Government sites to check your skills and occupation
The official Home Affairs, Jobs and Skills Australia, and ABS pages every migrant job seeker should bookmark.
Third-party visa blogs often mix outdated occupation lists with current rules. For skilled migration and employer sponsorship, four Australian government sites are authoritative: the Department of Home Affairs for visa eligibility and assessing authorities, Jobs and Skills Australia for labour-market shortage data, the Australian Bureau of Statistics for ANZSCO occupation codes, and Study Australia for graduate visa guidance.
Each site answers a different question. Home Affairs tells you whether your occupation can be nominated for a visa. Jobs and Skills Australia tells you whether employers are actually struggling to fill that role. ANZSCO gives you the standard code every form will ask for.
Department of Home Affairs
Skilled occupation list: the starting point. Shows which occupations appear on the Core Skills Occupation List (CSOL), MLTSSL, STSOL, and Regional Occupation List (ROL), and which visas each list supports
Legislative instruments: the legally binding occupation tables. Match your visa subclass to the correct LIN instrument - for example LIN 24/089 for subclass 482, LIN 24/093 for subclass 186, LIN 19/051 for points-tested and graduate streams
Assessing authorities: find which body assesses your occupation
Skills assessment page: overview of when assessment is required
Jobs and Skills Australia
Occupation Shortage List: identifies occupations in shortage nationally and by state and territory. Updated annually with downloadable data. Shortage does not automatically mean visa eligibility - but it signals where sponsored and skilled visas are most likely to align with employer need
Occupation Shortage Report: quarterly analysis including fill rates by skill level and region. Useful for choosing between metro and regional search strategies
Jobs and Skills Australia advises government on the CSOL but the Home Affairs legislative instruments are the final authority for visa processing.
Australian Bureau of Statistics (ANZSCO)
ANZSCO classification: the official occupation coding system. Every nomination, skills assessment, and points-tested application references an ANZSCO code
Home Affairs uses ANZSCO 2022 for subclass 482 and 186, and ANZSCO 2013 for other skilled subclasses including subclass 189, 190, and 491. If your job title does not map cleanly to one code, read the ANZSCO task descriptions before nominating - a wrong code can invalidate a nomination.
Study Australia (graduates)
Temporary Graduate visa guide: plain-language overview of 485 streams, durations, and how qualification level determines which stream you use. Cross-check against Home Affairs for the legally current rules