Australia vs Canada for Indian IT professionals: the occupation gate that Canada doesn't have

The occupations, confirmed against both countries' own classifications

On Australia's current skilled occupation lists, Software Engineer (ANZSCO 261313), Developer Programmer (261312) and Analyst Programmer (261311) all sit on the Medium and Long-term Strategic Skills List and the Core Skills Occupation List, making them eligible for the 189, 190, 407, 482, 485, 491 and 494 visas. Software Tester (261314) sits on the shorter-term STSOL and the CSOL, with a narrower visa set (186, 190, 407, 482, 491, 494 — no independent 189). (Source: public occupation-list data compiled from Australia's skilled lists.) The full detail for the Software Engineer occupation is at /occupations/261313-software-engineer.

Canada classifies these same roles under its National Occupational Classification (NOC), where software engineers and developers sit in TEER 1 — the skill-type band that qualifies for Express Entry's Federal Skilled Worker Program. Canada doesn't publish a discrete 'skilled occupation list' the way Australia does for eligibility purposes on this program; instead, eligibility comes from where your NOC code sits in the TEER (Training, Education, Experience and Responsibilities) skill hierarchy.

Canada's occupation code changed shape in 2022 — TEER, not the old skill-type letters

Canada replaced its old NOC skill-type structure (Skill Type 0, A, B, C, D) with a six-level TEER system — Training, Education, Experience and Responsibilities — on 16 November 2022, and NOC codes moved from four digits to five as part of that change. Under the current classification, Software engineers and designers (NOC 21231), Software developers and programmers (21232) and Web developers and programmers (21234) all sit in TEER 1, the band for occupations that usually require a university degree. (Source: canada.ca, Find your National Occupational Classification page, updated 27 June 2025.) The base Federal Skilled Worker Program requires an occupation to sit in TEER 0, 1, 2 or 3 — so these IT roles clear that bar comfortably, in the same band as most professional and management occupations.

This TEER classification also governs Canada's other work-permit routes. Under International Experience Canada's Young Professionals category (a different, employer-tied stream from the Working Holiday category), the job offer itself must sit in TEER 0-3, with a TEER 4 role only qualifying if it directly matches the applicant's field of study. The same TEER number, in other words, follows an occupation through more than one Canadian immigration pathway — it's worth knowing which TEER band your specific role sits in regardless of which route you're assessing.

The skills-assessment step: mandatory and occupation-specific in Australia, general and education-only in Canada

For any of Australia's points-tested ICT visas, a positive skills assessment from the Australian Computer Society (ACS) is a hard requirement before an Expression of Interest can be lodged. ACS checks your qualification and your employment history against the specific ANZSCO occupation you're nominating — it is occupation-specific, not just a general credential check, and a mismatch between your actual duties and the nominated occupation code is the single most common reason ICT assessments come back short of what an applicant expected.

Canada's equivalent step for Express Entry is an Educational Credential Assessment (ECA) — but an ECA does something narrower. It verifies that your foreign degree, diploma or certificate is valid and equivalent to a Canadian credential, issued by one of five designated organisations (the Comparative Education Service at the University of Toronto, the International Credential Assessment Service of Canada, World Education Services, the International Qualifications Assessment Service, or the International Credential Evaluation Service at BCIT), and it must be less than 5 years old at the point you submit your Express Entry profile. (Source: canada.ca, Education documents for Express Entry, updated 22 June 2026.) An ECA does not check whether your work history matches a specific occupation code the way ACS does for Australia — for most Express Entry applicants, work experience itself is declared and later verified against reference letters, without a dedicated occupation-specific assessing body standing between the applicant and the points calculation.

Points at a glance

Australia's points test has a fixed 65-point minimum to lodge an Expression of Interest; in practice, ICT occupations have historically needed 90-95 points or more for a realistic 189 invitation, given how many people nominate the same handful of ICT codes. Points come from age, English proficiency, skilled work experience, qualifications, partner skills, and state or regional nomination — with no salary component in the points test itself.

Canada's Comprehensive Ranking System scores every profile from 0 to 1,200, combining core human capital factors (age, education, language, Canadian work experience — up to 500 points without a spouse, 460 with one), a skill transferability block worth up to 100 more, and additional points including a flat 600 for a provincial nomination. Canada also runs a dedicated STEM category-based selection round (one of ten current categories) that software and related occupations can be invited under at a cutoff separate from the general pool — a mechanism Australia's federal points test has no direct equivalent of, though Australian states do periodically prioritise ICT occupations in their own nomination criteria.

English testing feeds points on both sides, but through different scales

Australia's points test scores English in bands — Competent, Proficient and Superior — with Superior English (broadly, an 8.0 across all four IELTS bands, or the PTE/OET/TOEFL equivalent) worth the maximum 20 points, and a 10-point gap sitting between Proficient and Superior for most applicants. Canada converts the same test scores into Canadian Language Benchmark (CLB) levels, which then feed into the CRS core human capital score and, separately, the skill-transferability block if combined with certain education or experience factors. The two scales are not directly interchangeable — a result that maximises Australian points at Superior English does not automatically translate into the top CLB band, and it is worth checking each system's own conversion table rather than assuming one score does the same job on both sides.

Where the provincial or state lever changes the calculation entirely

Both countries let a sub-national government short-circuit part of the process, but the two levers aren't the same size. An Australian state nomination through the 190 adds 5 points to the points-test total — helpful, and it comes with a two-year residence commitment to that state, but it doesn't guarantee an invitation on its own if the occupation ceiling for that round is already full. A Canadian Provincial Nominee Program nomination adds a flat 600 CRS points, more than half the maximum score, which effectively guarantees an Invitation to Apply in the very next round. The genuinely hard part, on both sides, is getting the nomination in the first place — each Australian state and each Canadian province runs its own criteria, occupation priorities, and caps, and those change independently of the federal system.

Costs of getting to the starting line

On the Australian side: an ACS skills assessment (budget roughly AUD 550, typically an 8 to 12 week turnaround) plus the base 189 or 190 visa application charge (AUD 6,135 or AUD 6,140, current as at 1 July 2026) are the two largest fixed costs, on top of English testing. ACS assesses your ICT qualification and your employment history together against the specific occupation you nominate, which is why a mismatch between your actual duties and the code you choose can affect the outcome — it is not purely a paper-credential check.

On the Canadian side: each of the five designated ECA organisations sets its own fee and turnaround time, and unlike ACS, none of them assesses your work experience against a specific occupation code — the ECA is strictly an educational-equivalence check, feeding directly into your CRS education points. Canada's combined processing fee plus right of permanent residence fee for a principal applicant is CAD 1,590 from 30 April 2026, plus CAD 270 per dependent child and up to CAD 170 in biometrics for a family. Neither government publishes a single combined 'cost to migrate' figure — both are the sum of several separate charges paid at different stages, and neither figure above includes English testing, which both systems require.

What neither country's process can tell you in advance

Whether a specific ANZSCO or NOC code fits your actual work history, and how competitive your profile is against the current pool on either side, are individual questions this page cannot answer. /blog/indian-software-engineer-to-australia and /blog/indian-it-worker-to-australia go deeper into the Australian pathway specifically, including which visa options exist beyond the points-tested route (the 482, employer-sponsored, doesn't require ACS's full points-test threshold — see the occupation entry linked above for the detail). For the Australian side of a decision between the two countries, getting matched with a MARA-registered migration agent is the way to get a considered read on where your specific ACS outcome and points score would actually land you.

Does Canada require an ICT skills assessment like Australia's ACS?

No, not in the same form. Canada's Express Entry requires an Educational Credential Assessment (ECA), which checks that your degree is equivalent to a Canadian one — a general educational equivalence check, not an occupation-specific assessment of whether your work history matches a specific job code the way ACS does for Australia's ICT visas.

Is my software engineering occupation on Australia's skilled list?

Software Engineer, Developer Programmer and Analyst Programmer all sit on Australia's Medium and Long-term Strategic Skills List and the Core Skills Occupation List, making them eligible for the 189, 190, 407, 482, 485, 491 and 494 visas. Software Tester sits on the shorter-term list with a narrower set of eligible visas. See /occupations/261313-software-engineer for the full detail.

How long is an ECA valid for Express Entry?

An Educational Credential Assessment must be less than 5 years old at the point you submit your Express Entry profile and application. There are five designated organisations that can issue one, each setting its own fee and timeline.

Does a provincial or state nomination guarantee an invitation in either country?

In Canada, a Provincial Nominee Program nomination adds a flat 600 CRS points — more than half the maximum score — which effectively guarantees an Invitation to Apply in the next round. In Australia, a state nomination through the 190 adds only 5 points to the points test, so it helps but doesn't override how competitive the occupation ceiling is that round. Getting nominated in the first place is the harder step on both sides.

Can I apply to both Australia and Canada at the same time?

There's no legal barrier to running both processes in parallel — an ACS assessment and an Express Entry profile with an ECA are separate systems that don't reference each other. It is, however, a genuine time and cost commitment to do both properly, which is a decision worth making deliberately rather than by default.

What does Canada's STEM category-based round mean for IT applicants?

IRCC periodically runs Express Entry rounds targeted specifically at STEM occupations, inviting only profiles that meet that category's criteria, sometimes at a different CRS cutoff from the general pool that round. Australia's federal points test has no direct equivalent lane for ICT specifically, though individual states do sometimes prioritise ICT occupations in their own nomination rounds.

What's the realistic points score I'd need for Australia's 189 as an IT professional?

The statutory minimum to lodge an Expression of Interest is 65 points, but ICT occupations have historically needed considerably more — often 90 to 95 points or above for a 189 invitation — because so many applicants nominate the same handful of ICT occupation codes. A points calculator can estimate your own score against the factors (age, English, work experience, qualifications, partner skills, state nomination), but only an invitation round tells you whether that score was enough.