Chemist (ANZSCO 234211)

On the Medium and Long-term Strategic Skills 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 Chemist 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.

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 Chemist comes from:

What the assessment actually involves

VETASSESS describes a Chemist as someone who studies the chemical and physical properties of substances and develops and monitors chemical processes and production. It is a Group A occupation: a bachelor's degree or higher in a highly relevant field — Chemistry, Medicinal Chemistry, Applied Chemistry or Biochemistry are named on its own page — plus at least one year of post-qualification employment at an appropriate skill level in the last five years, 20 hours a week or more. Its own page excludes Pharmacist (Non-clinical) and Industrial Pharmacist by name, and separately excludes Food Technologist, which is the more consequential boundary for most applicants working in industry rather than a research lab.

Where these applications come unstuck

Food-industry quality-control and process-chemistry roles are the concrete trap: VETASSESS's Food Technologist page states directly that the two occupations do not overlap because "these occupations are classified elsewhere in ANZSCO or are not at the required skill level," and a chemistry graduate whose actual job title and duties sit inside food manufacturing may plausibly be described under either code by a home-country employer, even though the authority treats them as genuinely distinct. Reading the occupation you're evidencing against the day-to-day duties, not the sector the employer operates in, is what actually decides which of the two fits.

An honest read on this pathway

Chemist reaches every visa in this family — 186, 189, 190, 407, 482, 485, 491 and 494 — carrying both MLTSSL and CSOL, which makes it the broadest-list code in the chemical-sciences cluster. That breadth is a genuine advantage over its cluster neighbour Wine Maker, which sits on the weaker ROL+CSOL combination and has no points-tested route at all. The list access here is not in question; the only real risk is nominating it for work that VETASSESS's own exclusions place under Food Technologist instead.

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 Chemist 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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