Between late 2024 and today, Australia's occupation architecture was rebuilt twice. The Department of Home Affairs replaced the old short-term and medium-term occupation lists with a single Core Skills Occupation List (CSOL) for the new Skills in Demand visa, and the Australian Bureau of Statistics replaced ANZSCO itself with a new classification called OSCA. The two changes landed within weeks of each other, share none of the same machinery, and are routinely confused — by clients, by employers, and occasionally by agents.
This guide untangles the three acronyms and, more importantly, sets out exactly what to verify before you lodge a nomination in 2026.
The three acronyms in one minute
- ANZSCO — the Australia and New Zealand Standard Classification of Occupations. The six-digit occupation codes the visa system has run on for years. Still the operative classification for visa purposes today.
- OSCA — the Occupation Standard Classification for Australia, released by the ABS in December 2024 as ANZSCO's successor. Not yet adopted by Home Affairs for visa processing.
- CSOL — the Core Skills Occupation List, a single consolidated list of occupations (456 at launch) that governs the Core Skills stream of the Skills in Demand (subclass 482) visa and the Direct Entry stream of the subclass 186.
The CSOL: one list where there used to be three
When the Skills in Demand visa replaced the old TSS 482 in December 2024, the tangle of MLTSSL, STSOL and regional add-ons for employer-sponsored work was collapsed into the CSOL. The list is given legal effect by legislative instrument — for the 482 through F2024L01620 and for the 186 through F2024L01618 — and each entry specifies the ANZSCO code and the relevant skills assessing authority.
Two practice points follow directly from that structure:
- The instrument in force at the time of nomination is what counts. Occupations can be added or removed when the instrument is amended. Check the current compilation on the Federal Register of Legislation or the Home Affairs skilled occupation list tool on the day you lodge — not a PDF you saved in March.
- Read the entry itself, not just the occupation name. Confirm the ANZSCO code matches the duties your client actually performs, and check any conditions attached to the entry. A nomination refused on occupation mismatch is an expensive way to learn that "Marketing Specialist" was the wrong code.
Where the CSOL does and does not apply
The CSOL governs the Core Skills stream of the 482 and the Direct Entry stream of the 186. It does not govern everything:
- Specialist Skills stream (482): no occupation list at all. Any occupation qualifies except trades workers, machinery operators, drivers and labourers — the gate is salary, with the Specialist Skills Income Threshold at $146,717 from 1 July 2026 (up from $141,210).
- Core Skills stream (482) and 186 Direct Entry: CSOL occupation plus salary at or above the Core Skills Income Threshold, indexed on 1 July 2026 to just under $79,500 (up from $76,515) — confirm the exact current figure on the Home Affairs salary requirements page before you rely on it in a nomination.
- 186 Temporary Residence Transition stream: turns on the occupation your client has been working in on their 482, not on a fresh CSOL check — see our subclass 186 guide.
- Points-tested and regional visas (189/190/491/494): still run on the legacy skilled occupation list structure pending further reform. Do not tell a 491 client the CSOL applies to them.
- Labour agreements and DAMAs: their own negotiated occupation lists and concessions — our DAMA guide covers the regional side.
If a client was assessed against the old MLTSSL/STSOL settings before December 2024, re-run the analysis from scratch under the current instruments. Grandfathered assumptions are where occupation-list errors hide.
OSCA: the successor classification that has not arrived yet
The ABS released OSCA in December 2024 to replace ANZSCO — a long-overdue refresh that recognises modern occupations (think cyber security and UX roles) and retires descriptions written for a 2006 labour market. OSCA assigns each occupation a six-digit code, and the ABS publishes correspondence tables mapping ANZSCO codes to their OSCA equivalents.
As at July 2026, Home Affairs has not adopted OSCA for visa processing. Every occupation instrument, skills assessment requirement and caveat still references ANZSCO. Moving the visa system onto OSCA requires amending the migration legislative instruments — a process that is underway but not complete. Until those amendments commence:
- Nominations and skills assessments continue to cite ANZSCO codes;
- Skills assessing authorities continue to assess against ANZSCO descriptions;
- OSCA codes have no legal effect in a visa application.
What to do about OSCA now
Nothing in your lodgments — everything in your advice. For clients on multi-year pathways (a 482 today, a 186 in two years), the classification may change under them mid-journey. Three habits cost little and prevent grief:
- Record the instrument and code you relied on in a file note on every nomination — instrument number, compilation date, ANZSCO code and duties match. Our file note guide shows the format.
- Check the ABS correspondence table for your client's occupation so you can flag whether their code maps cleanly to OSCA or splits into something less convenient.
- Watch the instruments, not the commentary. OSCA adoption will arrive as amendments on the Federal Register of Legislation, with transition provisions. When it lands, what matters is the transition rule for applications already in the pipeline.
Keeping occupation data straight across a caseload
The occupation question is rarely asked once — it is asked at engagement, at skills assessment, at nomination, at visa stage and again at permanent residence. Practices that store the occupation, code, instrument reference and threshold figures on the matter itself (rather than in someone's head) do not re-litigate the analysis at every stage. That is the workflow LodgeHQ is built around: matter-level visa data, current visa fee and threshold reference data, and deadline tracking from nomination to PR — see our Skills in Demand guide for the full 482 pathway. Start a free 14-day trial and keep every occupation decision on the file.