Importer or Exporter (ANZSCO 133311)
On the Regional Occupation List
From the official Home Affairs skilled occupation lists, as at 2026-08-12. Lists change at each government update — always confirm on the official page before acting.
Which lists is Importer or Exporter on?
ROL — Regional Occupation List. Occupations on the ROL are limited to the regional provisional visas — mainly the Skilled Work Regional 491 and Skilled Employer Sponsored Regional 494.
Visas this occupation can access
Being on a list makes the occupation nominatable for these visas — each visa still has its own requirements (points, age, English, a positive skills assessment, and for sponsored visas a willing employer or state).
- Skilled Employer Sponsored Regional visa (subclass 494) — Provisional, regional employer sponsored · all occupations for the 494
Skills assessment
A positive skills assessment for Importer or Exporter comes from:
- Vocational Education and Training Assessment Services (VETASSESS) (official site) · our guide to the VETASSESS process
What the assessment actually involves
Importer or Exporter is a VETASSESS Group B occupation on ROL only, reaching a single visa subclass, Skills in Demand Regional — no state nomination, no independent pathway, no Employer Nomination outside a regional lane. VETASSESS states the occupation expects overall control of company operations, or of specific departments in a larger organisation, and explicitly rules out one adjacent, plausible-sounding setting: employment in logistics companies is not generally accepted. The page names Wholesaler as a separate, excluded occupation, even though the two share an identical visa reach.
Where these applications come unstuck
This code invites Business Owner as a suitable title but gives no self-employment evidence path at all — unlike Manufacturer elsewhere in this family, there is no accountant's-statement or sole-trading-registration alternative published, only the standard organisational chart naming superiors, subordinates and peers. A genuine sole-trader import-export operator with no staff structure is left with no stated route to satisfy that requirement, and someone working inside a logistics company on the freight-forwarding side, rather than running the trading operation itself, is explicitly told that employment does not generally count.
An honest read on this pathway
Narrow on paper — one visa subclass — and narrower still in practice for anyone who cannot produce an organisational chart, because the code names business owners as suitable while providing no matching self-employment evidence instructions. Someone employed inside a larger trading company with real staff to document has a workable, if limited, pathway; a genuine solo owner-operator faces an evidentiary gap this research could not resolve one way or the other from VETASSESS's own page.
VETASSESS assesses qualifications and employment separately. Both need documentation that agrees with itself. The Employment History Builder and Document Vault organise each trail before you lodge.
Talk it through with a registered agent
Whether nominating Importer or Exporter is your best route depends on your points, experience evidence and timing — exactly what a MARA-registered agent works through in an initial consultation. Describe your situation once through Migratio and compare real consultation quotes from registered agents, free.
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Related occupations
All skilled occupations · Points calculator · Skilled visa agents