Company Secretary (ANZSCO 221211)

On the Short-term Skilled Occupation List and Core Skills 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 Company Secretary on?

STSOL — Short-term Skilled Occupation List. Occupations on the STSOL can access state-nominated and regional skilled visas (190/491), but not the Skilled Independent 189.

CSOL — Core Skills Occupation List. The employer-sponsorship list — occupations on the CSOL can be nominated for the Skills in Demand visa (subclass 482) and the Employer Nomination Scheme 186.

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).

Skills assessment

A positive skills assessment for Company Secretary comes from:

What the assessment actually involves

VETASSESS places Company Secretary in Group B, which means a Bachelor degree-comparable qualification — the only Group B occupation in this fourteen-code family, where every other code sits at Diploma or Certificate III level instead. The four-pathway structure trades qualification relevance against employment, and its most demanding pathway accepts the Bachelor degree with or without a highly relevant major in exchange for “at least six years of employment at an appropriate skill level that includes at least one year of highly relevant employment within the last five years before applying”. Because VETASSESS treats it as a managerial occupation, applicants must also submit an organisational chart, or a statutory declaration if one cannot be obtained, showing where the role sits in the business.

Where these applications come unstuck

The single biggest risk is assuming Company Secretary is a senior grade of Secretary (General) or Personal Assistant. VETASSESS's own page rules out all three by name, stating plainly: “Occupations not considered under this ANZSCO code: Secretary (General) Legal Secretary Personal Assistant Corporate Treasurer”. ANZSCO agrees structurally — Company Secretary sits in the Professionals major group alongside External Auditor and Internal Auditor, while Secretary (General) and Personal Assistant sit in the Clerical and Administrative Workers major group entirely. Board-facing governance and compliance experience is what the code is built around; years spent as an executive assistant or general secretary, however senior, will not satisfy the highly relevant employment requirement, and there is no seniority fallback to argue instead.

An honest read on this pathway

Company Secretary is one of only three occupations in this family reaching the Core Skills Occupation List and the employer-sponsored subclass 482 and 186 routes, on top of the state and regional options every code carries. That reach makes the code worth getting right rather than defaulting to it because the title sounds senior: without genuine board-facing governance and compliance work in the last five years, the Bachelor-level qualification alone does not clear any of the four pathways. Anyone with corporate-secretarial ambitions but a PA or general-secretarial career history should check their actual duties, not their job title, against VETASSESS's own occupation description before nominating.

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 Company Secretary 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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