Environmental Research Scientist (ANZSCO 234313)

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 Environmental Research Scientist 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).

Skills assessment

A positive skills assessment for Environmental Research Scientist comes from:

What the assessment actually involves

Environmental Research Scientist carries a section on its own page headed "Occupations not considered under this ANZSCO code," and lists Ecologist as suitable under its own code — there is no separate "Ecologist" ANZSCO code anywhere in this family, so that job title routes here specifically. The occupation is framed around research and policy-development work such as pollution control, degradation studies and ecology, which is a materially different centre of gravity from the advisory framing used for its similarly-named neighbour Environmental Consultant.

Where these applications come unstuck

This page's own exclusion list is the sharpest single finding in the environmental cluster: it explicitly excludes Environmental Consultant, Environmental Health Officer, Environmental Manager and Marine Biologist, despite Environmental Consultant being the most similarly-named neighbouring code in the same unit group. An applicant whose CV is built around environmental consulting — advisory reports, impact assessments for government or commercial clients — does not automatically satisfy this code's occupation description even though the job title sounds like a close match; the assessor is reading for research and policy-development work specifically.

An honest read on this pathway

This code sits on MLTSSL with no CSOL, reaching 189, 190, 407, 485, 491 and 494 but not the employer-sponsored 186 or 482 that its neighbour Environmental Consultant carries. An applicant genuinely doing environmental research work has full points-tested and post-study access; someone whose employer is offering direct sponsorship needs to check whether Environmental Consultant is the better-matched code first, since that one reaches every visa this family covers and this one does not reach the two sponsorship-only routes at all.

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 Environmental Research Scientist 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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