DIAC has now officially advised that from 1 July,  Australian and New Zealand Standard Classification of Occupations (… will be used within skilled visa programs, as the standard by which a visa applicant’s skills to undertake a specific occupation in Australia are assessed. 

DIAC has also advised how the transitional arrangements will work – in other words, how the introduction of ANZSCO will affect people who have already obtained skills assessments based on ASCO.

To try and simplify DIAC’s advice, we’ve cut and pasted what we see as the key points below, but  please contact us, or refer to the full link to access ALL DIAC’s information about how these transition arrangements might affect your application: 

http://www.immi.gov.au/employers/anzsco/transitional-arrangements.htm

 In summary, this is how DIAC says it will work:

 With the introduction of ANZSCO, Skills Assessment Authorities will assess a visa applicant’s nominated skilled occupation according to the ANZSCO standard. 

However, some employers may have already nominated a person to fill a vacant position according to the ASCO standard, or a prospective visa applicant has already had their skills assessed according to ASCO but need to lodge a visa application nominating the same occupation according to ANZSCO. 

 To ensure that prospective visa applicants and employers who want to sponsor or nominate someone under the skilled visa program are not disadvantaged, guidelines have been developed to allow ASCO-based documents and information to be accepted after the introduction of ANZSCO in certain circumstances.

 Examples:

• A nomination or visa application lodged after 1 July 2010 will have an ANZSCO nominated occupation, but the applicant might submit an ASCO skills assessment, provided that the skills assessment is still valid.
• A visa applicant who lodged their application before 1 July 2010 with an ASCO nominated occupation, may need to submit an ANZSCO skills assessment if it is subsequently obtained after 1 July 2010.

 ASCO/ANZSCO Correlations

 To support the combination of an ASCO skills assessment in and a nominated ANZSCO occupation, DIAC has examined each acceptable ASCO occupation code and correlated it to its matching ANZSCO occupation code(s). This has been done for each of the following lists:

• the Skilled Occupation List (SOL) as at 1 July 2010
• the Employer Nomination Scheme Occupation List (ENSOL) as at 1 July 2010.

The links below show the full list of correlations from ASCO occupations to ANZSCO occupations for the SOL and the ENSOL.

• Skilled Occupation List Correlations – 1 July 2010 
• ENSOL correlations – 1 July 2010 

Only those ASCO-ANZSCO correlations above can be used under the transition arrangements. 

Occupational information such as valid skills assessments can only be used under transitional arrangements if all the following circumstances apply.

• a departmental-endorsed ASCO-ANZSCO correlation for that particular occupation exists
• that occupation continues to be an acceptable occupation for skilled visa program purposes
• the skills assessment is still valid (validity periods are determined by skills assessing authorities and may differ between occupations/authorities).

If any of the above circumstances do not apply, then the occupation information may not be considered under skilled visa program transitional arrangements.

 If you are unsure whether your skills assessment is still valid, you will need to contact the relevant authority that issued the skills assessment.

 As one of Australia’s longest-established migration law firms, commencing in practice in 1983, McGrath Migration Lawyers has assisted thousands of families to migrate to Australia.

Contact us with all your migration requirements for fast, friendly, ethical and professional advice; or for a free visa eligibility assessment.