OSCA has replaced ANZSCO for statistics, not for visas: why your occupation code has not changed, what a transition would involve, and what to watch for

MARN 1576536

What OSCA is, and why it was made

The Australian and New Zealand Standard Classification of Occupations, ANZSCO, was developed jointly by the two countries' statistics agencies and first published in 2006, with its last comprehensive revision in 2013 and smaller updates since; it classifies every occupation into a hierarchy of major, sub-major, minor and unit groups, each unit group with a six-digit code, a description, a skill level and a list of tasks, and it is the classification that the Australian migration program adopted for its occupation lists, its skills assessments, its nominations and its points test. By the 2020s ANZSCO described a labour market that had moved on: whole fields of work in technology, data, cyber security, renewable energy, care and services had no occupation of their own or sat inside unit groups written for different jobs. The Australian Bureau of Statistics consulted on a replacement and published the Occupation Standard Classification for Australia, OSCA, in December 2024, with new occupations, split and merged unit groups, updated titles and task lists, and a structure of its own, as the classification for the Bureau's statistical collections from then on; New Zealand produced its own national list rather than continuing the joint one. OSCA is a statistical instrument, built for counting, and it has no legal effect on any visa unless and until the Department adopts it.

Why the migration program still runs on ANZSCO

The migration program does not use a classification by reference; it uses it by name and number in legislative instruments and in the processes of a dozen bodies. The Core Skills Occupation List, the lists for the regional and state-nominated visas, the specialist stream's exclusions, and the instruments that specify which assessing authority assesses which occupation all identify occupations by ANZSCO code; the assessing authorities' criteria, their application forms and their outcome letters name ANZSCO occupations; Jobs and Skills Australia's advice on which occupations belong on the lists is built on ANZSCO; the annual market salary rate and the nomination forms refer to ANZSCO; and the points test's skilled employment is read against the nominated ANZSCO occupation. Moving the program to OSCA means rewriting every one of those instruments, re-basing every assessing authority, producing a concordance that says which OSCA occupation each ANZSCO occupation becomes where the two do not line up one to one, and writing transitional rules for the applications, assessments and invitations already made. The Department has said that ANZSCO remains the reference for the program and has published no schedule for a change; until it does, OSCA's existence changes nothing an applicant lodges.

What is still written in ANZSCO

• The occupation lists. The Core Skills Occupation List for the 482, the 186 direct entry stream and the points-tested visas, and the lists for the 494 and the state and territory programs, all by ANZSCO code; the list page is searchable by it.
• The skills assessments. Each ANZSCO occupation has a specified assessing authority, which assesses the applicant's qualifications and experience against that occupation; the assessment-by-occupation guide maps them.
• Expressions of interest and invitations. Lodged and issued for an ANZSCO occupation, with the points for skilled employment read against it.
• Nominations. The employer nominates a position in an ANZSCO occupation, with the position description read against that occupation's tasks and skill level.
• Reference letters and position descriptions. Written to match the ANZSCO occupation's task statements, which the reference letter guide covers.
• Labour agreements and DAMAs. Their occupation schedules are in ANZSCO, with concessions keyed to ANZSCO codes.

The occupations OSCA has that ANZSCO never did

OSCA's point was to describe jobs ANZSCO could not, and it does: it carries occupations for roles in cyber security, data science and analytics, user experience and product work, cloud and platform engineering, sustainability and energy, disability and aged care at levels ANZSCO lumped together, and many trades and services jobs that ANZSCO filed under a broader heading. A person in one of those jobs reads OSCA and sees their work described for the first time, and then reads the Core Skills Occupation List and finds that the occupation they have just identified is not on it, because the list is written in ANZSCO and the ANZSCO occupation that covers their work is a broader or older one. For visa purposes that person still has an occupation, the ANZSCO one, and the task of the application is to show that their duties match it at its skill level; what OSCA gives them is a better description of what they do and no change to what the Department will accept. The gap is widest in technology and data, where ANZSCO's unit groups from 2013 cover work that has since split into several professions, and an applicant in those fields has the match read with care.

Finding the ANZSCO occupation for a job OSCA describes better

The match is made on duties, not titles, and not on the classification the applicant prefers: the applicant lists what they actually do, task by task, and reads it against the ANZSCO unit groups whose task lists it most resembles, at the skill level the role requires, choosing the occupation whose tasks the role substantially performs and that an assessing authority will recognise on the evidence. For a cyber security role that might be an ICT security specialist; for a data role, a data scientist where the list has it or an analyst programmer or a software engineer where the work is that; for a product role, an ICT business analyst or a management consultant; for a care role, the ANZSCO care occupation at the right level. Where no ANZSCO occupation fits at all, which happens, the routes are those in the unlisted occupation guide, including the specialist stream of the 482 which has no list for a non-trade role paid above its threshold. The consultation's work on this question is the reading of duties against unit groups, which half an hour settles and which an application built on the wrong occupation does not.

The mistake of writing an application in OSCA terms

An applicant who has read OSCA and found their job there sometimes writes their application, their reference letters or their position description in OSCA's language, naming an OSCA occupation and its tasks, and nominates the nearest ANZSCO code because the form requires one. The assessing authority and the case officer read the duties against the ANZSCO occupation nominated, and a description written for a different classification's occupation does not match it: tasks appear that the ANZSCO unit group does not list, tasks the unit group lists are absent, and the assessor concludes that the applicant does not perform the nominated occupation. The letters and descriptions are written to the ANZSCO occupation's task statements, in plain words that correspond to them, and OSCA is left out of the application altogether; it can be mentioned in a submission where a role is genuinely new and the mapping needs explaining, but it does not replace the ANZSCO reading. The same applies to an employer's nomination, which the employer's unlisted occupation guide covers, and a nomination described in OSCA terms is one the Department reads as a mismatch.

What a transition would involve

When the program moves, and it is likely to in time, the move will be visible in the instruments. The Department would announce a commencement date; the Minister would make new instruments specifying the Core Skills Occupation List and the other lists by OSCA occupation, with a published concordance showing which ANZSCO occupation becomes which OSCA occupation and, where an ANZSCO occupation splits or merges, how the list treats the parts; the instrument specifying assessing authorities would be re-based, and each authority would publish its OSCA criteria and how it treats assessments issued on ANZSCO; SkillSelect would take OSCA codes; and transitional provisions would say how expressions of interest, invitations, nominations and applications made before the date on ANZSCO are treated, which on the pattern of earlier list changes would preserve the basis on which they were made. Until those things exist, nothing has changed; when they are announced, the date, the concordance and the transitional rules are the three things to read first.

Why no date has been set

The program has been through large changes since OSCA's release, the new 482 streams and the Core Skills list in late 2024, the annual list and threshold updates since, and the shift of occupation advice to Jobs and Skills Australia, and each was built on ANZSCO; moving the classification underneath all of it at the same time was not attempted. Jobs and Skills Australia's labour market analysis, which drives the lists, is itself transitioning its data to OSCA, and the Department's own statement has been that ANZSCO remains the reference point for the program with no schedule announced. Commentators who said in 2025 that OSCA would govern visas soon were describing an intention that has not been timed, and an applicant planning on the current rules plans on ANZSCO.

What to watch for

• The Department's announcements on the migration program and the legislative instruments that specify the occupation lists, which are the only place a visa change can be made.
• The annual Core Skills Occupation List update, where occupations are added and removed and where any move to OSCA would first appear.
• Your assessing authority's notices, which will say how it handles OSCA when the time comes and whether an existing assessment carries over.
• SkillSelect's occupation field, which will change from ANZSCO when the instruments do and not before.
• Claims that an occupation "is on OSCA". True as a matter of statistics; meaningless as a matter of visas until the instruments change.

The occupation code checklist

1. Use the ANZSCO occupation and code for every visa purpose; OSCA has no visa effect at the date above.
2. Match your duties to the ANZSCO unit group's tasks and skill level, not to the OSCA occupation that describes you better.
3. Write reference letters and position descriptions to the ANZSCO task statements.
4. If no ANZSCO occupation fits, read the unlisted occupation routes, including the specialist stream.
5. Keep an eye on the list instruments and your assessing authority for a transition announcement, and read the date, the concordance and the transitional rules when it comes.

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General information only, current at October 2026; not advice on your own case. The legislative instruments made under the Migration Regulations 1994 specifying occupations and assessing authorities for the subclass 482, 186, 189, 190, 491 and 494 visas, the Core Skills Occupation List, the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ publication of OSCA (December 2024) and ANZSCO, and the Department’s stated position that ANZSCO remains the reference for the migration program, all as at the date above; the position will change if and when the Department adopts OSCA by instrument. Outcomes depend on the Department’s and the assessing authorities’ assessment of each application; no registered migration agent can guarantee a result (Code of Conduct, Migration Agents Regulations). Keshab Chapagain, MARN 1576536.