Australia has not released a 2026 skilled occupation list but plenty of websites say it has

In August 2019, Zerub Roberts had just finished a master’s degree at Deakin University and wanted to work as a data scientist. Demand was not his problem. His problem was that “data scientist” did not exist as a job on the official occupation classification that Australia’s skilled visas are built on. Roberts, who had come from India, presented his experience as an ICT business analyst instead and paid about $10,000 for an Australian Computer Society course to make the fit work.

He was on a two-year graduate visa and counting down. “If I don’t manage to secure permanent residency in two years, that would be very unfortunate,” he told the ABC. “I just hope we won’t end up regretting this major decision we took two years ago to come to Australia.” His partner, Neelima Pallanti, wanted the same career and hit the same wall.

Roberts’s problem has a number. In 2019 there was no data scientist on the classification at all, and the work was swept into ANZSCO 224999, Information and Organisation Professionals nec. ANZSCO 2022 has since given the job a code of its own, 224115 Data Scientist, which sits at item 74 on the Core Skills Occupation List next to 224114 Data Analyst. Applicants for a 189 or a 190, still read against ANZSCO 2013, do not have that code available to them, and 224999 is still where the older lists put the work. Seven years on, that same code is one of only two occupations touched by the sole amendment made to Australia’s skilled occupation instruments so far in 2026, and the change was about which body assesses your skills, not whether your job is listed at all.

The skilled occupation list Australia actually has in force right now

The Department of Home Affairs page that governs this, at immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/visas/working-in-australia/skill-occupation-list, names four lists in force: the Core Skills Occupation List (CSOL), the Medium and Long-term Strategic Skills List (MLTSSL), the Short-term Skilled Occupation List (STSOL) and the Regional Occupation List (ROL). Between them they cover subclasses 186, 187, 189, 190, 407, 482, 485, 489, 491 and 494.

The CSOL is the newest. It commenced on 7 December 2024 under the Migration (Specification of Occupations, Subclass 482 Visa) Instrument 2024, known as LIN 24/089, whose section 2 reads: “This instrument commences on 7 December 2024.” The same instrument repealed the 2019 version that had run the old Temporary Skill Shortage visa. The CSOL carries 456 occupations and applies to the Core Skills stream of the Skills in Demand visa (subclass 482) and to the Direct Entry stream of the Employer Nomination Scheme (subclass 186).

The older three lists have not gone anywhere. The MLTSSL still governs subclasses 189 and 190, along with 407, 485, 489, 491 and 494. The ROL governs 187 Direct Entry along with 489, 491 and 494. The ROL governs 489, 491 and 494. Temporary Residence Transition streams for 186 and 187 have no occupation list at all, because eligibility runs off the occupation on your most recently held temporary skilled visa.

One quirk matters more than it looks. Home Affairs applies ANZSCO 2022 to subclass 186 and to the Skills in Demand visa including CSOL occupations, and ANZSCO 2013 to every other skilled subclass. So an applicant for a 482 and an applicant for a 189 are being read against occupation dictionaries nine years apart. Meanwhile the Australian Bureau of Statistics released OSCA, the Occupation Standard Classification for Australia, on 6 December 2024, stating plainly that “OSCA replaces the Australian and New Zealand Standard Classification of Occupations (ANZSCO) for use in Australia.” That was the day before the CSOL commenced. The visa system still runs on the classification the statistician has retired.

What is confirmed for 2026, and what is not

The Home Affairs skilled occupation list page carries a last updated stamp of 6/08/2025 13:33. It announces no 2026 changes. None.

Search the Federal Register of Legislation and the picture is the same. The CSOL instrument has been amended three times since it was made. The most recent, the Migration Amendment (Skilled Visa Reform Technical Measures) Instrument 2025, took effect on 7 November 2025 and did exactly one thing to the occupation table: at item 79 it directed “Omit ‘227713’, substitute ‘224713’.” That is a typographical correction to the ANZSCO code for Management Consultant. It added nothing and removed nothing.

The instrument behind the MLTSSL, STSOL and ROL, LIN 19/051, was last compiled on 28 March 2026 following the Migration Legislation Amendment (Assessing Authorities) Instrument 2026. That amendment changed the assessing authority for Surveyor (ANZSCO 232212) from the Geospatial Council of Australia, which went into liquidation, to the Institution of Surveyors New South Wales, and clarified the respective roles of the ACS and VETASSESS for Information and Organisation Professionals nec. Skills assessments issued by the council before its liquidation remain valid. Again, no occupation was added to or removed from any list.

There is a real review underway, and it is worth knowing its shape. Jobs and Skills Australia opened consultations on the 2025 CSOL on 25 August 2025, closing at midnight on Friday 26 September 2025. JSA has published a “targeted for consultation” group and states explicitly that this is “not the final advice.” Its own process document confirms that “The Minister for Immigration and Citizenship is the decision maker on the final CSOL.” As at the date of writing, no final CSOL arising from that review has been released.

Where the marketing runs ahead of the record

Type “skilled occupation list 2026” into a search engine and the first page fills with commercial results, not government ones. One Australian consultancy carries two pages branded to 2026, one headed with 216 jobs and another with 247 roles, with the body text of one asserting that “The MLTSSL list Australia 2026 contains 216 occupations” and describing the list as live. Neither page links to a legislative instrument. Neither states that Home Affairs has announced no changes.

That figure has no visible source in the instrument. It is worth being precise about what is wrong here: the number is not necessarily invented, but it is presented as the settled content of a 2026 list that does not exist as a distinct thing. A reader who pays for advice on that basis is buying a forecast dressed as a fact.

The pattern is not universal, and fairness requires saying so. IDP Education’s guidance, aimed squarely at Indian readers, states flatly that “At the time of writing, the Department of Home Affairs has not released confirmed changes to the Skilled Occupation List for 2026.” A relocation firm’s guide draws the distinction cleanly: “Use the Occupation Shortage List for labour-market context and the Home Affairs skilled occupation list for migration eligibility.” A Darwin firm frames CSOL updates as “expected in 2026” rather than delivered.

Much of the confusion traces to one conflation. Jobs and Skills Australia publishes an annual Occupation Shortage List, and the 2025 edition landed in October 2025 with 29 per cent of occupations in shortage, down from 33 per cent in 2024 and 36 per cent in 2023. That is a labour market analysis product. It is not a visa list, it does not confer eligibility on anyone, and JSA describes it as an evidence base “to guide Government, industry and training providers.” A “2026 Occupation Shortage List” consultation is genuinely open. It is not a skilled occupation list.

The stakes of getting this wrong are not abstract. In June 2021, Sukhmanpreet Singh, a Canberra-based international student from India, told SBS he had “spent $96,000 on my bachelor’s degree in accounting, but couldn’t apply for permanent residency as the cut-off had reached 110 points.” He had gone on to complete a cooking course and was working as a chef. Course choices, tens of thousands of dollars and years of a life get committed on the strength of what people believe a list says. Gabriela D’Souza, then a senior economist at the Committee for Economic Development of Australia, put the underlying flaw simply back in 2019: “some of the jobs we have today weren’t a thing in 2013.”

Why this lands hardest on Indian applicants

Indian nationals are the largest cohort in every category that these lists touch. Home Affairs’ own Migration Trends 2024-25 records India first for Skill stream places at 43,634, or 33.0 per cent of the total. India was first in Employer Sponsored (12,762, 29.0 per cent), first in State and Territory Nominated (11,355, 34.4 per cent), first in Regional (13,193, 40.0 per cent) and first in Skilled Independent (5,058, 29.9 per cent). India also took 39,822 Temporary Graduate (subclass 485) grants, 31.5 per cent of all such visas, and 12,360 primary temporary skilled grants, up 59.0 per cent on the previous year.

Regulators are alert to the consumer risk. On 19 August 2026, SBS reported that the Office of the Migration Agents Registration Authority had examined 85 registered agents during 2025-26, found 43 instances of non-compliance and sanctioned 28. Julian Hill, Assistant Minister for Citizenship, Customs and Multicultural Affairs, said: “When people pay a migration agent they rightly expect a qualified person will do the work, not an untrained, unregistered fake agent.”

How to check your own occupation

Start at the Home Affairs skilled occupation list page and scroll to the bottom for the last updated stamp. If a website claims a change more recent than that stamp, the burden of proof sits with the website. Next, work out which subclass you are actually applying for, because the list that binds you follows the subclass, not the job. A 482 Core Skills applicant reads the CSOL; a 189 or 190 applicant reads the MLTSSL; a 491 or 494 applicant reads the ROL.

Then go to the source the department itself points to. Home Affairs says you can find the eligible occupations “in its legislative instrument,” and those sit on legislation.gov.au. LIN 24/089, registered as F2024L01620, holds the CSOL. LIN 19/051, registered as F2019L00278, holds the MLTSSL, STSOL and ROL. Two habits matter. Open the “latest” compilation rather than the “as made” version, because the as-made text of the CSOL instrument still carries the old code at item 79. And open the “Versions” tab, which lists every amendment and its date, so you can see for yourself whether anything has moved.

While you are in the instrument, check the assessing authority listed beside your occupation as well as the occupation itself, since that is where the only 2026 change actually happened. Finally, if you are paying someone, search their name or MARN on the OMARA register at portal.mara.gov.au before money changes hands.

This article is general information only. It is not migration advice and does not take account of your circumstances. Check the Department of Home Affairs directly or consult a registered migration agent or immigration lawyer before acting.

A list that has barely moved since it commenced on 7 December 2024 still sits inside a system that keeps changing around it. Assessing authorities change, income thresholds index each 1 July, and a review whose outcome rests with the minister is genuinely open. But the honest account of where things stand in 2026 is short and slightly dull, and dull does not sell consultations.

Zerub Roberts’s difficulty in 2019 was never that the list was updated too rarely or too often. It was that the document did not describe the work he could actually do, and he had to find that out for himself. The instruments are public, they are free, and they are searchable. Reading them is the cheapest hour in this entire process.

Related reading

• Australia’s skilled points test overhaul is still a promise, not a rule, for Indian applicants
• Australia’s graduate visa is dearer, shorter and harder to reach, and Indian graduates are counting the cost
• Australia Cracks Down on ‘Front Agents’ After Hundreds of Visa Applications Linked to Unregistered Assistance

Correction, 22 September 2026. An earlier version of this article told data scientists their occupation has no code of its own and is swept into ANZSCO 224999. ANZSCO 2022 gives Data Scientist the code 224115, and it sits at item 74 on the Core Skills Occupation List, which is the list that governs the 482 and the 186 Direct Entry stream. The older lists, read against ANZSCO 2013, are where 224999 still applies, and the article now draws that distinction. The article also said the MLTSSL governs the Temporary Residence Transition stream of subclass 186, which its own next sentence correctly contradicts, since that stream has no occupation list, and it described ANZSCO 2013 and ANZSCO 2022 as eleven years apart when they are nine. The article’s central finding, that no final Core Skills Occupation List has been made following the review, was rechecked on 22 September 2026 and still holds.