle an occupation list for the area, often far broader than the core list and including semi-skilled occupations, with concessions on salary, English and age for some of them, and a business in the region applies to the regional body for endorsement and then to the Department for a labour agreement under the DAMA's terms. The Northern Territory, parts of Western Australia, South Australia, Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland and Tasmania have agreements, each with its own list; the endorsement takes weeks to months, the agreement follows, and nominations and visas then run in the labour agreement stream. For a regional business whose role is on the local DAMA list but on neither the core list nor the 494's, this is the route, and the DAMA guide sets out each region's list and process.

State nomination for the worker

Where the employer cannot sponsor, the worker sometimes can be nominated by a state or territory for a skilled visa, the 190 or the regional 491, which is the worker's application on the worker's points and the state's list, not the employer's sponsorship; the employer's part is an offer of employment, which several states require or weight for the occupations they nominate, and which costs the business nothing beyond the letter. The state lists are broader than the core list in places and narrower in others, the occupations the states want change each program year, and the worker must meet the points test and the skills assessment in their own right, so this is a route for a worker who is already close to it rather than a substitute for sponsorship. The state nomination guide sets out each state's list and requirements, and an employer with a valued worker who cannot be sponsored sends them there before letting them go.

Redesigning the role

Some businesses, told the role is unlisted, redesign it, and the question is whether the redesign is real. A business that genuinely needs a listed occupation's work done, that creates a position whose duties are that occupation's, that pays the market rate for it and that fills it with a person who does that work, has a genuine position whatever prompted it; a business that renames the same unlisted job and writes a new position description for the visa has the mismatch the second section describes. The difference is in what the person does on Monday, in the organisation chart, in the salary and in the advertisement, and the Department reads all four. An employer considering a redesign has it read before anything is advertised, because a position advertised one way for the testing and nominated another is its own problem.

The roles for which there is no route

Some roles cannot be sponsored: a role whose duties match no listed occupation, paid below the specialist threshold, in a business outside a regional area and outside any industry agreement, in a region without a DAMA or with one that does not list it, and for a worker who is not close to state nomination. A cleaner, a retail assistant, a delivery driver, a general labourer, an administrative assistant, a customer service representative in a city business are in that group in the ordinary case, and so is a skilled role in a business that cannot meet the agreements' conditions. The honest answer is no, said early, before the business has paid an agent to find a way and before the worker has planned a life on it; a business told that there is always a way should ask which of the five routes is meant, and a business told that the closest occupation will do should read the second section again. The worker's guide covers the same question from the worker's side, including the routes that do not involve the employer at all.

The unlisted occupation checklist

1. Write down what the role actually does, task by task, and read it against ANZSCO before reading the list; the title is irrelevant.
2. If a listed occupation's tasks are substantially the role's, nominate that occupation with an honest position description. If not, do not nominate the nearest one.
3. If the salary is at or above the specialist threshold and the role is not a trade, the specialist stream needs no list.
4. If the business is outside Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, check the 494's list, then the local DAMA.
5. If the industry has a labour agreement, check its occupations and conditions; if the need is recurring and the business has scale, consider a company-specific agreement.
6. If none fits, tell the worker, point them to state nomination if they are close, and fill the role locally.

General information only, current at October 2026; not advice on your own case. The subclass 482 Core Skills and Specialist Skills stream criteria and the nomination criteria in regulation 2.72 of the Migration Regulations 1994, the Core Skills Occupation List and the subclass 494 occupation list as specified by legislative instrument, the Specialist Skills Income Threshold as published by the Department for 1 July 2026, the labour agreement provisions and the industry and designated area agreements as published by the Department, and the state and territory nomination programs, all as in force at the date above; the lists and the thresholds change and the current instrument governs. Outcomes depend on the Department’s assessment of each application; no registered migration agent can guarantee a result (Code of Conduct, Migration Agents Regulations). Keshab Chapagain, MARN 1576536.