Musician (Instrumental) (ANZSCO 211213)

On the Medium and Long-term Strategic Skills 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 Musician (Instrumental) on?

MLTSSL — Medium and Long-term Strategic Skills List. The widest list — occupations on the MLTSSL can access the points-tested permanent skilled visas including the Skilled Independent visa (subclass 189), which needs no state nomination or employer.

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).

Processing priority

Musician (Instrumental) isn't in any of the ANZSCO groups that Directions 121 and 122 list for the priority sectors. Some of the first group is defined by the job rather than the code: a nominated position directly involved in agriculture, aquaculture or fishing, one that directly supports mining, oil and gas or coal production, or one related to defence. Otherwise the application is processed after the priority sectors. For the permanent and provisional skilled visas, applicants who were in Australia when they applied come next, then those who applied from outside Australia. For the 482, Specialist Skills stream applications come before both.

Priority changes the order in which lodged applications are looked at, not whether they are granted. Who is invited to apply through SkillSelect is decided separately. See all 202 occupations in the priority sectors.

Skills assessment

A positive skills assessment for Musician (Instrumental) comes from:

What the assessment actually involves

Musician (Instrumental) is a Group B occupation with unusually narrow highly relevant fields of study — just Music, or Music Theory and Composition, not a general arts or performing-arts degree. VETASSESS's own page explicitly excludes five named sibling and near-sibling codes: Composer, Music Director, Singer, Music Professionals nec, and Music Teacher (Private Tuition). Applicants are advised to supply a showreel or recording link as supporting material.

Where these applications come unstuck

The exclusion list matters because the three excluded music titles inside this family sit on very different lists: Composer and Singer reach a single visa each, while Music Director reaches all eight. A working instrumentalist who also composes, arranges, or is the credited lead vocalist on recordings is doing tasks VETASSESS classifies under a different code — sometimes a much better one, sometimes a much worse one — and the page draws that line explicitly rather than leaving it to inference.

An honest read on this pathway

Musician (Instrumental) sits on the Medium and Long-term Strategic Skills List, reaching six visas including 189, the points-tested independent visa — one of only two codes in this entire 36-occupation family to reach 189 at all, the other being Dancer or Choreographer. That is a materially better reach than most of the performing-arts cluster, including Singer and Composer, its two most easily confused neighbours.

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 Musician (Instrumental) 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.

Compare registered agents

Related occupations

All skilled occupations · Points calculator · Skilled visa agents