Your job is not your nominated occupation: skilled employment points for closely related work, the deemed skilled date, and claiming only the years that are certain

MARN 1576536

What the points are for

The points test awards points for the applicant's skilled employment in the ten years before the invitation, in two scales, overseas employment and Australian employment, with the maximum for eight years in Australia; skilled employment is defined in the regulations as employment in the applicant's nominated skilled occupation or a closely related skilled occupation, for at least twenty hours a week, and the Department's policy adds that the employment must have been at the skill level of the occupation and after the date the applicant is taken to have become skilled, which the assessing authority's assessment fixes. Each element is tested: the occupation, the relationship, the skill level, the hours, the date, and the period, and the applicant proves each with the employer's reference, the payslips, the contracts and the tax records. The points are claimed in the expression of interest, tested at the time of invitation, and proved in the application, and an applicant whose claim is not made out at the time of invitation has an application that fails. The points calculator gives the score for each combination of years.

Duties, not titles

The Department decides whether employment was in the nominated occupation by comparing what the applicant did with the tasks ANZSCO lists for the occupation, not by comparing the job title; a title that matches the occupation with duties that do not is not employment in the occupation, and a title that differs with duties that match is. Employers use titles for their own reasons, and the same work is called engineer in one firm and developer in another, analyst in one and consultant in the next, manager in a small business and coordinator in a large one; the reference letter that describes the duties in the applicant's own role, specifically, with the proportion of time on each, is what the officer reads, and the reference guide sets out how it is written. A reference that copies the ANZSCO task list is read as copied and is verified.

What closely related means

The regulations do not define closely related, and the Department's policy fills it: occupations in the same ANZSCO unit group, the four-digit group that holds the nominated occupation and its siblings, are closely related as a starting point; occupations in the same minor group, the three-digit group, may be, where the skill level is the same and the tasks overlap substantially; and occupations outside those groups can be closely related where the applicant's work was in the same field at the same skill level with substantially the same tasks, or where the work was a recognised step in the occupation's career path, a registered nurse who became a nurse manager, an accountant who became a finance manager, a civil engineer who became an engineering manager, a developer programmer who became an ICT project manager, each of which the Department has accepted on the facts. The relationship is assessed on the work, and an applicant argues it in the application with the references and, where needed, a submission that maps the duties of the related role onto the nominated occupation's tasks.

Where the unit group test stops

• A lower skill level: a cook's years are not a chef's, a technician's are not an engineer's, an assistant accountant's are not an accountant's, even in the same field, because the skill level differs; the Department reads the role's level from the duties and the qualification required.
• A different field: a sales role for a person nominating as a marketing specialist, an administrative role for a person nominating as an HR adviser, a teaching role for a person nominating in the subject taught.
• Generic management above the occupation: a general manager's years are not closely related to a technical occupation unless the policy's career-path reading applies and the management was of that function.
• A role in the same unit group at a lower level: the unit group test is a starting point, not a guarantee, and a junior role in the group is examined for its level.
• Training and unpaid work: a graduate programme, an internship or a volunteer role is not employment unless paid at the skill level.

The deemed skilled date

The Department counts employment as skilled only from the date the applicant is taken to have become skilled in the occupation, which the assessing authority's outcome fixes: some authorities state a date on the letter, the date of the qualification or the date after a required period of post-qualification experience, and the Department follows it; others state none, and the Department applies its own policy, which for most occupations is the date the applicant held the qualification the occupation requires, and for trade occupations assessed on experience the date the authority found the experience sufficient. Employment before the deemed date, in the occupation, at full skill, is not counted, which is the rule that most surprises applicants who worked for years before completing the qualification; an applicant whose authority deems them skilled after, say, a year of post-qualification experience loses that year from the claim. The letter is read for the date before the expression of interest is lodged, and the negative outcome guide covers the authority that assesses a different occupation from the one the applicant intended.

The role that changed

A long employment with one employer is often several roles, and the Department counts the periods in which the duties were the nominated or a closely related occupation at the skill level and leaves out the rest: the years as a junior before the role reached the skill level, the years in the occupation, the years after a promotion into a role that is or is not closely related, each with its own dates and its own duties in the reference. An applicant who claims the whole employment on the final role's description has overclaimed if the earlier years were not at the level, and the Department's verification with the employer, which asks for the dates of each position, finds it. The reference is written by period, and where the employer will only write one letter, the applicant's own statutory declaration and the contracts and payslips for each role fill in the periods.

Part-time, casual and self-employed

Employment of at least twenty hours a week counts in full for the period, so that a half-time role for two years is two years of skilled employment, not one, and a role under twenty hours does not count at all; casual employment counts where the hours averaged twenty or more a week over the period and the duties were at the level, with the payslips proving the hours, and a casual role of varying hours is examined week by week. Self-employment counts where the applicant was working in the occupation in their own business for the hours, with the business registration, the tax returns, the invoices and the client references proving it, and the Department examines self-employment closely because the applicant writes their own reference. Two concurrent part-time roles in the occupation can be combined for the hours in the Department's practice where each is at the level.

The reference and the verification

The reference is on the employer's letterhead, signed by a person with authority, with the employer's contact details, the applicant's position title, the dates, the hours, the salary, and a description of the duties specific to the applicant's role; the Department verifies references by telephone and email to the employer, by checking the employer's existence and the signatory's role, and by comparing the reference with the payslips, the tax records and the superannuation statements, and a reference that the employer does not confirm, that describes duties the signatory does not recognise, or that the records contradict is a PIC 4020 matter as well as a points failure. The verification guide covers what the employer is asked. An employer who has closed, or who will not write, is replaced by the payroll and tax records, a reference from a former supervisor, and a statutory declaration, which the Department weighs for what it is.

Claiming only the certain years

1. List every role with its dates, hours, title and actual duties.
2. Fix the deemed skilled date from the assessment letter, and strike every month before it.
3. Map each remaining role's duties onto the nominated occupation's ANZSCO tasks, and mark it as in the occupation, closely related, or neither.
4. For each role marked closely related, decide whether the relationship can be shown to an officer who has not seen the work; if not, strike it.
5. Count the years that remain, run the calculator, and claim that score in the expression of interest.
6. Accept a later invitation on a certain score over an earlier one on a doubtful score.

The gaps guide covers the years that are not claimed and how they are shown on Form 80.

The refusal

An applicant invited on a points claim the Department finds was not made out at the time of invitation is refused, because the criterion is that the applicant's score at the time of invitation was not less than the score in the invitation, and the Tribunal reviewing the refusal decides the same question: it can accept evidence the Department did not see, and it has awarded points on a reference the Department rejected, but it cannot award a visa on a lower score than the invitation stated, and an applicant who reduces the claim at the Tribunal has conceded the refusal. The refusal is on the record, the section 48 bar applies onshore, and the applicant returns to the pool with a new expression of interest on the correct score. The points refusal guide covers the refusal in full.

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General information only, current at October 2026; not advice on your own case. Schedule 6D to the Migration Regulations 1994 (the points test), regulation 1.03 and the definitions of skilled employment and closely related occupation as the Department applies them, the time-of-invitation criteria for subclasses 189, 190 and 491, public interest criterion 4020, and the Department’s policy on the deemed skilled date and on closely related occupations, as in force at the date above; the policy is the Department’s and the current position 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.