Occupations and assessing authorities for the subclass 186 visa: LIN 24/093

The Migration (Specification of Occupations and Relevant Assessing Authorities–Subclass 186 Visa) Instrument 2024 (LIN 24/093) was made on 6 December 2024 by the Assistant Minister for Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs. Section 3 now names subregulations 5.19(11) and 2.26B(1) of the Migration Regulations 1994. It commenced on 7 December 2024 and repealed LIN 19/049. This page describes Compilation No. 4, in force from 28 March 2026, which includes amendments made by four instruments between December 2024 and March 2026 (Endnote 3).

The explanatory statement, written for the instrument as made, says its purpose is to specify the occupations for applications for, and nominations relating to, the subclass 186 (Employer Nomination Scheme) visa, allocated to the new Core Skills Occupation List; the circumstances in which a nomination for an occupation does not apply to a nominee; and the assessing authorities for the occupations.

The list and its four columns

Section 7(1) sets out the Core Skills Occupation List. It has 456 items with four columns: occupation title, ANZSCO code, relevant assessing authority, and an applicable circumstance number referring to section 8. The occupation titles and ANZSCO codes are the same 456, in the same order, as the Core Skills Occupation List for the subclass 482 visa in LIN 24/089. The full list is in the instrument.

Under section 6(1), each listed occupation is specified for subregulation 5.19(10) and applies to an identified person if the tasks to be performed correspond to the tasks in the ANZSCO code. Section 4 specifies ANZSCO as the classification published by the Australian Bureau of Statistics as in force on 23 November 2022.

Examples from the Core Skills Occupation List (section 7(1))

Occupation	ANZSCO code	Assessing authority	Circumstance numbers
Chief Executive or Managing Director	111111	IML	1
Accountant (General)	221111	CAANZ, CPAA, IPA	2, 11, 13
Data Scientist	224115	ACS	–
Surveyor	232212	ISNSW	–
Chef	351311	TRA	3, 4
Retail Buyer	639211	VETASSESS	6

Assessing authorities

Section 6(3) specifies the body in column 3 as the relevant assessing authority for the occupation and all countries, under subregulation 2.26B(1). Section 7(2) splits physicist: VETASSESS for a physicist other than a medical physicist, and ACPSEM for a medical physicist. Section 9 expands 39 abbreviations, including CWA (Community Work Australia), SLAA (State Legal Admission Authority) and VETASSESS (Vocational Education and Training Assessment Services).

When an occupation does not apply

Under section 6(2), where a number appears in column 4 and the matching circumstance in section 8 applies to the position, the occupation does not apply to the identified person. Column 4 is filled in for 34 of the 456 items. Section 8 has 16 circumstances in the same terms as section 7(2) of LIN 24/089, among them nominated annual earnings of less than AUD180,001 (item 1), a business with fewer than 5 employees (item 13), nominated annual earnings of less than AUD120,000 (item 15) and a brothel keeper position (item 16).

Which applications it applies to

• Section 10: nomination applications made on or after 7 December 2024, and Direct Entry stream visa applications where both the visa application and the related nomination application are made on or after that day.
• Section 11: LIN 19/049 continues for nomination applications made before 7 December 2024, and for Direct Entry stream visa applications whose related nomination application was made on or after 11 March 2019 but before 7 December 2024.
• Section 12: the amendments made by Schedule 3 to LIN 26/027 apply to applications made, but not finally determined, on or after 8 October 2025, except where the application includes a Surveyor skills assessment dated on or before 21 August 2025.